System and method for real-time co-browsing
First Claim
1. A method of facilitating collaborative browsing of an electronic page, comprising:
- establishing a collaborative browsing session at a collaboration server;
receiving the electronic page at the collaboration server, wherein the electronic page is formatted according to a markup language and comprises a plurality of URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) identifying objects other than the electronic page;
on the collaboration server, modifying a first set of the URLs to refer to the collaboration server, wherein the first set of the URLs includes URLs associated with links that cannot be trapped, or modified by a browser at runtime;
distributing the electronic page from the collaborative server to multiple clients, wherein each client operates a browser; and
at each client, modifying a second set of the URLs to point to the collaboration server upon selecting or invoking the second set of the URLs.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for facilitating the collaborative co-browsing of a document or web page. A collaboration server retrieves content of a page on behalf of a collaboration participant or attendee. Each attendee operates or views the content with a browser that is augmented with a collaboration applet. Tags, links, script code and other references that may cause a different page to be accessed or loaded fro the current page are transformed or replaced on the server before the page is distributed to the attendees. In particular, events and redirections that may cause the attendee browser to directly navigate to another page are transformed on the server. Pre-determined rules may be applied to prevent some attendees from viewing certain content (e.g., financial or personal data). A page may be further transformed at a client browser, to redirect a hyperlink to the collaboration server or to trap some other event.
262 Citations
37 Claims
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1. A method of facilitating collaborative browsing of an electronic page, comprising:
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establishing a collaborative browsing session at a collaboration server; receiving the electronic page at the collaboration server, wherein the electronic page is formatted according to a markup language and comprises a plurality of URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) identifying objects other than the electronic page; on the collaboration server, modifying a first set of the URLs to refer to the collaboration server, wherein the first set of the URLs includes URLs associated with links that cannot be trapped, or modified by a browser at runtime; distributing the electronic page from the collaborative server to multiple clients, wherein each client operates a browser; and at each client, modifying a second set of the URLs to point to the collaboration server upon selecting or invoking the second set of the URLs. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of facilitating collaborative browsing of an electronic page, the method comprising:
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establishing a collaborative browsing session at a collaboration server; receiving the electronic page at the collaboration server, wherein the electronic page is formatted according to a markup Language and comprises a plurality of URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) identifying objects other than the electronic page; on the collaboration server, modifying a first set of the URLs to refer to the collaboration server, wherein the first set of the URLs includes URLs associated with links that cannot be trapped, or modified by a browser at runtime; distributing the electronic page from the collaborative server to multiple clients, wherein each client operates a browsers; and at each client, modifying a second set of the URLs to point to the collaboration server upon selecting or invoking the second set of URLs.
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23. A computer-implemented method of facilitating co-browsing of a page, comprising:
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establishing a collaborative session for co-browsing between two or more attendees, wherein each attendee operates a browser; downloading to one or more of the attendee browsers a collaboration applet configured to facilitate communication between the browser and a collaboration server; directing, to the collaboration server, a request for a first page from a first attendee for a first page at server other than the collaboration server; at the collaboration server; receiving the first page; modifying one or more references, within the first page, to content located elsewhere other than on the collaboration server, to refer to the collaboration server, wherein the references includes references associated with links that cannot be trapped, or modified by a browser at runtime; distributing the first page to the attendees; and at a client, modifying a set of URLs to point to the collaboration server upon selecting or invoking the set of URLs. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform a method of facilitating co-browsing of a page, the method comprising:
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establishing a collaborative session for co-browsing between two or more attendees, wherein each attendee operates a browser; downloading to one or more of the attendee browsers a collaboration applet configured to facilitate communication between the browser and a collaboration server; directing, to the collaboration server, a request for a first page from a first attendee for a first page at server other than the collaboration server; at the collaboration server; receiving the first page; modifying one or more references, within the first page, to content located elsewhere other than on the collaboration server, to refer to the collaboration server, wherein the references includes references associated with links that cannot be trapped, or modified by a browser at runtime; distributing the first page to the attendees; and at a client, modifying a set of URLs to point to the collaboration server upon selecting or invoking the set of URLs.
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33. A collaboration server for facilitating co-browsing of a page, comprising:
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a session manager configured to manage a co-browsing session for multiple attendees, wherein each attendee operates a browser, wherein the browser is configured to modify a set of URLs to point to the collaboration server upon selecting or invoking the set of URLS, and wherein the collaboration server modifies a second set of URLs that includes URLs associated with links that cannot be trapped, or modified by the browser at runtime; a communication manager configured to; communicate with the attendees via collaboration applets downloaded to the attendee browsers; and signal attendee events to the session manager; an agent configured to retrieve a third-party web page on behalf of a request from a first attendee, wherein the request is redirected to the collaboration server by the collaboration applet downloaded to the first attendee'"'"'s browser; and a content manager configured to transform the web page to redirect one or more references to external servers to the collaboration server, wherein the one or more references are configured to be automatically applied by an attendee browser when the web page is loaded by the attendee browser. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36, 37)
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Specification