Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-23
2003-02-25
Feild, Joseph H. (Department: 2176)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C709S206000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06526424
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a WWW (World Wide Web) browser system for browsing the WWW on the Internet, in particular, an image display bookmark system for registering each WWW page as a reduced image so as to allow a user to more visually and effectively select a desired WWW page.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an increasing number of WWW pages has been browsed and created on the Internet. Many tools and books for browsing and creating WWW pages have been marketed. The WWW is a global information network structured on the Internet. The WWW page is a unit of information composing a web document. The WWW page is composed of an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) document, related image data, and so forth that are stored in a WWW server on the WWW. The HTML is a kind of format based on SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) used in CALS (Continuous Acquisition and Lifecycle Support).
A WWW browser receives a WWW page corresponding to a protocol referred to as HTTP (Hyper Text Transmission Protocol) from a web site and causes a display of a computer that operates the WWW browser to display the received page. With a WWW page, the WWW browser provides the user with text information (such as ASCII character data), image information composed of graphics data, audio information, moving picture information, and so forth. Thus, the user of the WWW browser can browse global information at home. In addition, the user can transmit a page that he or she has created to the world.
In the following description, it is assumed that a displaying operation for a page performed by the WWW browser includes an output operation of so-called multimedia information such as audio information and moving picture information as well as text information and image information.
Data such as an HTML document and image data for the above-described web page is stored in a directory for each user of the WWW server on the WWW. Users include people, governments, companies, and other organizations. Each user can hierarchically structure pages by designating them on the HTML document. The top page of each user is especially referred to as “home page”. Each user can designate links (entrances) to other pages on the “home page”. Each linked page may have several links to other pages. These links are normally referred to as “hyper-links”. The “hyper-links” are displayed as symbols representing the linked pages (for example, addresses of the pages and images that indirectly represent the contents of the pages).
The user of the WWW browser generally clicks a symbol with a mouse so as to switch the current page to a desired page (namely, jump to a linked page). As the linked page, the user can designate a higher hierarchical page and any desired page of another web site as well as a lower hierarchical page. To designate a desired page in the above-described HTML document, an address for identifying an individual page on the Internet is used. This address is referred to as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). An example of this address is “http://www.xxx.co.jp/Sample/Sample.html”.
When the user of the WWW browser clicks a symbol that represents another page on the current page displayed by the WWW browser, he or she can switch the current page to another page. The user can repeat this operation to display pages one after another. At this point, the WWW browser obtains the URL of the relevant page correlated to the clicked symbol with an HTML code (tag) referred to as an ANCHOR from the HTML document that is currently being displayed. Thereafter, the WWW browser accesses the WWW server with the address represented by the URL through the Internet. The WWW browser downloads the relevant data (namely, an HTML document of the relevant page and other data in association therewith) stored in the WWW server to the memory or storing unit of the computer that operates the WWW browser through the Internet.
Next, after the WWW browser has downloaded such data or while downloading, the WWW browser displays the data or a part of the data as a page on the display unit of the computer.
As currently common WWW browsers, there are Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and so forth. These WWW browsers have the above-described function.
Instead of the browsing method for switching pages one after the other (this method is referred to as “net-surfing”), when the user knows a URL of a desired page, he or she can directly type the URL in the location designation area on the GUI (Graphical User Interface) screen of the WWW browser. However, depending on a user, he or she may daily browse particular pages for stock market information, news, and so forth. In this situation, it is inconvenient and inefficient for the user to type long character strings for such URLs. To solve such a problem, the WWW browsers generally have a “bookmark function”.
The “bookmark” function of the WWW browsers serves to register favorite sites and pages on the Internet. With the “bookmark” function, the user registers the URL of a desired page as one element of the bookmark data. After displaying a list of pages registered as bookmarks, the user can click a desired page with the mouse or the like to select that page. Thus, the user can directly see the desired page without needing to type a long character string for the URL that represents the desired page, and without any waste of time due to a typing error.
FIG. 1
is a schematic diagram showing a typical bookmark display screen
10
. As shown in
FIG. 1
, bookmarks can be hierarchically managed. A set of bookmarks
12
can be managed and can comprise a folder
11
. Thus, the user can categorize the bookmarks
12
as groups. Thus, even if there are many bookmarks, the user can effectively access a desired bookmark
12
. For example, in the bookmark display screen
10
shown in
FIG. 1
, bookmarks
12
that are “People” and “Yellow Pages” have been registered in a folder
11
that is called “Lookup”. When the user clicks the folder “Lookup” with the mouse or the like, the bookmarks “People” and “Yellow Pages” are displayed as a list as shown in FIG.
1
.
As titles for identifying the bookmarks “People” and “Yellow Pages”, titles of pages corresponding to the bookmarks are directly used. When the user of the WWW browser double-clicks a line (object) of a desired bookmark
12
such as “People” on the bookmark display screen
10
with the mouse or clicks a line of a desired bookmark
12
on a pop-up window (not shown) that simply displays bookmarks
12
with the mouse, he or she can easily select and display the desired page.
When the user wants to add a bookmark
12
of which he or she found a desired page after typing a URL in the location area of the WWW browser or performing the net-surfing, he or she clicks “Add Bookmark” with the mouse or the like while the WWW browser is displaying the desired page. At this point, the URL of the page and the title thereof are automatically registered as a bookmark
12
. The title of the page is used as the title of the registered bookmark
12
. When the user newly adds a bookmark
12
on the bookmark display screen
10
shown in
FIG. 1
, he or she can type the URL, the title, and so forth so as to add a new bookmark
12
to the desired folder
11
.
The bookmarks
12
displayed on the bookmark display screen
10
shown in
FIG. 1
include information such as the URLs of the pages, the titles thereof, and the comments of the users of the WWW browser. The user can edit such information on a bookmark edit screen (not shown) that is displayed by selecting a property of a relevant bookmark
12
with the mouse on the bookmark display screen
10
shown in FIG.
1
. In addition, the user can delete or move a bookmark
12
(to the current folder or another folder) on the bookmark display screen
10
shown in FIG.
1
.
As described above, with the bookmark function of the conventional browser, the user can select a desired bookmark from those that have been registered with the mouse or the like so that th
Hirashima Yoshiyuki
Kanno Hironori
Bashore William L.
Feild Joseph H.
Fujitsu Limited
Staas & Halsey , LLP
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