Data processing: presentation processing of document – operator i – Presentation processing of document – Layout
Reexamination Certificate
1998-05-15
2003-06-03
Feild, Joseph H. (Department: 2176)
Data processing: presentation processing of document, operator i
Presentation processing of document
Layout
C707S793000, C709S218000, C709S227000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06572662
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to techniques for assisted network navigation. In particular, the present invention relates to methods for providing a user of the Internet with a guided tour of the World Wide Web (WWW) and to techniques for assisting in the navigation of Web objects spread among multiple Web sites; and even more particularly, to an intelligent Web browsing system that dynamically adapts a tour based on collected route information, touring statistics, or similarity to to one or more like-minded users.
BACKGROUND
What is a Web page today? Today, a user experiences the Web in an a-temporal fashion through the use of Web objects. Web objects are uniquely identified by unique resource locators (URLs). URLs and their associated bookmarks are the basic mechanisms of exchange among users. There are three fairly obvious existing methods to guide a Web surfing session that spans multiple Web sites (hereinafter referred to as touring). One is simply to create an HTML file with commentary and links to the sites on the tour. Of course, in this case one must back up from each site to be presented with the next link. Another way is to make copies of all pages on the tour, save them on your own Web page, and modify them as suits your purposes. A third way is described in te aforementioned co-pending patent application Ser. No. 08/969,623, entitled “HTML Guided Web Tour,” filed Nov. 13, 1997, IBM Docket No. EN997116, by W. J. Roden, et al. Here, a static tour is presented wherein the system guides the users through a tour by displaying a given sequence of Web objects along with corresponding teaching Web objects. Users desire the ability for more complex forms of asynchronous interactions [see e.g., Manohar and Prakash, “The Session Capture and Replay Paradigm for Asynchronous Collaboration”, Proc. of the European Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Work, September 1995, Sweden].
What is a tour? A tour refers to a collection of objects, e.g., Web objects (such as URLs) that are temporally ordered. A tour represents an interactive visitation pattern over a dynamic collection of Web objects (for example, objects such as Web pages). A tour is different from a Web page. Tours are composed of two or more Web objects, which in turn, could be each a Web page. However, Web objects are used herein to represent any sort of Web resource that can be referenced through a handle such as a universal resource locator (URL). Furthermore, a tour is logically different from an arbitrary collection of Web objects such as a Web site. Tour objects can span multiple Web sites with intertwined links. The tour presents a view to an augmented virtual Web site across multiple underlying Web sites that spans coordinated visitation patterns that may not be present or realizable without copying the objects from the original sites. A tour is also different from a collection of URL bookmarks. Unlike a collection of bookmarks, a tour associates a temporal ordering with the presentation of Web objects that recreates a time-constrained visitation pattern across the collection of Web objects in the tour.
Hypermedia systems that allow the user to navigate through large amounts of on-line information are known to be a promising method for controlling the overwhelming increase in information available to the user. While most paper documents lead the user down a rigid sequential path, hypertext documents provide users with a means to choose one of many different paths. Hypertext is a familiar term used to describe a particular form of organization and user presentation of information within a computer-implemented system and is a familiar element of the broader class of systems referred to herein as hypermedia. Hypermedia exploit the computer's ability to link together information from a wide variety of sources as a tool for exploring a particular topic. The data object is said to reside at a “node” and may vary in size and type. Each data object is essentially self-contained but may contain references to other such objects or nodes. Such references are normally used in a hypertext document and are referred to as “links”. A link is a user-activated control reference that causes the data object at the link target node to be displayed. By following these links from panel to panel, the user “navigates” through and about the hypertext document. This scheme provides user-control over the order of information presentation and permits the user to select what is of interest and how to pursue a given topic. An introductory treatment of hypertext is provided in “Hypertext: An Introduction and Survey”, IEEE Computer, J. Conklin, Vol. 20, pp. 17-41, (1987), and is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The World Wide Web is a hypertext-based information service that makes collections of information available across the Internet. It allows Web browser clients to access information from any accessible Web server and supports multiple media types. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is used to describe static text documents, and a Web browser is essentially an HTML interpreter. A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is basically a network location which tells the user not only where something is (its address), but also what it is. The basic form of a URL address is service://hostname/path which identifies what Internet service is needed to reach the resource, what computer it is located on, and enough detail to find what is being searched for. By clicking on a hypertext link in one Web page, the user can display another related Web page or even invoke a related program. With the explosion of information on the World Wide Web, there are many potential new users who would like to search for information on the World Wide Web. The problem is that there is no effective interactive system for guiding a user through a tour of the World Wide Web which uses actual Web pages. The existing art minimizes these problems by constraining the available choices in linking from one panel to another. This is done by providing only a few carefully chosen links to and from each panel. Thus, users are less likely to get lost or waste time exploring irrelevant nodes, but lack flexibility. The typical hypertext link profile is predetermined according to the system designer's understanding of the typical user profile and is incorporated in the hypertext document with no provision for modification or weighted recommendation.
A tour is different from hyper-pathing over a closed collection of objects [see Vannebar Bush, “As We May think,” The Atlantic, 1945]. Unlike a closed collection such as a hyperlinked stack of cards (also called hypercards), a need exists for a tour that applies over an open (dynamic) collection of objects whose membership in the collection varies over time (ephemeral membership). Because pathing in a closed collection is an internal attribute of the collection, the absence of an object with membership in the tour will break the continuity of the tour. Thus, a need exists for a tour that is a separate object from the collection itself, so that the continuity of the view imposed by a tour over the collection is unaffected by the absence of one or more of its objects. Moreover, a need exists for a tour that may span paths not present in the original underlying collection. On the other hand, a hyper-path must traverse physical links in the collection. Lastly, the notion of hyperpathing refers to sequential traversals over a hypergraph. The need remains for a tour that encompasses the temporal coordination of multiple such sequential traversals during the presentation of a tour, e.g., by a Web browser.
The prior art also includes mechanisms to present a tour of a static collection of Web objects of interest. For example, in “HTML Guided Web Tour”, filed Nov. 13, 1997, IBM Docket No. EN997116, by W. J. Roden, et al, a static tour is presented where the system guides the users through a tour by displaying a given sequence of Web objects along with correspondin
Manohar Nelson R.
Willebeek-LeMair Marc Hubert
Yu Philip Shi-Lung
Bashore William L.
F. Chau & Associates LLP
Feild Joseph H.
International Business Machines - Corporation
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