Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-16
2001-11-06
Black, Thomas (Department: 2171)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000, C709S218000, C709S245000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06314423
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to information retrieval in a computer network. More particularly, it relates to an improved method for providing a set of bookmarks in a browser for retrieving Web pages in an Internet environment.
It is well known to couple a plurality of computer systems into a network of computer systems. In this way, the collective resources available within the network may be shared among users, thus allowing each connected user to enjoy resources which would not be economically feasible to provide to each user individually. With the growth of the Internet, sharing of computer resources has been brought to a much wider audience. The Internet has become a cultural medium in today's society for both information and entertainment. Government agencies employ Internet sites for a variety of informational purposes. For many companies, one or more Internet sites are an integral part of their business; these sites are frequently mentioned in the companies' television, radio and print advertising.
The World Wide Web, or simply “the Web”, is the Internet's multimedia information retrieval system. It is the most commonly used method of transferring data in the Internet environment. Other methods exist such as the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Gopher, but have not achieved the popularity of the Web. Client machines accomplish transactions to Web servers using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which is a known application protocol providing users access to files, e.g, text, graphics, images, sound, video, using a standard page description language known as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). HTML provides basic document formatting and allows the developer to specify “links” to other servers and files. In the Internet paradigm, a network path to a server is identified by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) having a special syntax for defining a network connection.
Retrieval of information is generally achieved by the use of an HTML-compatible “browser”, e.g., Netscape Navigator, at a client machine. When the user of the browser specifies a link via a URL, the client issues a request to a naming service to map a hostname in the URL to a particular network IP address at which the server is located. The naming service returns a list of one or more IP addresses that can respond to the request. Using one of the IP addresses, the browser establishes a connection to a server. If the server is available, it returns a document or other object formatted according to HTML. Web browsers have become the primary interface for access to many network and server services.
The entry of the URL in the entry field of a browser can be a difficult task for many users. While the URL for the main Web page of a major company can be relatively brief, e.g., www.ibm.com, subsidiary pages can have very lengthy URLs in, at least to the average user, an arcane syntax. Recognizing the difficulties involved, the developers of browsers have provided one useful means of returning to a favorite URL, by the creation of user stored “bookmarks” in the browser.
Once created, bookmarks offer a means of page retrieval. The user can cause the browser to display his bookmark list and select among his bookmarks to go directly to a favorite page. Thus, the user is not forced to enter a lengthy URL nor retrace the original tortuous route through the Internet by which he may have arrived at the Web site. Once a bookmark is added to a bookmark list, in general, the bookmark becomes a permanent part of the browser until removed. The permanence and accessibility of bookmarks have made them a valuable means for personalizing a user's Internet access through the browser.
Yet despite their usefulness, the current arrangement of bookmarks is not without its flaws. As the numbers of web sites and web pages on these sites have increased dramatically, so has the number of bookmarks that a typical web browser user maintains on his browser. It is not uncommon that hundreds of bookmarks be stored in a bookmark file after a few weeks of web browsing. While folders in some browsers have helped the user group his bookmarks by category, in reality, the bookmark file is one huge list of bookmarks, all accessible to the user through the browser. The most common way of adding bookmarks to the bookmark file or a particular bookmark folder in the browser is manually intensive. Each bookmark is added one at a time. A user visits a web site, then selects that site as a bookmark entry and, if desired, categorizes it manually. Furthermore, the current technology used in browsers to update bookmarks, i.e. removing the old address and entering the new one, is very slow and inefficient.
Another problem with retrieving information on the Internet is the amount of time required to sift through the enormous amount of information available to find the relatively few web pages or files of interest. Search engines help to a degree, but users' respective facility with constructing search queries differ greatly. A substantial amount of user time is required to refine search strategies and compile and discard results and so forth. Thus, a good list of bookmarks on a given topic can represent a significant investment in time and effort. Presuming that the topic is of interest to others as well, the list of bookmarks is a valuable commodity which others would be interested in sharing and. perhaps buying.
These problems as well as others are addressed in various embodiments of the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to improve the management of bookmarks in the browser.
It is another object of the invention to provide a search mechanism for bookmark sets usable in a browser.
It is another object of the invention to subscribe to receive automatically updates to a selected bookmark set.
It is another object of the invention to customize a served bookmark set for a given client browser based on machine or user provided parameters.
It is another object of the invention to provide a new electronic advertising medium.
These and other objects are accomplished by providing one or more searchable repositories of bookmark sets stored in a computer system, each bookmark set can be downloaded to a client browser as a unit. Each bookmark set contains a set of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and is associated with related information such as a set of keywords, one or more topics and user specific information. The bookmark set is downloadable as a unit to the client browser.
When a search query from a client containing a set of keywords is received, the stored bookmark sets are searched for one or more bookmark sets associated with at least one keyword matching a keyword from the search query. A list of bookmark sets which satisfy the query, i.e. are associated with matching keywords, are returned to the client browser. Responsive to a request for downloading a selected bookmark set, the selected bookmark is served to the client. The selected bookmark set is received and used by the client browser to access the set of URLs in the selected bookmark set.
In one embodiment of the invention, some bookmarks within a bookmark set are designated as base bookmarks which are always served with the bookmark set. Other bookmarks in the bookmark set are designated as variable bookmarks which are served with the bookmark set if a set of conditions are met, e.g., the client request originates from a specific geographic region. If the set of conditions is detected the base and variable bookmarks are served as a unit as the selected bookmark set.
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patent: 6041360
Himmel Maria Azua
LaBaw Jeffrey Scott
Rodriguez Herman
Black Thomas
International Business Machines - Corporation
Judson David H.
Mims Jr. David A.
Rones Charles L.
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