Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Remote data accessing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-04
2003-05-13
Dinn, Dung C. (Department: 2153)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Remote data accessing
C709S223000, C709S224000, C709S245000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C345S168000, C345S169000, C345S170000, C345S171000, C345S172000, C717S174000, C717S176000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06564254
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
The present invention pertains to art for using a computer network or communications network, and in particular to art for easily specifying a physical location or a logical location on such a network, such locations, for example, including uniform resource locators (hereinafter “URLs”) and electronic mail (hereinafter “e-mail”) addresses in the case of the Internet, telephone numbers in the case of a telephone network, and so forth.
There are a wide variety of services available on computer networks, such as, for example, the Internet or various intranets, wherein information is provided or information is transferred, such as in connection with those services and resources available via the World Wide Web (hereinafter “WWW”), e-mail, file transfer protocol (hereinafter “FTP”), and the like. In using such services, it is necessary for a user to specify the location on the network of the source of any such information which is to be provided and the destination to which any such information is to be transferred.
For example, to access (as used here, “access” means to make a connection to a network location, e.g., a website, at which time a “home page,” “index page,” or the like may be returned by default to and opened by the computer that initiated the connection) and be able to see the contents of a particular website on the Internet using a WWW browser-type application (as used herein, “application” is used synonymously with “application program”), the user must specify for the browser-type application (hereinafter “browser”) the URL representing the address of that website. Furthermore, to place a telephone call from a computer, the user must specify for the application that will dial the telephone number (hereinafter “dialup application”) the telephone number that is to be dialed (here and below, where we refer to “dialing” of a telephone number, this is meant in its most general sense of placing a telephone call, regardless of the purpose of the call, e.g. voice, modem transmission, facsimile transmission, etc., and regardless of the method by which the call is placed, e.g. rotary-type pulses, touch-tone-type tones, etc.).
The most typical method for specifying a URL is to type in the URL from a keyboard. However, since URLs quite frequently consist of strings of more than ten, and often even more than twenty, characters, and since these character strings are moreover frequently such that they are not easily remembered by a human being, typing in a URL by hand is not at all an enjoyable task for the average user. The same can be said of typing in a telephone number.
As one method for simplifying the specification of URLs, the URL listing capability of WWW browsers, referred to variously as “Bookmarks,” “Favorites,” or the like, is known. However, as the number of entries in such a list grows, not only does it become increasingly difficult to quickly select the desired entry from among the others in the list, but it also becomes increasingly difficult to determine which list entry corresponds to which website. Furthermore, this capability cannot be taken advantage of with respect to URLs not entered in such a list, and in order to enter a URL into such a list in the first place, a user must either type in the URL by hand, or if utilizing a link from another website must first access the URL of the other website.
Furthermore, it may happen that while carrying out some task or the other at a particular application one wishes to obtain information pertaining to that task from a network. For example, while creating a document on the subject of intellectual property within a word-processing-type application (hereinafter “word processor”) one may wish to visit the website of a government patent office to take advantage of resources or services offered by that patent office, or while creating a document on the subject of automobiles one may wish to visit the website of a particular automobile manufacturer to investigate the specifications of a particular type of automobile, and so forth. In such a case, a user must first stop what he is doing at the application he is currently using, and must then launch (as used here, “launch” means to cause execution of an application, or when the application has previously been executed and is currently running in background, as may be the case in multiple-program-loading-type or multitasking-type environments, may also by implication be taken to mean making an application running in background the active application) a WWW browser and specify the URL of the desired website. This represents quite an inconvenience to the user. The same is true with respect to dialing a telephone number.
SUMMARY
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to make it possible to specify a location on a communications network through a process that is both simple and user-friendly.
Furthermore, it is another object of the present invention to make it possible to specify a location on a communications network from an arbitrary application and receive network information services involving that location through a simple process.
One version of the present invention is directed to a simple and user-friendly process for specifying a location on a communications network. Furthermore, another version of the present invention is directed to a system that makes it possible to specify a location on a communications network through such a simple and user-friendly process. Furthermore, another version of the present invention is directed to an apparatus that makes it-possible to specify a location on a communications network through such a simple and user-friendly process. Furthermore, another version of the present invention is directed to a computer-readable recording medium containing a program capable of causing a computer to specify a location on a communications network through such a simple and user-friendly process. Furthermore, another version of the present invention is directed to a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave capable of causing a computer to specify a location on a communications network through such a simple and user-friendly process. Furthermore, another version of the present invention is directed to a server that specifies a location on a communications network for use by a client computer through such a simple and user-friendly process. Furthermore, another version of the present invention is directed to a process of operating such a server. Furthermore, another version of the present invention is directed to a computer-readable recording medium containing a program for causing a computer to function as such a server. Furthermore, another version of the present invention is directed to a computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave for causing a computer to function as such a server.
The system in one version of the present invention is a system for specifying a location on a communications network for use by a network application for utilizing the aforesaid network on a computer, this network location specification system being equipped with a symbol receiving component that receives, from a memory area of the aforesaid computer that is capable of being used to transfer data from an application arbitrarily selected by a user to the exterior of this selected application, a symbol arbitrarily specified by the aforesaid user at the aforesaid selected application, and a converting component that converts the aforesaid symbol received by the aforesaid symbol receiving component into location information that represents a location previously set in correspondence to this symbol, and employs this location information to specify a location corresponding to the aforesaid symbol for use by the aforesaid network application.
That is, the system in one version of the present invention is a system for specifying a location on a communications network so as to make that location available for use by a network application, such as, for example, a WWW browser, an e-mail handling application (hereinafter “e-mailer”), or the like,
Gramlich Gabriele
Nakajima Ichiro
Shoji Wataru
Tabuchi Daisuke
Chan H. C.
Dinn Dung C.
Dream Technologies Corporation
Le Hieu
LandOfFree
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