Patent Grant
8914362
1. Field of the Invention
Implementations described herein relate generally to document browsing and, more particularly, to accumulating and displaying document browsing activity to users via personalized displays.
2. Description of Related Art
The World Wide Web (“web”) contains a vast amount of information. Locating a desired portion of the information, however, can be challenging. This problem is compounded because the amount of information on the web and the number of new users inexperienced at web searching are growing rapidly.
Search engines attempt to return hyperlinks to web pages in which a user is interested. Generally, search engines base their determination of the user's interest on search terms (called a search query) entered by the user. The goal of the search engine is to provide links to high quality, relevant results (e.g., web pages) to the user based on the search query. Typically, the search engine accomplishes this by matching the terms in the search query to a corpus of pre-stored web pages. Web pages that contain the user's search terms are “hits” and are returned to the user as links. Each “hit” may be ranked by the search engine based on various factors, such as, for example, the relevance of the “hit” to the search query.
“Bookmarks” or “favorites” are typical ways for a browser executed at a client to remember documents (e.g., web pages) that a user has visited when browsing documents located on a network, such as, for example, the Internet. For example, a bookmark or a favorite may be used by a user to remember a search result obtained from the execution of a search by a search engine. Bookmarks or favorites permit the user to return to the bookmarked document easily.
According to one aspect, a method may include recording sites or documents browsed by a user using a browser and analyzing the recorded sites or documents to produce user browsing statistics. The method may further include providing a document to the user via the browser that displays the user browsing statistics.
According to another aspect, a method may include recording browsing activity associated with a user and producing user browsing statistics based on the recorded browsing activity. The method may further include adjusting a ranking of search results provided to the user based on the user browsing statistics.
According to a further aspect, a method may include recording browsing activity of a user using a browser and determining browsing statistics from the recorded browsing activity. The method may further include graphically displaying the browsing statistics to the user via the browser.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, explain aspects of the invention. In the drawings,
The following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers in different drawings may identify the same or similar elements. Also, the following detailed description does not limit the invention.
As described herein, a user's browsing activity may be tracked and a personalized display of the user's browsing activity may be provided to that user via a window, such as a pop-up window, provided by a toolbar associated with the user's browser. The personalized display of the user's browsing activity may graphically depict browsing activity by, for example, how frequently documents (e.g., URLs) or sites have been browsed by the user, which documents or sites have been browsed recently by the user, how frequently URLs or sites that correspond to the user's bookmarks or favorites have been browsed by the user, etc. In some implementations, the browsing activity may be analyzed to determine browsing statistics. The browsing statistics may be used in adjusting the ranking of search results provided to the user associated with the browsing statistics.
A “document,” as the term is used herein, is to be broadly interpreted to include any machine-readable and machine-storable work product. A document may include, for example, an e-mail, a website, a business listing, a file, a combination of files, one or more files with embedded links to other files, a news group posting, a blog, a web advertisement, a digital map, etc. In the context of the Internet, a common document is a web page. Documents often include textual information and may include embedded information (such as meta information, images, hyperlinks, etc.) and/or embedded instructions (such as Javascript, etc.). A “link,” as the term is used herein, is to be broadly interpreted to include any reference to/from a document from/to another document or another part of the same document. A “site” as the term is used herein is to be broadly interpreted to include a group of documents hosted by any type of entity. A “site” may include a group of documents under common control, such as a group of documents associated with an organization, a domain name, a host name, or a set of documents created by the same person or group of persons. A “site” may also include a group of documents about a particular topic, a group of documents in a particular language, a group of documents hosted in a particular country, or a group of documents written in a particular writing style.
The documents 100 browsed by the user may then be recorded as user browsing activity 110. The user browsing activity 110 may be analyzed to produce user browsing statistics 120. User browsing statistics 120 may be provided to the user via a “zeitgeist” that may include, for example, a window displayed in the user's browser (e.g., a pop-up window). The zeitgeist may be displayed automatically, at times selected by the user, or when the user performs a specific action. User browsing statistics 120 may include, for example, URLs/sites visited most frequently by the user, URLs/sites visited most frequently by the user that are included in the user's bookmarks, or URLs/sites visited recently by the user. User browsing statistics 120 may include statistics presented by day of week, by work day vs. non-work day, by month, by hours of the day, by cookie or user agent, or as a comparison to that of the average user.
Clients 205 may include client entities. An entity may be defined as a device, such as a personal computer, a wireless telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a lap top, or another type of computation or communication device, a thread or process running on one of these devices, and/or an object executable by one of these devices. Clients 205 may implement a browser for browsing documents stored at servers 210 or 220. The browser may include a toolbar that includes bookmark functionality, as further described in detail below
Server 220 may include a server entity that accesses, fetches, aggregates, processes, searches, and/or maintains documents. In accordance with one implementation, server 220 may include a search engine 225 usable by users at clients 205. Server 220 may implement a data aggregation service by crawling a corpus of documents (e.g., web pages) hosted on data server(s) 210, indexing the documents, and storing information associated with these documents in a repository of crawled documents. The aggregation service may be implemented in other ways, such as by agreement with the operator(s) of data server(s) 210 to distribute their documents via the data aggregation service. Search engine 225 may execute a search using a query, received from a user at a client 205, on the corpus of documents stored in the repository of crawled documents. Server 220 may provide, to a user issuing a query, a ranked list of documents related to the issued query. Server 220 may also store bookmarks, received from respective users at clients 205, in bookmarks records 230. The stored bookmarks may subsequently be retrieved by respective users at clients 205 via server 220. The storage of bookmarks at server 220, and subsequent retrieval, is described in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 11/327,644, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein. Server 220 may also store user browsing statistics, obtained from user browsing activity at clients 205, in user browsing statistics 240.
Data server(s) 210 may store or maintain documents that may be crawled by server 220. Such documents may include data related to published news stories, products, images, user groups, geographic areas, or any other type of data. For example, server(s) 210 may store or maintain news stories from any type of news source, such as, for example, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time magazine, or Newsweek. As another example, server(s) 210 may store or maintain data related to specific products, such as product data provided by one or more product manufacturers. As yet another example, server(s) 210 may store or maintain data related to other types of web documents, such as pages of web sites.
While servers 210 and 220 are shown as separate entities, it may be possible for one of servers 210 or 220 to perform one or more of the functions of the other one of servers 210 or 220. For example, it may be possible that servers 210 and 220 are implemented as a single server. It may also be possible for a single one of servers 210 and 220 to be implemented as two or more separate (and possibly distributed) devices.
Network 250 may include one or more networks of any type, including a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a telephone network, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) or a Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN), an intranet, the Internet, a memory device, or a combination of networks. The PLMN(s) may further include a packet-switched sub-network, such as, for example, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD), or Mobile IP sub-network. Clients 205 and servers 210 and 220 may connect to network 250 via wired, wireless, and/or optical connections.
Processor 320 may include a processor, microprocessor, or processing logic that may interpret and execute instructions. Main memory 330 may include a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storage device that may store information and instructions for execution by processor 320. ROM 340 may include a ROM device or another type of static storage device that may store static information and instructions for use by processor 320. Storage device 350 may include a magnetic and/or optical recording medium and its corresponding drive.
Input device 360 may include a mechanism that permits an operator to input information to the client/server entity, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pen, voice recognition and/or biometric mechanisms, etc. Output device 370 may include a mechanism that outputs information to the operator, including a display, a printer, a speaker, etc. Communication interface 380 may include any transceiver-like mechanism that enables the client/server entity to communicate with other devices and/or systems. For example, communication interface 380 may include mechanisms for communicating with another device or system via a network, such as network 240.
The client/server entity may perform certain operations or processes, as will be described in detail below. The client/server entity may perform these operations in response to processor 320 executing software instructions contained in a computer-readable medium, such as memory 330. A computer-readable medium may be defined as a physical or logical memory device and/or carrier wave.
The software instructions may be read into memory 330 from another computer-readable medium, such as data storage device 350, or from another device via communication interface 380. The software instructions contained in memory 330 may cause processor 320 to perform operations or processes that will be described later. Alternatively, hardwired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement processes described herein. Thus, implementations described herein are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.
Window 610 may display a number of various user browsing activity displaying options 620 that may be selected by a user. Browsing activity displaying options 620 may include, for example, “bookmarked URLs/sites visited most frequently,” “URLs visited most frequently,” “sites visited most frequently,” “sites with most bookmarks,” “URLs visited recently” or “sites visited recently” options. When any of the options displayed in window 610 are selected by a user (e.g., by clicking on the option with a mouse, or by “mouse over” of the option by the mouse), a “type of statistics” window 630 may be displayed to the user. Window 630 may include various display options 640 for selecting the type of statistic to be displayed to the user. For example, window 630 may include “by day of week,” “by work day,” “by non-work day,” “by month,” “by hours or day” or “compared with an average user” options. If, for example, the user selected the “by day of week” type of statistic from window 630, then the browsing statistics might include browsing activity displayed by each day of the week. For example, if the user selected “URLs visited most frequently” from window 620 and “by month” from window 630, then toolbar 405 might display the most frequently visited URLs as a function of month. Selection of the “by work day” option might display browsing activity as a function of work days (e.g., Monday through Friday). Selection of the “by non-work day” option might display browsing activity as a function of non-work days (e.g., Saturday and Sunday). Selection of the “by day of week” option might display browsing activity as a function of each day of the week. Selection of the “by hours of day” option might display browsing activity as a function of each hour of a day. Selection of the “compared with an average user” option might display a comparison of a user's browsing statistics with the browsing statistics associated with an average user (i.e., average browsing statistics determined across multiple users).
The exemplary process may begin with the tracking and recording of a user's browsing activity over a period of time (block 800). Toolbar 405 may maintain a record of each document accessed by an associated user. The record may include an identifier of the document (e.g., a URL) or a site associated with the document, and a timestamp associated with a time at which the document is accessed. Toolbar 405, for example, may track each bookmarked document accessed by a user. For example, as shown in
The user's browsing activity may be analyzed to produce browsing statistics for that user (block 810). The user browsing activity analysis may determine which bookmarked URLs or sites have been visited the most frequently by the user, which URLs or sites have been visited the most frequently by the user, which sites have the most user bookmarks (e.g., across multiple different users including the current user), and/or which URLs or sites have been visited recently by the user. The user browsing statistics produced by the analysis may be based on user selection from “user browsing activity” selection window 600 accessible to the user via toolbar 405, as described above with respect to
The browsing statistics may be provided to the user (block 820). The browsing statistics may be provided to the user via toolbar 405 in a window (e.g., a pop-up “zeitgeist”) that includes the browsing activity selected by the user, as described above with respect to
The ranking of search results provided to the user may be adjusted based on the user's browsing statistics (optional block 830). Search results are typically ranked in a rank order using known techniques (e.g., based on relevance of, and/or links to or from, each of the search results). The user browsing statistics may be used to boost selected results among the search results or to adjust the ranking of the search results. For example, documents whose URLs are visited most frequently by a user may be boosted among a set of search results returned to that user as a result of an executed search. A user's browsing statistics may be provided from toolbar 405 to search engine 225 during a search and used by search engine 225 to adjust the ranking of search results returned to the user, or to adjust the ranking of search results returned to any other user. Alternatively, toolbar 405 may adjust the ranking and/or boosting or search results returned to the user at a client 205 from search engine 225.
The foregoing description of implementations consistent with principles of the invention provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings, or may be acquired from practice of the invention. For example, while series of acts have been described with regard to
User browsing statistics 240 and bookmark records 230 are described herein as being stored in association with server 220. In some implementations, however, browsing statistics 240 and bookmark records 230 may be stored at a client 205.
It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that aspects of the invention, as described above, may be implemented in many different forms of software, firmware, and hardware in the implementations illustrated in the figures. The actual software code or specialized control hardware used to implement aspects consistent with the principles of the invention is not limiting of the invention. Thus, the operation and behavior of the aspects have been described without reference to the specific software code, it being understood that one of ordinary skill in the art would be able to design software and control hardware to implement the aspects based on the description herein.
No element, act, or instruction used in the present application should be construed as critical or essential to the invention unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, the article “a” is intended to include one or more items. Where only one item is intended, the term “one” or similar language is used. Further, the phrase “based on” is intended to mean “based, at least in part, on” unless explicitly stated otherwise.
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/536,779, filed Sep. 29, 2006, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,548,991, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
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