WO2000058875A1

WO2000058875A1 - Internet browser url address field directory and method of advertising therewith

Info

Publication number: WO2000058875A1
Application number: PCT/AU2000/000159
Authority: WO
Inventors: John Southgate
Original assignee: Strategix Pty Limited
Priority date: 1999-03-25
Filing date: 2000-03-07
Publication date: 2000-10-05
Also published as: AU709469B3

Abstract

A method for locating and initiating communication with a target having an associated Universal Resource Locator (URL) wherein, the method is implemented using a computer readable medium of instructions including the steps of: a user entering a series of indicia into the address field of an Internet browser; at least part of the series of indicia being compared with entries in a database; searching a database for a correlation between the series of indicia and common usage terms in the database; locating a common usage term in the database which has an associated URL address; and transferring the associated URL address to the Internet browser.

Description

INTERNET BROWSER URL ADDRESS FIELD DIRECTORY AND METHOD OF ADVERTISING

THEREWITH

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a method for locating and initiating communication with a target Internet site having an associated Universal Resource Locator (URL), more specifically the present invention relates to a method which includes a redirection server software program which operates to simplify access to URL addressed destinations on the Internet using a browser.

Background Art

On-line search engines typically receive search requests for brand and company site locations using the search page of the search engine Internet site. This requires a user to firstly connect to the search engine Internet site and download the page, or alternately to load the page from their computer's cache. Reference hereinafter to a site refers to an Internet site, web-site or similar type of entity.

The user then enters search criteria and sends the search request to the search engine site, usually by clicking on a button on the search page. The search engine software then searches through its database of information, and returns a page to the user containing possible site locations that are referenced by the search criteria. The user must then select from the results list, which may run into hundreds of results, the site location that he or she is interested in, and click on the link to download the desired page. The problem for the user is that the activity of accessing the search page, and then searching through the results, can be time consuming.

Alternatively, some companies have a redirection service which utilises the URL address bar of the browser to overcome this kind of problem.

However, the address forms which have been used in the past have prevented the use of common usage terms, that is terms that do not conform to the canonicalized URL standard.

Many brand and company names have spaces, and other special characters in them e.g. "IBM Australia" , "The Prime Minister of Australia" , "The Sydney Cricket Ground", "Morecombe & Wise" , "The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, Her Lover" . Since the URL entered by the user must conform to the canonicalized URL standard, and URL's cannot have certain special characters in them, it has not generally been possible to use the URL address field of the browser for common usage terms.

As a result, many companies are forced to use a form of reference which is not in everyday usage, for example "Commonwealth Securities Limited" must be referred to as "comsec.com.au" . Phrases cannot be created.

Also, many page redirection systems work by redirecting at the server, rather than the browser level. This prevents the opportunity of displaying advertising information at the user terminal whilst the redirection is in progress.

Further, the redirection systems used by companies to-date is often not based on a programmable and automatic user update of a database of mappings between the common usage terms and the target URL. This identifies a need for an improved type of redirection server software program which overcomes the problems inherent in the prior art.

The present invention seeks to provide a method which allows a user to locate a desired URL by entering a common usage term or selection of words, which do not necessarily conform to the present canonicalized standard, into an address field of a browser.

The present invention further seeks to provide a method of presenting advertising to a user after they have entered a common usage term or selection of words, which do not necessarily conform to the present canonicalized standard, into an address field of a browser.

Accordingly, the present invention seeks to provide these and other objects or features providing a method for locating and initiating communication with a target site.

Disclosure Of Invention

The invention, in a particular aspect is a method which includes a redirection server software program to decode URL address fields from canonical URL back into the common usage terms entered by the user into the URL address field of a browser and coded into canonical URL before being sent to the redirection server.

The common usage terms may also be entered by the user using a browser form, which encodes the data into a canonical URL.

"Canonical URL" includes other cryptic forms such as browser specific forms of address that are allowable for transmission over the Internet. The common usage terms may be used to locate an associated target URL which contains the address of the relevant content.

The common usage terms may be used to locate associated advertising content for display to the user. The software may be used in a computer inquiry redirection system for delivering information and computer services to users, the system including: an input receiving unit for receiving requests in canonicalized URL form containing a coded version of non-canonicalized data, or common usage terms, from users; a decoding unit for decoding the non-canonicalized data and identifying a corresponding URL address; and a redirecting unit for redirecting users to the corresponding URL address.

The request will typically be entered in the user's browser's URL address field. The request may include the address of the computer inquiry redirection system as well as the uncoded common usage terms. A standard prefix of characters representing the address may be entered first. The browser may automatically code non-canonicalized data that is entered.

The decoding unit receives the requests and decodes the browser encoded common usage terms back to their original form using the special software.

The redirecting unit may use a database of associations between common usage terms (everyday words) and target URLs. It may perform a lookup against the database and select the target URL.

The redirecting unit may also retrieve advertising content from a repository of advertising content, and may return a redirection page to the user. The user may temporarily view the advertising on the intermediate redirection page after the decoding and while the redirecting steps are carried out. The advertising may be displayed for a predetermined minimum period of time.

The user's browser may then automatically request the target page using the target URL, the page is then downloaded by the target server to the user's browser.

A further feature is the maintenance of the association between the common usage terms and the target URL, and this may be achieved by provision of an automated registration service available over the Internet. As soon as a form containing the requested association is transmitted and authenticated by the software at the site of the redirection service, the common usage terms and URL association is immediately available for use at the redirection service.

The present invention according to one aspect seeks to provide a method for locating and initiating communication with a target site having an associated Universal Resource Locator (URL) wherein, the method is implemented using a computer readable medium of instructions including the steps of: a user entering a series of indicia into the address field of an Internet browser; at least part of the series of indicia being compared with entries in a database; searching a database for a correlation between the series of indicia and common usage terms in the database; locating a common usage term in the database which has an associated

URL address; and transferring the associated URL address to the Internet browser.

In another preferred form of the invention there it is sought to provide a method for locating and initiating communication with a target site wherein, the database is located on a redirection server which is not the user's local computer. The present invention according to another aspect seeks to provide a method for locating and initiating communication with a target site wherein, the series of indicia contains a standard prefix of characters which directs the Internet browser to communicate with the redirection server.

In a further embodiment of the present invention advertising material may be presented to the user on the Internet browser before the associated URL is transferred to the Internet browser.

In a broad form, the present invention provides that at least part of the series of indicia has some relation to or association with the common usage term and/or the associated URL address.

In accordance with a specific embodiment of the present invention there is provided a redirection server software program to decode URL address fields from canonical URL back into the common usage terms entered by the user into the URL address field of a browser and coded into canonical URL before being sent to the redirection server.

In another preferred form of the invention there is provided a redirection server software program wherein the common usage terms are used to locate an associated target URL which contains the address of the relevant content.

In yet another preferred form of the invention there is provided a redirection server software program wherein the common usage terms are used to locate associated advertising content for display to the user.

In a further broad form of the present invention, the present invention also provides a method for locating and initiating communication with a target site having an associated URL, substantially according to the embodiment described in the specification with reference to the accompanying figure. Brief description Of Figure

The present invention will become better understood from the following detailed description of a preferred but non-limiting embodiment thereof, described in connection with the accompanying figure, wherein:

• Figure 1 illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present invention wherein, the figure shows a schematic system diagram.

The following legend refers to figure 1 and is provided by way of example only such that the reader may be assisted in understanding the scope of the invention:

Address: The address field of the Internet browser. The user enters the URL with common usage terms into this field.

PI : The page displayed in the user's Internet browser while the user is entering the common usage terms.

P2: The intermediate redirection page displayed to the user containing advertising content and redirection instructions.

P3 : The target URL page displayed to the user from the target server.

RS: The redirection server running the redirection server software.

DB: The database of common usage terms and their associated target URLs.

Target: The server that is the destination of the target URL. Internet: The interconnected network of computers that moves messages between participating computers. May also refer to the intranet within a corporation.

Modes For Carrying Out The Invention

The present invention provides a method for locating and initiating communication with a target site. A preferred, but non-limiting, embodiment of the present invention is shown in figure 1.

The user has a name, phrase or expression that is commonly used in everyday language to refer to some object about which information is held, accessible via the Internet. The object may be a brand, company name or some other object. The address of the information is some more cryptic URL that, much like a telephone number, is more difficult for the user to remember than the name of the object.

To access the information using the invention, the user enters a standard prefix of characters into his or her browser's URL address field, followed by the common usage terms of the object. The standard prefix of characters, that may represent the address, connects the user with the redirection server.

The request is encoded by the browser into canonicalized URL form. When a user seeks to send a representation of spaces, or any other special characters in the browser's URL address field, the browser will insert the characters %XY, where XY is equivalent to the ASCII or Unicode code of the special character, or it will insert some other equivalent translation. This encoding occurs automatically for the user, by the browser. The request is then sent from the user's browser to the Internet, via the users Internet Service Provider.

The request is routed from the Internet to the redirection server (RS). The redirection server runs special server software that gets a copy of the browser encoded data (otherwise known as the QUERY_STRING), and decodes it into the original or intended word or phrase that the user initially entered into the URL address field (address), by translating all %XY and other encoded occurrences into an equivalent ASCII or Unicode representation.

The system comprises a database (DB) which associates common usage terms with the target URL. The common usage terms are then extracted from the data. A database lookup request is created and sent to the database manager. The database manager returns the target URL associated with the common usage terms, to the special software program running on RS.

The special software program running on RS then formulates an intermediate redirection page P2. This page contains advertising content from the repository of advertising content (DB), and instructions to the browser to redirect itself to the target server (target) with the retrieved target URL, after a given interval of time. The page may also contain instructions to the browser to open a second window with directory and advertising content. The page is sent to the Internet for delivery to the user's browser. The page is routed across the Internet and the page P2 is displayed on the user's browser.

After the given interval of time expires, the browser automatically follows the embedded redirection instructions and sends a page request to load a page at the target URL to the Internet.

The page request is routed across the Internet to the target server, as specified in the target URL. The target machine's Internet server responds by retrieving the requested page P3 from the target server, and sending it back to the Internet.

After being routed across the Internet, page P3 is delivered to the user's browser.

In one, non-limiting, specific example of the invention, the user may enter: Go.com.au?Commonwealth Securites Limited In another, non-limiting, specific example of the invention, the user may enter: Go.com.au/go.words?Commonwealth Securites Limited

In yet another, non-limiting, specific example of the invention, the user may enter: Go.com.au/Commonwealth Securities Limited

In each of the above cases, the result is to redirect the user to the URL http://www.comsec.com.au, which is the home page associated with Commonwealth Securities Limited.

The prefix may be any domain name or path name combination rather than Go.com.au.

Although the preferred embodiment has been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions, and alterations can be made herein by one of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention.

Claims

The claims defining the invention are as follows:

1. A method for locating and initiating communication with a target site having an associated Universal Resource Locator (URL) wherein, the method is implemented using a computer readable medium of instructions including the steps of: a user entering a series of indicia into the address field of an Internet browser; at least part of the series of indicia being compared with entries in a database; searching a database for a correlation between the series of indicia and common usage terms in the database; locating a common usage term in the database which has an associated URL address; and transferring the associated URL address to the Internet browser.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein, the database is located on a redirection server which is not the user's local computer.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 wherein, the series of indicia contains a standard prefix of characters which directs the Internet browser to communicate with the redirection server.

4. The method as claimed in any one of the claims 1 to 3 wherein, advertising material may be presented to the user on the Internet browser before the associated URL is transferred to the Internet browser.

5. The method as claimed in any one of the claims 1 to 4 wherein, at least part of the series of indicia has some relation to or association with the common usage term and/or the associated URL address.

6. A redirection server software program to decode URL address fields from canonical URL back into the common usage terms entered by the user into the URL address field of a browser and coded into canonical URL before being sent to the redirection server.

7. The redirection server software program of claim 6 wherein the common usage terms are used to locate an associated target URL which contains the address of the relevant content.

8. The redirection server software program of claim 6 wherein the common usage terms are used to locate associated advertising content for display to the user.

9. A method for locating and initiating communication with a target site having an associated URL, substantially according to the embodiment described in the specification with reference to the accompanying figure.