Method and apparatus for selecting a content portion of an internet document for collaboration and subsequent retrieval

Abstract

A method and system for enabling a user to select one or more portions of content on one or more objects in a currently displayed internet document in a web browser are disclosed. The content selection functionality is enabled for the user without requiring the user to download and/or install custom software. Furthermore, it is not necessary for the user to register with the content selection service providing the functionality. The user selected content portions are persistent in the sense that they remain associated with, and are displayed on, the internet document during subsequent browsing sessions by the user or other users.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 during a web browsing session for which a highlighting session has been invoked, causing portions of a web page to be highlighted in various colors, wherein each particular color represents a measure of the frequency with which that portion of the internet document has been highlighted by users of a highlighting service.   
     
     
         2 . A computer-implemented method, comprising:
 enabling a first user to individually select a portion of content from a currently displayed internet document in a web browser without installing a custom software component, and saving a representation of the selected content portion to a centralized repository.   
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein saving the content portion includes associating the content portion with the first user without requiring the user to create a new user account. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein saving the content portion enables any user to recall the content portion. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 enabling a second user to recall the content portion made by the first user during a web browsing session for which the second user has invoked a content selection session, only if the second user has configured a content selection filtering mechanism to display selections of the first user, or selections of a group of which the first user is a member.   
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein, when an internet document associated with a particular URL has changed since the time the content selection was originally made, an intelligent content selection logic is configured to identify where in the changed internet document the content selection is to be positioned. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein enabling a first user to select a content portion from an object in a currently displayed internet document in a web browser includes enabling the first user to select one of a plurality of content selection identifiers. 
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein enabling a first user to select a content portion from an object in a currently displayed internet document in a web browser includes invoking a content selection service hosted at a server other than the server hosting the currently displayed internet document. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , wherein enabling a first user to select a content portion from an object in a currently displayed internet document in a web browser includes invoking a content selection service hosted at a server hosting the currently displayed internet document. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 at a host providing a content selection service, enabling any user to retrieve a copy of the internet document as it appeared when a selection was made.   
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 enabling any user to take a variety of user actions including: rate, comment, mark as a favorite, flag for relevance, or copy, a selected content portion displayed within an internet document.   
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 enabling a user to subscribe to receive notifications of selection activity by another user, or group of users, wherein the notification is communicated to the user by any one of the following communication mechanisms: email, web page, RSS, SMS message, text message, telephone, or instant messaging service.   
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 enabling a user to select one or more content portions to be combined on a single document; and,   displaying the one or more combined content portions as a single internet document.   
     
     
         14 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 enabling a user to selectively indicate one or more selected content portions to be combined on a single document; and,   enabling the user to export the single document into a variety of different file formats.   
     
     
         15 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 assigning a unique URL to a subset of user selected content portions, so as to enable display of the subset of user selected content portions on a single document.   
     
     
         16 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 invoking a content selection session by prepending an address associated with a content selection service to an address of the internet document.   
     
     
         17 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 invoking a content selection session when a user interacts with a graphical user element such as a bookmarklet, a button, a hyperlink or a widget.   
     
     
         18 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
 enabling a user to select a portion of content from a currently displayed internet document in a web browser without installing a custom software component on a first web page; and automatically causing the content portion to be displayed in a second web page.   
     
     
         19 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 18 , further comprising:
 enabling a user to provide a comment associated with the content portion, wherein said comment is to be displayed in the second web page.   
     
     
         20 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 18 , wherein automatically displaying the content portion in a second web page includes querying a content selection service for user selected content portions satisfying specific parameters, and displaying the content portion only if characteristics of the content portion satisfy the specific parameters.