Patent ID: 6449765
Filing Date: 2002-09-10
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for linking an end user computer to access web page resources on a global computer network, the method comprising the steps of:loading and displaying at an end user computer web page content from a first web page resource, the first web page resource being one of a plurality of participating web page resources, each one of the plurality of participating web page resources including a common prescribed hyperlink protocol among a set of hypertext markup language commands, the common prescribed hyperlink protocol including a first command to access a first prescribed resource address on the global computer network and a second command to access a second prescribed resource address on the global computer network; executing said first command during said loading, whereupon said first prescribed resource address is accessed, a first executable resource being executed in response to said access of said first prescribed resource address, the first executable resource during execution identifying a status of the end user and a status of the first web page resource and returning to the end user computer a label selected based upon the identified end user status and the identified first web page resource status, said label being displayed at the end user computer as a first hyperlink among the loaded web page content; and in response to activation of the first hyperlink by the end user, executing said second command, whereupon said second prescribed resource address is accessed, a second executable resource located at the second prescribed resource address being executed in response to the access of the second prescribed resource address to determine a function of the first hyperlink, wherein the determined function is based upon the end user status and the first web page resource status; wherein the end user status is any status among a range of end user statuses comprising a first end user status identifying the end user as being a participating end user and a second end user status identifying the end user as being a non-participating end user; wherein the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as being one of a referral web site start page, a referral web site non-start page, a privileged web site start page, a privileged web site non-start page, and a non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web page, wherein for a given end user there is only one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page, wherein said one referral web site start page and at least one referral web site non-start page are part of a common domain, wherein said one privileged web site start page and at least one privileged web site non-start page are part of a common domain, wherein there are a plurality of non-referral web site, non-privileged web site, participating web pages, wherein when the end user status is the first status and the first web page resource status identifies the first web page resource as the referral web site start page, the function of the first hyperlink is to link the end user computer to the privileged web site start page.