Abstract:
The creator or author of the Web document or page at the Web site source of the page is enabled to prioritize all of the hyperlinks to other Web documents embedded in the Web page in order to optimize the needs, such as the business needs of the host. The prioritization is applied in the determination of the order in which the Web documents linked to the activated embedded hyperlinks in the Web document are to be accessed. The system is implemented through the inclusion of a hypertext markup language tag associated with each of the prioritized hyperlinks indicative of the priority level of the associated hyperlink. The implementation for designating a priority level for each of the hyperlinks may be enabled to change any previously designated priority levels for said hyperlinks. Such changes in any previously designated priority levels could be made applicable to the priority levels in previously distributed copies of said Web document.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD  
       [0001]     The present invention relates to computer managed communication networks, such as the World Wide Web (Web) and, particularly, to systems for controlling Web traffic in transmitted Web documents or pages so as to optimize Web throughput for the hosts or owners of Web sites creating and distributing hypertext Web documents.  
       BACKGROUND OF RELATED ART  
       [0002]     The past decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven by the convergence of the data processing industry with the consumer electronics industry. The effect has, in turn, driven technologies that have been known and available but relatively quiescent over the years. A major one of these technologies is the Internet or Web related distribution of documents, media and programs. The convergence of the electronic entertainment and consumer industries with data processing exponentially accelerated the demand for wide ranging communication distribution channels, and the Web or Internet, which had quietly existed for over a generation as a loose academic and government data distribution facility, reached “critical mass” and commenced a period of phenomenal expansion. With this expansion, businesses and consumers have direct access to all matter of documents, media and computer programs.  
         [0003]     In addition, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which had been the documentation language of the Internet or Web for years, offered direct links between pages and other documentation on the Web and a variety of related data sources that were at first text and images, e.g. both JPEG and MPEG, and then evolved into media, i.e. “hypermedia”. Web documents may also include applets and other programming routines. (The term Web documents as used herein is meant to include all such data documents). This even further exploded the use of the Internet or Web.  
         [0004]     A major problem encountered by all Web users and hosts of Web documents source sites is the amount of wasted time that the user spends in misdirection, or in waiting that the user often encounters in trying to get to an appropriate Web site or Web document. This is especially true in the case of electronic business conducted via the Web wherein the owners or hosts of the Web source sites provide the Web documents. These hosts or owners offering products or services are, of course, interested in completing business transactions as soon as possible so as to maximize their revenue and business throughout. Thus, it is clearly in the interest of all businesses and organizations that host Web source sites to have their customers and clients reach their intended destinations on the Web pages suitable to their business as soon as possible.  
         [0005]     However, in addition to purchasers and customers, there are consumers and others who may not have an immediate business need for products and services but who are nonetheless of interest to the business organization. Such clientele may wish general information about the business organization that could engender goodwill and even future revenue. Lastly, there may be a great many users just browsing around the Web without real business interest. Unfortunately, the current state of the Web document distribution art does not offer the host creating the Web any device through which the real revenue producing business customers may have a quick path to Web documents satisfying their needs. It appears that casual browsing requests compete on an equal footing with solid business product purchase requests insofar as Web page access and transmission resources are concerned. During high volume traffic on the Web and to Web source sites, activity by casual browsers may significantly slow down real revenue producing business requests, even to the point that the purchaser interest is lost and he goes elsewhere.  
       SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION  
       [0006]     The present invention provides a system, method and program enabling the host, e.g. the creator or author of the Web document or page at the Web site source of the page, to prioritize all of the hyperlinks to other Web documents embedded in the Web page in order to optimize the needs, such as the business needs of the host. In other words, a hyperlink most likely to produce a sale would be given the highest priority while a hyperlink connected to institutional or goodwill information would be given a lower priority. The system also includes means for applying the prioritization in the determination of the order in which the Web documents linked to the activated embedded hyperlinks in the Web document are to be accessed.  
         [0007]     The system is most effective when the Web document or page source site is made up of a network comprising a plurality of the source sites from which said Web documents linked to said prioritized hyperlinks are accessed and a service manager server system controls the access of Web documents linked to the prioritized hyperlinks, wherein the means for applying said prioritization are at the service manager server system. The invention may be conveniently implemented through the inclusion of a HTML tag associated with each of said prioritized hyperlinks indicative of the priority level of the associated hyperlink. The means for designating a priority level for each of the hyperlinks may be enabled to change any previously designated priority levels for said hyperlinks. Such changes in any previously designated priority levels could be made applicable to the priority levels in previously distributed copies of said Web document. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0008]     The present invention will be better understood and its numerous objects and advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the following drawings, in conjunction with the accompanying specification, in which:  
         [0009]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a data processing system including a central processing unit and network connections via a communications adapter that is capable of functioning both as a display computer for a receiving Web station, as well as the servers at the Web source sites on which the Web pages of the present invention with prioritized hyperlinks are created;  
         [0010]      FIG. 2  is a generalized diagrammatic illustration of a Web portion showing how the prioritized Web documents of the present invention may be created and distributed over the Web and how activated prioritized hyperlink document accessing is handled at the Web source site;  
         [0011]      FIG. 3  is an illustrative flowchart describing the setting up of the elements of a program according to the present invention for creating and using Web documents with prioritized hyperlinks to access Web documents linked to the hyperlinks; and  
         [0012]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart of an illustrative run of the program set up in  FIG. 3 . 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0013]     Before going further into the details of specific embodiments, it will be helpful to understand from a more general perspective the various elements and methods that may be related to the present invention. Since the major aspect of the present invention is directed to Web pages transmitted over global networks, such as the Web or Internet, an understanding of networks and their operating principles would be helpful. We will not go into great detail in describing the networks to which the present invention is applicable. For details on Web nodes, objects and links, reference is made to the text,  Mastering the Internet , G. H. Cady et al., published by Sybex Inc., Alameda, Calif., 1996; or the text,  Internet: The Complete Reference, Millennium Edition , Margaret Young et al., Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Berkeley, Calif., 1999. Any data communication system that interconnects or links computer controlled systems with various sites defines a communications network. Of course, the Internet or Web is a global network of a heterogeneous mix of computer technologies and operating systems. Higher level objects are linked to the lower level objects in the hierarchy through a variety of network server computers.  
         [0014]     Web documents are conventionally implemented in HTML language, which is described in detail in the text entitled  Just Java , van der Linden, 1997, SunSoft Press, particularly at Chapter 7, pp. 249-268, dealing with the handling of Web pages; and also in the above-referenced  Mastering the Internet , particularly pp. 637-642, on HTML in the formation of Web pages.  
         [0015]     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , there is provided a data processing system that may function as the host Web source site server on which the Web documents or pages used in the present invention are created. Copies of the source Web documents are distributed via the Web. The data processing system may also function as the receiving display terminals on the Web through which the Web documents are presented to requesting users. A central processing unit (CPU)  10 , such as one of the PC microprocessors or workstations, e.g. RISC System/6000™ series available from International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), or Dell PC microprocessors, is provided and interconnected to various other components by system bus  12 . An operating system  41  runs on CPU  10 , provides control and is used to coordinate the function of the various components of  FIG. 1 . Operating system  41  may be one of the commercially available operating systems, such as IBM&#39;s AIX 6000™ operating system or Microsoft&#39;s Windows98™ or WindowsNT™, as well as UNIX and other IBM AIX operating systems. Application programs  40 , controlled by the system, are moved into and out of the main memory Random Access Memory (RAM)  14 . These programs include the programs of the present invention that will be described hereinafter. Conventional Web browsers, at the receiving Web stations, such as Netscape 3.0™ or Microsoft&#39;s Internet Explorer™, operate to access and display the Web documents at the receiving terminal, as will be hereinafter described.  
         [0016]     When the data processing system functions as the Web source site server, then the program routines in applications  40  would be the programs involved in the prioritizing of the embedded hyperlinks in Web documents being created. A Read Only Memory (ROM)  16  is connected to CPU  10  via bus  12  and includes the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) that controls the basic computer functions. RAM  14 , I/O adapter  18  and communications adapter  34  are also interconnected to system bus  12 . I/O adapter  18  may be a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) adapter that communicates with the disk storage device  20 . Communications adapter  34  interconnects bus  12  with an outside Internet or Web network. I/O devices are also connected to system bus  12  via user interface adapter  22  and display adapter  36 . Keyboard  24  and mouse  26  are all interconnected to bus  12  through user interface adapter  22 . It is through such input devices that the host creating Web pages may interactively relate to the programs for prioritizing the hyperlinks embedded in the Web document according to the present invention. Display adapter  36  includes a frame buffer  39  that is a storage device that holds a representation of each pixel on the display screen  38 . Images may be stored in frame buffer  39  for display on monitor  38  through various components, such as a digital to analog converter (not shown) and the like. By using the aforementioned I/O devices, a user is capable of inputting information to the system through the keyboard  24  or mouse  26  and receiving output information from the system via display  38 .  
         [0017]     Before going further into the details of specific embodiments, it will be helpful to understand from a more general perspective the various elements and methods that may be related to the present invention. Since a major aspect of the present invention is directed to documents, such as Web pages, transmitted over networks, an understanding of networks and their operating principles would be helpful. We will not go into great detail in describing the networks to which the present invention is applicable. Reference has also been made to the applicability of the present invention to a global network such as the Internet or Web. For details on Internet nodes, objects and links, reference is made to the text,  Mastering the Internet , G. H. Cady et al., published by Sybex Inc., Alameda, Calif., 1996.  
         [0018]     The Internet or Web is a global network of a heterogeneous mix of computer technologies and operating systems. Higher level objects are linked to the lower level objects in the hierarchy through a variety of network server computers. These network servers are the key to network distribution, such as the distribution of Web pages and related documentation. In this connection, the term “documents” is used to describe data transmitted over the Web or other networks and is intended to include Web pages with displayable text, graphics and other images. This displayable information may be still, in motion or animated, e.g. animated GIF images.  
         [0019]     Web documents are conventionally implemented in HTML language, which is described in detail in the text entitled  Just Java , van der Linden, 1997, SunSoft Press, particularly at Chapter 7, pp. 249-268, dealing with the handling of Web pages; and also in the above-referenced  Mastering the Internet , particularly at pp. 637-642, on HTML in the formation of Web pages. The images on the Web pages are implemented in a variety of image or graphic files such MPEG, JPEG or GIF files, which are described in the text,  Internet: The Complete Reference, Millennium Edition , Young et al., 1999, Osborne/McGraw-Hill, particularly at pp. 728-730. A generalized diagram of a portion of the Web, which the computer controlled display terminal  57  used for Web page receiving during searching or browsing, is connected as shown in  FIG. 2 . Computer display terminal  57  may be implemented by the computer system set up in  FIG. 1  and connection  58  ( FIG. 2 ) is the network connection shown in  FIG. 1 . For purposes of the present embodiment, computer  57  serves as a Web display station and has received displayed Web page  56 , which contains embedded hyperlinks to other Web pages.  
         [0020]     Reference may be made to the above-mentioned  Mastering the Internet , pp. 136-147, for typical connections between local display stations to the Web via network servers, any of which may be used to implement the system on which this invention is used. The system embodiment of  FIG. 2  has a host-dial connection. Such host-dial connections have been in use for over 30 years through network access servers  53  that are linked  61  to the Web  50 . The Web servers  53 , which also may have the computer structure described with respect to  FIG. 1 , may be maintained by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to the client&#39;s display terminal  57 . The Web server  53  is accessed by the client terminal  57  through a normal dial-up telephone linkage  58  via modem  54 , telephone line  55  and modem  52 . Presently available high speed cable modems, as well as a variety of conventional wireless connections may also be used to access the Web. The HTML file representative of the Web page  56  has been downloaded to display terminal  57  through Web access server  53  via the telephone line linkages from server  53  that may have accessed them from the Internet  50  via linkage  61 . The Web browser program  59  operates within the display terminals  57  to control the communication with the Web access server  53  to thereby download and display the accessed Web pages  56  on terminal  57 .  
         [0021]     The Web documents of the present invention are created at Web source site  69  under the control of the Web site host server system  63 . A detailed illustration of such a site may be found in copending commonly assigned U.S. patent application, WEB SITE MANAGEMENT IN A WORLD WIDE WEB COMMUNICATION NETWORK THROUGH REASSIGNMENT OF THE SERVER COMPUTERS DESIGNATED FOR RESPECTIVE WEB DOCUMENTS BASED UPON USER HIT RATES FOR THE DOCUMENTS, Carroll, Ser. No. 09/506,237, filed Feb. 17, 2000. As will hereinafter be described in greater detail, the Web documents that will be referred to as Web pages are created at the Web site host server system  63  and the source Web pages, shown diagrammatically in outline  65 , are stored in associated storage facility  64 . In this example, the Web site will be one maintained by a business organization for communications and sales to the public over the Web. There are several sources maintained at the site: DB 1 , DB 2  . . . (through) . . . DBn with associated servers maintained at the site. It is at these individual DB sources that the Web pages linked to hyperlinks  67  in the basic Web pages are stored. Accordingly, when the basic or source Web page is created at Web site host  63  the hyperlinks  67  therein have associated priority tags indicating a priority level. Thus, when copies  66  of the Web page are distributed to the Web  60  via connection  62 , the priority tags will remain in association with hyperlinks  67  in transmitted copy  66 . As will hereinafter be detailed with respect to the program description, the host assigns priorities to the embedded links based upon the desired optimization of site operations. For example, in a corporation site, if the pages in DB 1  were related to customer sales; in DB 2  were related to finding telephone numbers of sales and technical people; and in DBn were related to general institutional data on the corporation, then the priorities would be expected to run DB 1 , DB 2 , DBn (highest to lowest.)  
         [0022]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart showing the development of a process according to the present invention for creation of Web pages with prioritized hyperlinks. The programming functions in the process of  FIG. 3  have already been described in general with respect to  FIG. 2 . At a Web source site controlled by a host, provision is available for the creation and distribution of Web pages, step  70 . Provision is made for the conventional embedding of hyperlinks in the pages that may be activated to access linked documents maintained in the several databases at this Web source site, step  71 . Means are provided at the source host server to designate a priority level to each of the embedded hyperlinks in source Web pages being maintained at the source site, step  72 . Each hyperlink may be tagged with an HTML tag representing its priority level, step  73 . Provision is made for the distribution of copies of the source Web pages to stations on the Web requesting such pages. The copies distributed contain such priority tags, step  74 . The Web source site maintains a conventional set of served databases each including Web pages linked to the embedded hyperlinks, step  75 . A source management server system is also provided for receiving Web page requests via activated hyperlinks in the distributed prioritized Web page copies, step  76 . The source site server system is set up to recognize priority levels associated with the activated hyperlinks in step  76 , so as to order the accessing of the linked Web documents based upon such priorities, step  77 .  
         [0023]     In addition, means are provided at the host server of the Web site source for changing the priority levels in the source Web pages stored at the source site, step  78 . With such changes in the priority levels, an implementation is provided at the host server system for recognizing and tracking any such changes in priority levels made in step  78  so that such changes may be applied to Web page requests resulting from hyperlinks in copies of the Source Web pages distributed before changes in the source Web pages have been made, step  79 .  
         [0024]     The running of the process set up in  FIG. 3  and described in connection with  FIG. 2  will now be described with respect to the flowchart of  FIG. 4 . A conventional source Web page is prepared, step  81 , and its hyperlinks are prioritized according to the present invention, step  82 . These source Web pages are stored at the site and copies of the pages are distributed as requested over the Web. Periodic determinations are made as to any changes in the priority levels that the host may have chosen to make to the hyperlinks in the stored source Web pages, e.g. based upon changing business conditions, step  84 . If Yes, then the process is branched back to step  82  where the changes are implemented. If No, then a request from a prioritized hyperlink into a distributed Web page is awaited, step  85 . If Yes, there is such a request, then, step  86 , a further determination is made as to whether there has been an interim change in the priority level of the hyperlink. If Yes, that priority level is updated, step  87 . Next, the request is placed in a appropriate queue and position, step  88 , based upon the priority. Next, step  89 , when the priority point in the queue is reached, the linked Web page is accessed from the appropriate database and transmitted back to the requesting Web station, step  90 . At this point, a determination may conveniently be made as to whether the session is at an end, step  91 . If Yes, the session is exited. If No, the process is branched back to initial step  81 .  
         [0025]     Although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described, it will be understood that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope and intent of the appended claims.