Abstract:
In a dynamic information delivery context, a system collects data regarding transient information accessed by a user. The user can then query the stored data to reconstruct transient information. The system uses heuristics to help reconstruct transient information. The heuristics include user profile, time stamps, metadata, and indexing.

Description:
FIELD OF ME INVENTION 
       [0001]    The invention relates to customizing a user experience of a dynamic information delivery system. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    In dynamic information delivery systems, such as the Internet, users peruse information. Some information may be requested by the user, but other information may be delivered by content providers for purposes of their own. For instance, a website may display an advertisement (ad), catalog item, or news story in the hope that a user will click on it, generating revenues for the provider of the website. A website may dynamically customize the display given to a user, based on a profile, targeting news stories, recommendations, or advertisements. Internet browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, retain histories of what the user has seen, so that the user can retrace her steps in browsing. Some browsers and some websites include search engines, such as Google or Bing, for locating information in the information delivery system. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    The term “transient” is used herein to describe information that is assembled in real time for a user of an information delivery system. The system may take into account various factors that influence what content is to be provided to the user, for example, what ad will be placed. These factors could include: time of day and current events, as well user specific information such as user query, user profile, current user location, and the like. 
         [0004]    An information source or information delivery system will be considered “dynamic” herein if it provides transient information. 
         [0005]    In the course of investigating dynamic information delivery systems, the inventors here have realized that transient information such as advertisements, recommendations, and news stories are difficult to find again after the user has left the particular configuration where that information was presented. Such information may be temporarily retained by browsers in the form of a cache, i.e., disk space where browsers store contents of recently visited pages. Browsers use the cache for performance reasons by avoiding—under certain conditions—retrieving a page from the Internet when a suitable cached version of the page already exists. The browser cache does not capture the context under which a user visited a particular page in the first place, nor does it expose a mechanism for allowing a user to search for specific dynamic information in it. Transient information is not necessarily locatable using search engines, as the information providers may have assembled the information from dynamic sources, where the source information may not be separately searchable or may no longer be easily available because a fee paid period for presenting it has expired or because the information has been updated. 
         [0006]    It is desirable to implement a computer method in which at least one data processing device maintains a record of content presented to a user by at least one dynamic information source. A user information request is received relating to transient information previously presented to the user. Data relating to the transient information is reconstructed responsive to the user information request. The reconstructed data is presented to the user. 
         [0007]    It is further desirable to implement a computer method in which a proxy is run between a user and a network. Responsive to the proxy, content experienced by the user is processed. This includes differentiating according to whether such content is transient or expected to be available at a future time. The transient content is then stored for later retrieval by the user. 
         [0008]    Advantageously a system including at least one user interface, at least one storage apparatus, and at least one data processing device can implement the above methods. 
         [0009]    Further advantageously, a medium can embody computer program code for carrying out the above methods. 
         [0010]    Objects and advantages will become clear in the following descriptions and claims. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0011]    Embodiments will now be described by way of non-limiting example with reference to the following figures: 
           [0012]      FIG. 1  shows an example of a dynamic information delivery system, in particular a laptop connected to a dynamic webpage with multiple sources of information. 
           [0013]      FIG. 2  shows components of a system for retaining transient information. 
           [0014]      FIG. 3  shows a user management module. 
           [0015]      FIG. 4  shows an inferencing engine. 
           [0016]      FIG. 5  shows an information processing module, including timestamp, index, and metadata generation capability. 
           [0017]      FIG. 6  shows a search engine. 
           [0018]      FIG. 7  shows a profile adaptor. 
           [0019]      FIG. 8  shows a data source management module. 
           [0020]      FIG. 9  shows a flow for a user browsing the web 
           [0021]      FIG. 10  shows a flow for a user retrieving an old item. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0022]    In the figures, when a reference numeral is repeated, it is intended to refer to the same item. 
         [0023]      FIG. 1  shows an example of a typical information delivery system. At  101  is a user workstation. In this case, a notebook style computer is illustrated, but this is only an example. Other user devices, such as cell phones, terminals, televisions with set top boxes, or desktop computers, could also be used. This workstation is shown as displaying an Internet web page at  107 . The web page includes various content, such as, a local ad  104 , an external ad  105 , and other current content  106 . Each type of content may be sourced from a respective server  102 , with its own database  103 . This is an example of what is called “mashup paradigm” 
         [0024]    This content may be personalized or customized to a user, based on criteria such as user preferences, time, location, and/or other context, in addition to the resources available to a particular website. The criteria leading to a particular assembled display may become complex. 
         [0025]    As the movement to personalize information displayed to users has evolved, providers seem not to have completely explored the implications of the transient nature of what is assembled; how a user may not have time to click on all information choices provided at the time of display; and how a user may only think later that he or she wished to have accessed some aspect of the display now gone. Upon return to the website, e.g. by hitting a back button on a browser, the user may be frustrated to see that what is displayed only a few seconds later may be missing desired content. 
         [0026]    One example of personalized content might be a print journal that has been converted to a web-based journal. Upon conversion, the journal may decide not to present all stories to all users, but rather to customize which ones are shown to which user. When the journal was in print, it was standardized so that all users saw the same content. Once the journal becomes automated over the Internet, each user may see something slightly different. After the display is over, no one may know what any one user saw. 
         [0027]    Another example of personalized content might be a map based system that recommends merchants, such as restaurants, based on user location, time of day, user profile and information or payment provided by merchants. If any of these factors changes, the recommendations presented a few days later might be totally different, leaving the user unable to relocate a preferred merchant. 
         [0028]    The user might want to make information requests, such as, the free hotel ad I saw yesterday, the restaurant you recommended last weekend in Freeport, Me., the sale on snow blowers last week, the new book review I read last month, or the doctor I looked up last winter. 
         [0029]    It is therefore desirable to create a system adapted to retain or be able to reconstruct transient information. Moreover, it is desirable for the system to be able to respond to requests for such information. 
         [0030]    While these examples are Internet based, there might be other information sources that give rise to similar issues, such as proprietary networks within large organizations. 
         [0031]      FIG. 2  shows an embodiment of an interface system  208  for gathering transient user information and responding to requests for such information. The system includes various modules, e.g. user management  201 ; inference engine  202 ; information processing, including timestamp, index, metadata generation  203 ; search engine  204 ; profile adaptor  205 ; data source management  206 . 
         [0032]    The system will use some type of storage  207 . This storage may be of any suitable type, including magnetic and/or electronic media. Modules may communicate with one another by messaging or they may store data that is read by other modules. More about the interactions of the various elements of the figures will be described below. 
         [0033]    The system  208  here might be resident on a single server or distributed throughout multiple servers, or it might be local to a user workstation. The modules shown are merely examples. The functions embodied in those modules might be integrated into a fewer modules or distributed over more modules or divided into different organizational frameworks. Modules might be implemented in software or hardware. 
         [0034]      FIG. 3  shows a user management module in more detail. This module communicates with the user at  308  on behalf of other modules that it communicates with at  309 . User management may also store some data at  310 . Such data may include, for example, copies of pages or page fragments a user visits during a particular session. At  301 , a user interface module communicates with the user. After the log in information is gathered at  302 , the session is registered with the system at  303 . Optionally, the system can ask the user if the user wants to enter configuration information at  304 . If the user does want to enter such information, parameters may be established at  305 . These parameters might determine what sorts of information the user wants gathered or whether the system is turned on or off. Thereafter, at  306 , the system operates as a proxy server between the user and the web. All user requests for web pages are carried out via  306 , which requests these pages on behalf of the user from the appropriate data sources. Pages requested by  306  on behalf of a user may be stored by the system via  310 , together with additional data such as current user configuration information. When a user requests several web pages from multiple websites during the course of a user session,  307  is responsible for tracking the user across these websites. This is achieved by recording certain information via  310 , such as website information and order in which these websites were visited by the user. 
         [0035]      FIG. 4  shows an inferencing engine. This engine communicates with other modules at  404  and with storage at  405 . User requests are parsed at  401  in order to extract the parts (e.g., keywords) that are relevant to identifying the context for locating requested items. This is similar to parsing the text entered by users to search engines. Extracted request parts are then interpreted at  402  in order to determine what the user is looking for. Once this is done, then  403  is responsible for identifying the context associated with the user request, such as time, location of user, configuration of the user computer, web content, etc. Interfacing with the profile adapter at  406  can help in this. Context information is retrieved from storage at  405  when this information is not cached in memory. 
         [0036]      FIG. 5  shows an information processing module  203 , which also communicates with storage at  511  and with other modules at  512 . Information processing includes two sub-modules, one for gathering information at  501  and one for providing information at  502 . 
         [0037]    In the information gathering module, item properties are received from data source management at  503 . This means that transient content can be identified from currently viewed data. These transient items often will be those identified as not being reproducible on command at  504 . Transient items will be identifiable within a web page by parsing the web page and identifying the various components present in it, e.g., images, videos, ads, etc. For each of the identified components, a decision is made on whether this component can be retrieved from the original web site in the future. There are several alternative approaches to making such decisions. One such approach involves a rules-engine that stores rules related to web sites and content in pages served by this web site. At  505 , such items that cannot be reproduced on demand, e.g., specific ad images, text, etc., will be stored by the system, so that they can later be retrieved responsive to a user request. In parallel, at  506 , items displayed to the user will be time stamped, to facilitate later retrieval that requires access to specific content at a specific time in the past. Various fragments of the items will be indexed at  507  and metadata will be added at  508 . Information created in the branch including boxes  506 - 508  will be stored together with transient items at  505 . 
         [0038]    At  509  and  510 , information generated in box  501  is maintained, for instance in databases, for retrieval by the other modules responsive to user requests. 
         [0039]      FIG. 6  shows more detail of search engine  204 . This module communicates with storage at  607  and other modules at  608 . It receives a search query from the user management module at  601 . It interfaces with the profile adapter to retrieve user profile information at  602 . It interfaces with the inferencing engine to identify context for locating items. It uses timestamp, index, and metadata from the information processing module to identify what is to be retrieved both from system storage or external data sources at  604 . At  605 , data is retrieved from storage and/or from the data source management module. At  606 , combined retrieved data is provided to the user management module to satisfy the search query. 
         [0040]      FIG. 7  shows a profile adaptor module  205 . This module communicates with storage at  710  and with other modules at  711  and includes two sub-modules, a profile provider  701  and a profile maintainer  702 . The profile provider  701  extracts profile information for other modules, such as the search engine at  703 , the information processing engine at  704 , and the data source manager  705 . The extracted information is used for the purpose of identifying the context associated with a specific user request (e.g., show me the free hotel ad I saw yesterday). The information extracted for the data source manager  705  helps identify the web site(s) and content that are relevant to the user request. The profile maintainer  702  receives data from user management at  706 , groups information shown to the user by categories, such as time shown, type, and data source at  707 . This aggregation is independent of who the user is. The data received from user management at  706  corresponds to the content of the web sites visited by the user. These categories may be derived by processing data from user management or by tags included in the data viewed by the user. At  708  these groups are linked to current user context for a specific user. At  709 , it builds a user profile that includes information about user preferences, such as interests in specific topics (e.g., sports, cooking, etc.), product categories (e.g., automobiles, consumer electronics, etc.), events (e.g., concerts, art fairs, etc.). 
         [0041]      FIG. 8  shows a data source management module  206 . This module communicates with storage at  807 , with data sources on behalf of other modules at  808 , and with other modules at  809 . Data source management includes maintaining information relating to data sources at  801 . This includes storing information about format and timing of accesses to databases at  805  and  806 , such as specific protocol to use, e.g., HTTP; and content encoding, e.g., HTML, XML, image format, etc. The data source manager  206  manages access to external data sources for other modules at  802 . There are modules for communicating what is gathered from external data sources such as with the information processing module at  803 , with the search engine at  804 , and with the user management module at  810 . 
         [0042]      FIG. 9  shows a flow relating to a user using the system during browsing. At  901 , user activation of a web browser is detected. At  902 , the user management module is activated responsive to activation of the web browser. The user device communicates automatically with the user management component and registers the user session. The system is now a proxy to the communication between the user device and the web. At  903 , a user-entered URL is detected. At  904 , the user management component receives the URL. At  905 , the data source management system issues the request to the website corresponding to the URL. At  906 , consequently it receives web content that includes fragments of the page as they come from various sources. At  907 , the information processing component time stamps the information fragments, creates appropriate indices, and adds appropriate metadata such as the information source id, the user id, etc. 
         [0043]    At  908 , the information obtained is then transferred to the user and an abbreviated copy is stored in the system&#39;s data storage. At  909 , the system updates a user profile using the profile adaptor component. 
         [0044]      FIG. 10  shows a flow responsive to a user trying to recover data generated in accordance with an earlier session, such as that illustrated in  FIG. 9 . At  1001 , the user management module receives from the user some indication of what data is desired. This indication might take many forms, for instance, the user might specify an exact date and website where he last saw the information, such as: “show me again the Audi A4 ad I saw last Tuesday afternoon”; or the user might specify approximate information, such as: “I remember seeing an article about Google fighting AT&amp;T that had a video but I do not remember where I saw it”. 
         [0045]    At  1002 , the inference engine processes the user description. This will include interaction with the profile adaptor. At  1003 , the search engine assembles a query. In order to do this, it has to interface with the information processing module to retrieve stored timestamp, index, and metadata. The search engine also has to interact data source manager at  1004  before finally assembling a query. This assembly might have diverse implications. For instance, the requested information might be identifiable as something maintained by the information processing module, the requested information might be immediately identifiable as something available through the data source management module, the requested information might not be readily identifiable, so that the inference engine and user profile might be invoked to infer or narrow down the information choices. For example, if the user asks for a book review he read and the profile indicates the user&#39;s taste in books, the system can offer to the user the new book reviews on this subject. The system can retrieve these reviews either by searching its internal store or by going out to the web. 
         [0046]    At  1004 , the data source manager and information processing modules provide responses to the query. Then at  1005  results are presented to the user via the user management module. The user may want to interact with the results at  1006 . For instance, if the system does not know exactly what the user is looking for, several avenues of further inquiry might be presented for user selection. 
         [0047]    From reading the present disclosure, other modifications will be apparent to persons skilled in the art. Such modifications may involve other features which are already known in the design, manufacture and use of browser interfaces and which may be used instead of or in addition to features already described herein. Although claims have been formulated in this application to particular combinations of features, it should be understood that the scope of the disclosure of the present application also includes any novel feature or novel combination of features disclosed herein either explicitly or implicitly or any generalization thereof, whether or not it mitigates any or all of the same technical problems as does the present invention. The applicants hereby give notice that new claims may be formulated to such features during the prosecution of the present application or any further application derived therefrom. 
         [0048]    The word “comprising”, “comprise”, or “comprises” as used herein should not be viewed as excluding additional elements. The singular article “a” or “an” as used herein should not be viewed as excluding a plurality of elements. Unless the word “or” is expressly limited to mean only a single item exclusive from other items in reference to a list of at least two items, then the use of “or” in such a list is to be interpreted as including (a) any single item in the list, (b) all of the items in the list, or (c) any combination of the items in the list. Use of ordinal numbers, such as “first” or “second,” is for distinguishing otherwise identical terminology, and is not intended to imply that operations or steps must occur in any particular order, unless otherwise indicated. 
         [0049]    Where software or algorithms are disclosed, anthropomorphic or thought-like language may be used herein. There is, nevertheless, no intention to claim human thought or manual operations, unless otherwise indicated. All claimed operations are intended to be carried out automatically by hardware or software. Where human activity is intended herein it is generally qualified with the term “user.” 
         [0050]    Where software or hardware is disclosed, it may be drawn with boxes in a drawing. These boxes may in some cases be conceptual. They are not intended to imply that functions described with respect to them could not be distributed to multiple operating entities; nor are they intended to imply that functions could not be combined into one module or entity—unless otherwise indicated.