Patent ID: 7360166

Claim:
A system for selecting content items from web pages, comprising: a user computing device having a network browser application and a user input pointing device; said browser application being operable to display, in a browser window, a source web page having a plurality of displayed content items; said browser application being operable to receive an initial selection of an initial content item in response to input from a user through said pointing device; said browser application analyzing said source web page and defining a group of selectable objects in a hierarchical lineage of said initial content item in said source web page; an excluded object being excluded from said group of selectable objects if a difference in a dimension of said excluded object, as compared to a corresponding dimension of a parent object of said excluded object, is less than a predetermined value; and said browser application being operable to receive an alternate selection of an alternate content item from among content items defined by said group of selectable objects, said alternate selection being in response to input from said user through said pointing device.