Unifying discoverability of a website's services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9443027-B2
Application number	US-201213442667-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 9, 2012
Priority date	Feb 20, 2007
Publication date	Sep 13, 2016
Grant date	Sep 13, 2016

Abstract

Various embodiments provide a unified discovery control that can be incorporated as part of a web browser. The unified discovery control provides a central location that describes various services that a website has to offer. In addition, the unified discovery control can allow the user to interact with the individual services that the website has to offer as by providing the user with the ability to add, update, uninstall and/or otherwise manage the various services that are described in the unified discovery control. Thus, the unified discovery control provides a centralized management system that provides the user with a common, predictable and repeatable user experience for interacting with various services that a website can offer.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving a request to access a website;
prior to rendering the website, parsing markup language of the website to locate two or more service descriptions associated with the website, the two or more service descriptions corresponding to at least two different service types;
identifying, from the two or more service descriptions, two or more services that are offered by the website; and
causing display of a service button to indicate that the website offers the two or more services.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the causing comprises causing display of the service button in a visually distinctive manner to indicate that the website offers the two or more services.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying comprises identifying, from the two or more service descriptions, one or more feeds that are offered by the website.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the causing comprises causing display of a feed service button to indicate that the website offers the one or more feeds.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein the one or more feeds comprise one or more RSS feeds, and wherein the feed service button comprises an RSS feed icon.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a selection of the service button; and
causing display of a user interface that presents the two or more services that are offered by the website.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the user interface includes the two or more services that are offered by the website arranged in one or more service type categories.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein the user interface includes an add button to enable a user to add the two or more services that are offered by the website.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , wherein user interface comprises a hover-exposed, drop down menu that presents the two or more services that are offered by the website.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the acts of receiving, locating, identifying, and causing are performed, at least in part, by a web browser.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the two or more services that are offered by the website includes at least two of: a search service, an extension service, a roaming service, a multimedia download service, a feed service, a file upload service, a link sharing service, a product finding service, an address mapping service, or a discovery of structured data service.

12. A system comprising:
at least a memory and a processor configured to perform operations comprising:
receiving a request to access a website;
prior to rendering the website, parsing markup language of the website to locate two or more service descriptions associated with the website, the two or more services that are offered by the website corresponding to at least two service types; and
causing display of a service button in a web browser user interface to indicate that the website offers the services.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the causing comprises causing display of the service button in a visually distinctive manner to indicate that the website offers the services.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the ascertaining comprises ascertaining one or more RSS feed services that are offered by the website by parsing markup language of the website to locate RSS feed service descriptions of one or more RSS feed services that are offered by the website.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the causing comprises causing display of an RSS feed service icon to indicate that the website offers the one or more RSS feed services.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the memory and the processor are further configured to perform operations comprising:
receiving a selection of the service button; and
causing display of a user interface that presents the services that are offered by the website.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the user interface includes the services that are offered by the website arranged in one or more service type categories.

18. A computing device comprising:
a processor; and
one or more computer-readable storage media having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, implement a unified discovery control that is configured to:
receive a request to access a website;
prior to rendering the website, analyzing the website to locate one or more RSS feed service descriptions associated with the website and one or more service descriptions associated with a different service type;
identify, from the one or more RSS feed service descriptions, one or more RSS feed services that are offered by the website; identify, from the one or more service descriptions associated with the different service type, one or more additional feed services that are offered by the website; and
cause display of a service button in a web browser user interface to indicate that the website offers the one or more RSS feed services and the one or more additional feed services.

19. The computing device of claim 18 , wherein the unified discovery control is configured to analyze the website by parsing markup language of the website to locate the two or more service descriptions associated with the website.

20. The computing device of claim 18 , wherein the unified discovery control is configured to analyze the website by applying a set of heuristics to the website to locate the two or more service descriptions associated with the website.

Assignees

• Kim Jane
• Lyndersay Sean
• Von Koch Walter
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Kim Jane
• Lyndersay Sean
• Von Koch Walter

Classifications

• H04L67/289

  Intermediate processing functionally located close to the data consumer application, e.g. in same machine, in same home or in same sub-network · CPC title

• G06F16/954 Primary

  Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing · CPC title

• H04L67/02

  based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP] · CPC title

• H04L67/28

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/2838

  Electricity · mapped topic