System and method to automate the management of hypertext link information in a Web site

摘要

A Web site management system uses a Web-crawler to traverse (i.e., crawl) Web sites on the Internet. The Web-crawler identifies the Web pages accessible from each Web site and uses the hypertext link information embedded in those Web pages to discern relationships between the various Web pages. A change-detection and notification system analyzes the results from the Web-crawler to determine whether a specific hypertext link is erroneous. The change-detection and notification system creates an electronic mail message that includes a description of the actions that may correct the erroneous hypertext link, a recommended action, and an attachment to the electronic mail message that comprises a copy of the Web page after applying the recommended action. If a subscriber registered the author of the Web page that contains the erroneous link with the present invention, the change-detection and notification system sends the electronic mail message to the author. If the author of the Web page is unknown, the change-detection and notification system applies heuristic algorithms and performs a probabilistic analysis to deduce an electronic mail address that will likely contact either the author or a person responsible for managing the Web site that hosts the Web page.