METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR WEB-SITE-INDEPENDENT PERSONALIZATION FROM MULTIPLE SITES HAVING USER-DETERMINED EXTRACTION FUNCTIONALITY

摘要

A personal Web view is created that includes a plurality of Web clippings. Each Web clipping contains information from a user-selected Web page, which can be essentially any Web page that is accessible on any Web server. In creating the page, the user loads a personalization applet into his browser and retrieves each Web page of interest. The applet then generates an access script for automatically accessing that Web page and the user specifies the attributes of the Web clipping derived from that Web page. These attributes include: a specification of the information to be extracted from that Web page and included in the clipping; an optional refresh rate indicating how often that information is to be updated; a notification scheme indicating what notification action is to be taken if a specified event occurs when the information is refreshed; and a layout of the Web clipping. A specification of the Web view is then stored in a file. When the Web view specification is later replayed, the Web page for each Web clipping is retrieved and the specified information is extracted. The plural Web clippings are then displayed in a browser in accordance with the specified layout. When the Web view is active, the information in each Web clipping for which a refresh rate is specified or set at a default setting, is continuously updated at that rate by retrieving the associated Web page. If the specified event for a Web clipping occurs, then the associated notification action is taken.