System and method for annotation of web pages

Abstract

The invention relates generally shared annotation systems. More particularly, the invention provides a method for automatically navigating a document in a display, the method comprising: receiving an annotation related to the document, the annotation generated by a user at a first client; associating the annotation with a first indication in the document; receiving, from a user at a second client, an input to navigate a first portion of a display at the second client, the input causing the first indication to be displayed in the first portion of the display; and in response to the input, automatically displaying the annotation of the display at the second client.

1 . A method for allowing users of web browsers to annotate a web page, the method comprising:
 displaying with one or more computer processors, a web page comprising content, annotation indicators and annotations, wherein the web page comprises a first display portion and a second display portion;   displaying in the first display portion of the web page the content along with the annotation indications wherein the annotation indicators are embedded directly into a portion of the content to identify the portion of the content associated with the annotation indicators such that the annotation indicators continue to be displayed in association with the selected content when a user varies the size of the web page, adds to the content, or zooms in on portions of the content;   displaying in the second display portion, the annotations;   displaying the web page to a first user;   receiving from the first user an indication of a first selected portion of content and a first annotation, updating the first display portion of the web page to display a first annotation indicator associated with the selected portion of content and updating the second display portion of the web page to display the first annotation;   displaying the web page to a second user while the web page continues to be displayed to the first user;   receiving from the second user an indication of a second selected portion of content and a second annotation, while the web page continues to be displayed to the first user, updating the first display portion of the web page to display a second annotation indicator associated with the selected portion of content and updating the second display portion of the web page to display the second annotation; and   displaying the web page to a third user;   receiving from the third user, an input to navigate to the second annotation in the second display portion, and in response to the input, automatically scrolling the content in the first display portion of the web page displayed to the third user, so as to display the second annotation indicator in the first display portion that is associated with the second annotation.   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising allowing the first user to select and deselect via a web browser, annotations in a first group of annotations to create a first list of preferred annotations. 
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising selectively filtering the annotations based on user input to create a list of preferred annotations. 
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein selectively filtering the annotations is based upon at least one of the group consisting of a list of user friends, individual user selection, ratings from other users, and annotation type. 
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selection of the portion of content comprises selection of a paragraph represented in the web page by a paragraph identifier tag. 
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selection of the portion of content comprises selection of a portion of an image embedded in the web page. 
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein selecting the selection of the portion of the content comprises the selection of an arbitrary string of characters from the content in the web page, and further comprises expanding the location data to include whole words in which characters from at least one of the whole words are included in the selected string of characters. 
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising capturing a paragraph identifier tag for a paragraph within the web page in which the selected portion of content is located. 
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising storing a list of annotations on a server. 
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the list of annotations comprises a list of bookmarks. 
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein selecting an annotation from the list of bookmarks displays, in the first display portion, at least a portion of the content to which the annotation is related and displays at least the selected annotation in the second display portion. 
   
   
       12 . A method for allowing users of web browsers to annotate a web page, the method comprising:
 displaying with one or more computer processors, a web page comprising content, annotation indicators and annotations, wherein the web page comprises a first display portion and a second display portion;   displaying in the first display portion of the web page the content along with the annotation indications wherein the annotation indicators are embedded directly into a portion of the content to identify the portion of the content associated with the annotation indicators such that the annotation indicators continue to be displayed in association with the selected content when a user varies the size of the web page, adds to the content, or zooms in on portions of the content;   displaying in the second display portion, the annotations;   displaying the web page to a first user;   receiving from the first user an indication of a first selected portion of content and a first annotation, updating the first display portion of the web page to display a first annotation indicator associated with the selected portion of content and updating the second display portion of the web page to display the first annotation;   displaying the web page to a second user while the web page continues to be displayed to the first user;   receiving from the second user an indication of a second selected portion of content and a second annotation, while the web page continues to be displayed to the first user, updating the first display portion of the web page to display a second annotation indicator associated with the selected portion of content and updating the second display portion of the web page to display the second annotation; and   displaying the web page to a third user;   receiving from the third user, an input to navigate to the second annotation indicator in the first display portion, and in response to the input, automatically scrolling the annotations in the second display portion of the web page displayed to the third user, so as to display the second annotation in the second display portion that is associated with the second annotation indicator.   
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 12  further comprising allowing the first user to select and deselect via a web browser, annotations in a first group of annotations to create a first list of preferred annotations. 
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising selectively filtering the annotations based on user input to create a list of preferred annotations. 
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein selectively filtering the annotations is based upon at least one of the group consisting of a list of user friends, individual user selection, ratings from other users, and annotation type. 
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the selection of the portion of content comprises selection of a paragraph represented in the web page by a paragraph identifier tag. 
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the selection of the portion of content comprises selection of a portion of an image embedded in the web page. 
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein selecting the selection of the portion of the content comprises the selection of an arbitrary string of characters from the content in the web page, and further comprises expanding the location data to include whole words in which characters from at least one of the whole words are included in the selected string of characters. 
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising capturing a paragraph identifier tag for a paragraph within the web page in which the selected portion of content is located. 
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising a separately stored list of annotations and selecting an annotation from the list displays, in the first display portion, at least a portion of the content to which the annotation is related and displays at least the selected annotation in the second display portion.