Intelligent bookmarks and information management system based on the same

Abstract

An intelligent bookmark is a collection of information, including an address (e.g., a URL) for a document (e.g., web page) or other hyper-media enabled item bundled together with selected other information. The selected other information may be manually or automatically obtained from the document, the browser history leading up to the display of the document, user entered annotations, etc. A collection of intelligent bookmarks may be sorted and searched using the selected other information. Intelligent bookmarks may be exchanged between users, and users may edit the bookmark content or in layers above the bookmark. Users may rate the bookmarks. A complete system provides for creating, storing, accessing, editing, grouping, exchanging, and searching intelligent bookmarks locally and/or remotely via a server.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method for use by a computer system at which bookmarks are stored and accessed through a network, the computer system accessible by a plurality of users, comprising:
 receiving at a computer device over the network, an identifier information of the document, and user supplemented information, wherein the identifier information is automatically extracted from a content portion of the document responsive to selection of at least part of the content portion of the document by a first one of the plurality of users;   storing an image of the content portion of the document in conjunction with the identifier information as an intelligent bookmark, wherein the intelligent bookmark is stored in association with a bookmark list of the first user; and   providing a user interface to allow the community of users to access the intelligent bookmark.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the image is automatically extracted from the content portion of the document responsive to the selection of at least part of the content portion of the document by the first user. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the user supplemented information comprises a filing category for the intelligent bookmark. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 3 , wherein the intelligent bookmark is stored in accordance with the filing category. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the identifier information comprises a URL of the document. 
     
     
         6 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 5 , wherein the identifier information further comprises one or more keywords associated with the document. 
     
     
         7 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising building a user profile of the first user that indicates an area of interest of the first user based on at least in part the identifier information and the user supplemented information. 
     
     
         8 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 7 , further comprising notifying the first user about websites that might be of interest to the first user according to the user profile. 
     
     
         9 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 7 , further comprising sending targeted advertisements to the first user, wherein the targeted advertisements are selected based on at least in part information in the user profile. 
     
     
         10 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the providing a user interface comprises:
 providing an interface to receive rating information for the intelligent bookmark from a second one of the plurality of users; and   providing storage to store the received rating information in association with the intelligent bookmark.   
     
     
         11 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the providing a user interface comprises:
 providing an interface to receive user annotation for the intelligent bookmark from one of the plurality of users; and   providing storage to store the received user annotation in association with the intelligent bookmark.   
     
     
         12 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing a software application to the plurality of users for accessing the database outside of a web browser. 
     
     
         13 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the providing a user interface comprises providing an interface to share the intelligent bookmark by publication. 
     
     
         14 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the providing a user interface comprises:
 providing the user interface to generate a preview of one or more possible bookmarks from the first website; and   providing an interface that allows the first user to select the one or more possible bookmarks from the preview.   
     
     
         15 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the providing an interface comprises providing a user interface that allows the first user to share the first bookmark through e-mail. 
     
     
         16 . A computer-implemented method for use by a computer system at which bookmarks are stored and accessed through a network, the computer system accessible by a plurality of users, comprising:
 receiving over the network, an identifier information of the document, an image of the document, and user supplemented information, wherein the identifier information and the image are automatically extracted from a content portion of the document responsive to selection of content of the document by a first one of the plurality of users;   creating an intelligent bookmark from at least in part the image of the content portion of the document and the identifier information, wherein the intelligent bookmark is associated with a bookmark list of the one of the plurality of users; and   providing an interface to allow the plurality of users to access the intelligent bookmark.   
     
     
         17 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 16 , wherein the user supplemented information comprises a filing category for the intelligent bookmark. 
     
     
         18 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 17 , wherein the intelligent bookmark is stored in accordance with the filing category. 
     
     
         19 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 16 , wherein the identifier information comprises a URL of the document. 
     
     
         20 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 19 , wherein the identifier information further comprises one or more keywords associated with the document. 
     
     
         21 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 16 , further comprising building a user profile of the first user that indicates an area of interest of the first user based on at least in part the identifier information and the user supplemented information. 
     
     
         22 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 21 , further comprising notifying the first user about websites that might be of interest to the first user according to the user profile. 
     
     
         23 . The computer-implemented method of  claim 21 , further comprising sending targeted advertisements to the first user, wherein the targeted advertisements are selected based on at least in part information in the user profile.