The invention relates generally to Web page filtering, and more particularly to a system and method by which end users may selectively filter out sections of Web pages, such as banner ads and/or other material.
A vast amount of information is readily and publicly accessible to users on the Internet, and that collection is growing. Users may access the Internet to retrieve information from a great variety of Web pages, such as news from a news provider, search results from a search engine, product or service information, or other information. As users retrieve a desired Web page, often times other unnecessary information is automatically retrieved and displayed within the borders of that page. Such unwanted information may include advertisements, banners, animated links and other peripheral material. Although many Web site operators rely on the xe2x80x9ceyeballsxe2x80x9d they attract for advertising returns, the unchecked retrieval of advertisements may slow own the browser and hinder the user""s Internet experience. Generally, advertisements are displayed on designated areas of the Web page, such as the top portion or sides of the page. Therefore, it is often easy to predict where advertisements will be positioned with respect to the rest of the Web page content. There may be instances where inappropriate advertisements or other material (e.g., adult themed promotions or unsecured ordering sites) may also be inadvertently retrieved and viewed by an unintended audience, such as young users.
Current browsers offer a limited ability to block the download of all images in a Web page, after which the user must click on each image text tag to display the corresponding portion. It would be desirable to define sections of a Web page where download and display should be avoided, while other portions of the Web page are processed and displayed normally. One application would include blocking ad banners and other unwanted material, while leaving the rest of a Web page intact.
Current browsers thus offer an all or nothing approach to filtering image downloads. It is difficult to define areas of a Web page which should be excluded from display, while all other Web page data is displayed normally. Other filtering tools exist which attempt to specifically filter objects which look like ad banners, based on their text description tag or image size and dimensions. Currently, users do not have the ability to define their own desired filter criteria which can block the download and display of any Web page content (image, text, or other content). Therefore, there is a need for an efficient and effective system and method for selectively filtering out unwanted material on Web pages, including so that the filters associated with the URL are applied each time the Web page is subsequently fetched.
The invention is directed to a system and method for selectively filtering out sections of a Web Page, such as banner ads or inappropriate material, from being downloaded according to a personalized, specific filter to omit certain text portions or areas of Web pages each time that site is revisited. The user may select one or more sections to be omitted by highlighting one or more items and capturing one or more associated text streams. Alternatively, the user may select the one or more sections to be omitted by drawing one or more boundary boxes around each item to be omitted.
Once the undesired portion is identified by the user, a filter script is automatically generated which removes the undesired Web page section. The filter script may be stored in a local file on the user""s machine, or may be located remotely, for instance on an Internet service provider. The filter script may be associated with the URL of the Web page. Whenever the Web page is fetched by the user, any filter script which maps to the URL is automatically executed. Since some Web sites dynamically change a URL via CGI script arguments or load splitting across different servers, the URL associated with a filter script may be a regular expression. Thus, the filter may be applied to any URL which matches a URL pattern string. Actual filtering of the Web pages may be performed by a browser enabled with such abilities, or via a proxy process running on the browser""s host.