WO2012000423A1

WO2012000423A1 - Method and system for pushing network information

Info

Publication number: WO2012000423A1
Application number: PCT/CN2011/076486
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mingze Sun; Bin Ren; Zhi Gao
Original assignee: Beijing Sogou Technology Development Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2010-06-29
Filing date: 2011-06-28
Publication date: 2012-01-05
Also published as: CN101882162B; CN101882162A

Abstract

A method is disclosed for pushing information to a user of a computer system. The method includes determining network information interested by the user based on at least one of the user's browsing history of first one or more websites and the user's input related to the user's interest. The method also includes determining network resources to be monitored, and dynamically monitoring the network resources determined to be monitored. Further, the method includes determining updated information from monitored network resources related to the user's interest, and pushing the updated information to the user.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PUSHING NETWORK INFORMATION

C ROSS-REF ERENCES TO RE LATE D APP L I CATIONS

[0001] This application claims the priority of Chinese patent application no. 201010221063.1 , titled "METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PUSHING NETWORK

INFORMATION," filed on June 29, 2010, the entire contents of all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

F I E LD OF TH E I NVE NTION

[0002] The present invention relates to the field of web browser technology and, more particularly, relates to methods and systems for pushing network information. BACKG ROU N D

[0003] With the arrival of the web 2.0 eras, the next generation Internet websites have been transformed from the traditional information publishing platforms to information pushing platforms. From the application point of view, users obtaining information from the websites has been transformed to the websites pushing

information to the users. That is, under the traditional publishing schemes, the users need to access web pages of many websites, to browse the web pages, and to sift through a large amount of complex information in order to search the desired

information. However, with the information pushing platforms, the users only need to accept information from the websites updated regularly without actively sifting or searching the information from the web pages.

[0004] However, the number of existing websites is very large, and some of the websites provide very rich contents (e.g., some portal websites, etc.). Further, a large amount of contents at the websites may be updated within the same time period. Therefore, it may be impractical to provide to the users with all updated contents.

Moreover, even without considering other factors, such as wasteful bandwidth consumption, etc., this type of blindly pushing the information to the users does not take the advantages of the push technology over the publishing scheme.

[0005] The disclosed methods and systems are directed to solve one or more problems set forth above and other problems. B RI E F SU M MARY OF TH E D ISCLOSU RE

[0006] One aspect of the present disclosure includes a method for pushing information to a user of a computer system. The method includes determining network information interested by the user based on at least one of the user's browsing history of first one or more websites and the user's input related to the user's interest. The method also includes determining network resources to be monitored, and dynamically monitoring the network resources determined to be monitored. Further, the method includes determining updated information from monitored network resources related to the user's interest, and pushing the updated information to the user.

[0007] Another aspect of the present disclosure includes a system for pushing information to a user of the system. The system includes an interest identification module, a network resource identification module, and an information pushing module. The interest identification module is configured to determine network information interested by the user based on at least one of the user's browsing history of first one or more websites and the user's input related to the user's interest. The network resource identification module is configured to determine network resources to be monitored. Further, the information pushing module is configured to dynamically monitor the network resources determined to be monitored; to determine updated information from monitored network resources related to the user's interest; and to push the updated information to the user.

[0008] Other aspects of the present disclosure can be understood by those skilled in the art in light of the description, the claims, and the drawings of the present disclosure. B RI EF DESC RI PTION OF TH E D RAWI N GS

[0009] Figure 1 illustrates an exemplary network environment

incorporating certain aspects of the disclosed embodiments;

[0010] Figure 2 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary user computer consistent with the disclosed embodiments;

[001 1] Figure 3 illustrates an exemplary pushing system consistent with the disclosed embodiments;

[0012] Figure 4 illustrates an exemplary web page display consistent with the disclosed embodiments;

[0013] Figure 5 illustrates an exemplary message window panel consistent with the disclosed embodiments;

[0014] Figure 6 illustrates an exemplary pop-up message window consistent with the disclosed embodiments; and

[0015] Figure 7 illustrates an exemplary message window display consistent with the disclosed embodiments.

DETAI LE D DESCRI PTI ON

[0016] Reference will now be made in detail to exemplary embodiments of the invention, which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.

[0017] Fig. 1 illustrates an exemplary network environment incorporating certain aspects of the disclosed embodiments. As shown in Fig. 1 , network

environment 100 may include the Internet 102, a user computer 104, and a server 1 10. Other components may be added and certain devices may be removed without departing from the principles of the disclosed embodiments.

[0018] The Internet 102 may include any private and public computer networks interconnected using the standard transport control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP). Internet 102 may carry a large number of services over IP, such as the interlinked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) over hypertext markup protocol (HTML) and may connect a large number of websites.

[0019] Server 1 10 may include any appropriate computer servers, software, and databases so as to provide various websites and web pages. Further, user computer 104 may include any appropriate types of computers operated by a user or users to access web-based or local web pages. For example, user computer 104 may include a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a tablet, a smart phone, and other types of computing platforms and software programs. Any number of user computers 104 may be connected to the Internet 102. Fig. 2 shows a block diagram of an exemplary user computer 104.

[0020] As shown in Fig. 2, user computer 104 may include a processor 202, a random access memory (RAM) unit 204, a read-only memory (ROM) unit 206, a database 208, a display 210, an input/output interface unit 212, a storage unit 214, and a communication interface 216. Other components may be added and certain devices may be removed without departing from the principles of the disclosed embodiments.

[0021] Processor 202 may include any appropriate type of graphic processing unit (GPU), general-purpose microprocessor, digital signal processor (DSP) or microcontroller, and application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), etc. Processor 202 may execute sequences of computer program instructions to perform various processes associated with user computer 104. The computer program instructions may be loaded into RAM 204 for execution by processor 202 from read-only memory 206.

[0022] Database 208 may include any appropriate commercial or customized database to be used by user computer 104, and may also include query tools and other management software for managing database 208. Display 210 may include any appropriate computer monitor, such as an LCD monitor. Further, input/output interface 212 may be provided for a user or users to input information into user computer 104 or for the user or users to receive information from user computer 104. For example, input/output interface 212 may include any appropriate input device, such as a remote control, a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a video camera or webcam, an electronic tablet, voice communication devices, or any other optical or wireless input devices. Input/output interface 212 may include any appropriate output device, such as a speaker, or any other output devices.

[0023] Storage unit 214 may include any appropriate storage device to store information used by user computer 104, such as a hard disk, a flash disk, an optical disk, a CR-ROM drive, a DVD or other type of mass storage media, or a network storage. Further, communication interface 216 may provide communication

connections such that user computer 104 may be accessed remotely and/or

communicate with other systems through computer networks or other communication networks via various communication protocols, such as TCP/IP, hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP), etc.

[0024] Returning to Fig. 1 , a user of user computer 104 may access Internet 102 to obtain information, such as accessing web pages of various websites from server 1 10 through Internet 102 or from local storages. User computer 104 may implement an information pushing system to push network information to the user based on the user's interests on particular information available over the Internet 102. Updated network information is pushed to the user based on individualized user interests and thus may reduce or avoid disrupting the user with pushed network information not interested by the user. Fig. 3 illustrates an exemplary information pushing system 300 consistent with the disclosed embodiments.

[0025] As shown in Fig. 3, information pushing system 300 may include an interest identification module 601 , an information pushing module 602, and a network resource identification module 603. Other modules may be included and certain modules may be omitted. Information pushing system 300 and individual modules and components may include any appropriate hardware, software (e.g., a browser, etc.), or a combination of hardware and software, and may be implemented on user computer 104.

[0026] Interest identification module 601 may identify the user's interest in the information from certain network resources. The network resources, as used herein, include web pages, video, audio, pictures, text, and flash, etc. Among them, the web page is usually a web page opened in a web browser (IE, etc.), and the contents of a web page may include video, audio, pictures, texts, flash, and other elements. The network resources may also include independently-existed video, audio, pictures, text, and flash, etc., without being associated with any web pages. However, for illustrative purposes, the web pages are used as examples, and the user's interest may be represented by one or more web pages containing information desired by the user. Also, under certain circumstances, web site and web page may be used

interchangeably in this disclosure.

[0027] Interest identification module 601 may include various units to identify any appropriate user interest to be used for pushing the network information interested by the user. For example, interest identification module 601 may include a user browsing history ID unit 6010 and a user input ID unit 6014. User browsing history ID unit 6010 may further include a first interest ID unit 601 1 , a second interest ID unit 6012, and a third interest ID unit 6013. Other units may also be included.

[0028] Information pushing module 602 may monitor certain network resources to determine whether there is any updated information from the network resource. The network resources may be predetermined by the user or by the pushing system 300 or may be determined during runtime. Further, Information pushing module 602 may monitor the certain network resources for updated contents for all users of the pushing system 300, i.e., monitor overall network resources for any updates, or information pushing module 602 may monitor the certain network resources for any updated contents related to a particular user's interest. The network resources having updated contents may include any web pages and/or sub-pages interested by the user. Information pushing module 602 may also push updated contents to the user when the monitored network resources have the updated contents. Information pushing module 602 may include various units to monitor the network resources and to push the updated contents. For example, information pushing module 602 may include a monitoring and pushing unit 6020, which further includes a first pushing unit 6021 , a second pushing unit 6022, a third pushing unit 6023, and a fourth pushing unit 6024. Information pushing module 602 may also include a comparing unit 6025 to compare contents of web pages for determining updated contents. Further, information pushing module 602 may include an information display unit 6026 for display pushed updating information to the user. The information display unit 6026 may further include an icon display unit 6027 and an expanding unit 6028. Other units may also be included.

[0029] Further, network resource identification module 603 may identify network resources to be monitored, which may include a first resource ID unit 6031 , a second resource ID unit 6032, and a third resource ID unit 6033. Other units may also be included.

[0030] The user normally browses web pages through a browser (e.g., IE, etc.), and the web pages browsed by the user may often be the web pages interested by the user. By analyzing the user's browsing history recorded by the browser, the user's interest may be identified. The browsing history, as used herein, may refer to information related to the user's browsing activities through a web browser or other types of browsers. For example, the browsing history may include specific websites visited when browsing web pages, time intervals for browsing the web pages, a total number of browsing operations within a certain time period, a total number of hyperlinks clicked on a web page, and what hyperlinks were clicked, etc.

[0031] Browsing history ID unit 6010 may determine the user's interest in certain network information according to the user's browsing history. The user's interest in the network information may be expressed by keywords. For example, the network information interested by the user may be categorized using keywords such as 'sports', 'entertainment', and 'news', etc., and each category can be further expressed in subcategories. For example, 'sports' category may include 'basketball', 'football', and so on, sub-categories. That is, the network interested by the user can be expressed in a plurality of categories of network information, and one or more keywords may be used to represent a category or a sub-category.

[0032] If the network information interested by a first user is in the entertainment category, the first user's interest can be expressed by the keyword

'entertainment'. If the network information interested by a second user is in the sports category, the second user's interest can be expressed by the keyword 'sports'. Thus, when there is updated network information about entertainment, such information is pushed to the first user and not the second user; and when there is updated network information about sports, such information is pushed to the second user and not the first user.

[0033] More particularly, the first interest ID unit 601 1 of the browsing history ID unit 6010 may determine the user's interest based on links (e.g., hyperlinks) clicked by the user. The user usually opens a web page by clicking on a link, such as a hyperlink for the web page. The first interest ID unit 601 1 may record the pages displayed corresponding to the links clicked by the user and may also determine the user's interest based on the recorded pages. For example, the first interest ID unit 601 1 may analyze the pages and find certain keywords representing the user's interest. The user's interest may then be determined based on these types of information (e.g., the keywords). Different websites may then be determined as related to the user's interest by the first interest ID unit 601 1.

[0034] Further, a web page may have one or more sub-pages. In actual pages, the user may click on different types of links to access sub-pages of a particular web page. For example, two types of links may be included: a channel sub-page link and a content sub-page link. For home pages and other pages of certain portal websites, the purpose is to integrate a large amount of data resources and network resources onto an information management platform and to present these resources on the home page in the form of various links to sub-pages.

[0035] When a user enters the portal website on a home page of the portal website, the user can obtain desired information by clicking on the links on the home page. Therefore, the portal website normally keeps rich contents. To facilitate organizing the contents on the portal website and browsing the contents by the user, the contents were classified when the portal site was created. For example, the contents may be separated into 'news', 'entertainment', 'sports', 'finance', 'military', 'public interest', and many other categories, and these categories are called the channels of the web page (or specific topics corresponding to certain categories of contents), such as a news channel, an entertainment channel, and a sports channel, etc.

[0036] Each channel can be represented by a link on the home page of the portal site. These links usually use the channel name as the link text, and clicking on a link of a channel can enter the web page associated with the link. In general, the web page associated with the channel link is referred as a channel sub-page (or a specific-topic sub-page), and the channel link is referred as a link of the channel sub- page. For example, as shown in Fig. 4, within the text box 21 , links named 'f/rKI(News)', '1_H!(World cup)', and '-p^(military)', etc., are links of the channel sub-pages of the home page.

[0037] Assuming that the home page is a home page of Sohu.com, whose URL is www.sohu.com, when the user clicks on 'llTl¾l(News)', the user can enter the news channel sub-page of the current web page (the home page), whose URL is www.news.sohu.com, and usually the name of sub-page may be "Sohu News" and so on. The URL of the sub-page may also indicate that the associated web page is a sub- page of the Sohu.com home page. Therefore, with respect to a link of a channel sub- page, the link text may in fact reflect certain information about the web page associated with the link, such as a certain category or type of information. Thus, the second interest ID unit 6012 may analyze the link text when the user clicks on such links to obtain keywords describing the contents interested by the user.

[0038] For example, the second interest ID unit 6012 may count the number of times a channel sub-page link is clicked by the user on the current web page. When the number of times exceeds a predetermined number, the second interest ID unit 6012 may determine that the contents interested by the user are the contents associated with the channel sub-page. For instance, when the user is browsing a web page, the user may click on an entertainment channel sub-page link to enter the entertainment sub-page for a number of times. Because the contents of the

entertainment sub-page are related to the entertainment, the second interest ID unit 6012 may determine that the user is interested in the entertainment and the user's interest can be expressed by the category of 'entertainment'.

[0039] Further, after the user clicks a link to enter a channel sub-page, there may exist further channel sub-page or sub-pages of that channel sub-page.

Based on the browsing activities of the user with respect to these further channel sub- pages, more detailed categories or sub-categories of the user interest may be

determined. For example, after the user enters the sports channel sub-page of the Sohu home page, the user may frequently click into the basketball channel sub-page directly. The second interest ID unit 6012 may determine that the user's interest is 'basketball' under 'sports.' Thus, only when the contents about the basketball are updated, such information is pushed to the user. Similarly, more levels of subcategories may be used. For example, the second interest ID unit 6012 may determine that the user is interested in contents related to NBA basketball under 'basketball', and so on.

[0040] Thus, a home page of a website may include links for channel sub- pages as the entry points to the channel sub-pages. A channel sub-page may still include links for further channel sub-pages, instead of the specific contents of an article. That is, a channel sub-page may also include more channel sub-pages containing information in sub-categories. For example, a sports channel sub-page may also include a basketball channel and a football channel, etc.

[0041] In addition to links associated with the channel sub-pages, a web page or home page may also have content sub-pages, and a link to a content sub-page is referred as the link of the content sub-page or the content sub-page link. That is, the user can enter the content sub-pages by clicking on these content sub-page links. The difference between a content sub-page and a channel sub-page is that the contents of the content sub-page are often the article text, while the channel sub-page may be formed by multiple links. Thus, the link text of the content sub-page link is usually the title or abstract of the article. For example, as shown in Fig. 4, a text box 25 shows a text "ϋ^βπ^^ίΙ ¾l/rSS&(State Department experts put new ideas to change account)," which is a content sub-page link. Such link text may not have distinct categories of information, but can also be analyzed from the title or the text of the contents to determine the user's interest.

[0042] More particularly, a set of keywords may be pre-configured for each of certain information categories. When analyzing the link text, words or phrases of the link text are first extracted. The extracted words or phrases are then compared with the keywords to determine whether certain keywords are contained in the words or phrases. If a pre-configured keyword is contained in or similar to the extracted words or phrases, the link text may be determined to be in the information category expressed by the matching keyword by the first interest ID unit 601 1 or second interest ID unit 6012. [0043] For example, a sub-page link text reads "Elva Stanley Huang to do endorsements." The link text is separated into the words or phrases 'Elva', 'Stanley Huang,' and 'endorsement', etc., and these words are keywords expressing the entertainment information category. Another sub-page link text reads "the mystery behind the three major daily-trading-limit stocks" and contains the keyword "daily- trading-limit stocks," which expresses the financial information category. Thus, the links clicked on by the user may be put into different information categories, and the total number of links clicked in each category may be counted to determine the user's interest. For example, if the statistics of user browsing activities indicate that the links clicked by the user include 20 sports links, 500 entertainment links, and 10 financial links, etc. It may be determined that the user's interest is the entertainment category.

[0044] Further, to improve the accuracy of such determination, the time spent by the user staying on each of web pages pointed by the links can also be recorded. If the user stays for a short amount of time after entering into a web page by clicking on a corresponding link, it may indicate that the user is probably not interested in the contents of that web page, or might have entered the web page by mistaking. Such links may be excluded from the links for determining the user's interest.

[0045] In addition, the user's browsing activities may also be analyzed to determine web pages that were most-frequently visited by the user within a most-recent time period. These most-frequently visited web pages may also be determined as the user's interest.

[0046] Certain web pages may have particular structures or contain particular contents, and the user's interest may be determined based on the browsing activity related to the particular structures and/or particular contents. For example, the user's interest may also be determined based on links clicked on by the user inside a particular region of a particular web page.

[0047] As previously mentioned above, some web pages may have channel sub-pages, each channel sub-page corresponding to a category of network information. In practice, some pages may also have multiple categories of network information, but may adopt a web page structure not in the form of channel sub-pages. Instead, such a web page may include separate or divided regions and each region may display a category of network information. Thus, each region is a different category block.

[0048] For example, if a web page contains network information from four categories 'sports', 'entertainment', 'news', and 'financial'. The web page may be divided into four regions to display the four categories of network information

respectively. That is, network information of a particular category is display in a particular region of the web page.

[0049] Of course, a web page may have both channel sub-pages and divided regions, which may be used to display certain contents of the channel sub- pages according to particular categories or sub-categories. These regions may be referred as channel regions (a special case of category regions). For example, as shown in Fig. 4, the text within the text box 21 , '§TP5(News)', '1iH#(Worid cup)', and ' ^(entertainment)', etc., is the entrance of each of news channel, world cup channel, and military channel. The text boxes 22, 23, and 24 are the three corresponding channel regions. Text box 22 displays links of certain news in the new channel (the left corner of the text box 22 is the title of the region 'ijTPH(News)'); text box 23 displays links of certain news in the world-cup channel; and text box 24 displays links of certain news in the entertainment channel and/or star channel.

[0050] In such web pages with divided regions, because individual regions correspond to different categories of network information, the user's interest may be determined based on the user's browsing activities with respect to the regions. For example, the third interest ID unit 6013 may analyze the HTML code of a web page to obtain information about the regions of the web page, including the category information associated with the regions. When recording the user's browsing history, the third interest ID unit 6013 also records which region a particular link clicked by the user belongs to. Further, the third interest ID unit 6013 may count the total number of links clicked by the user in each of the regions to determine the user's interest.

[0051 ] For example, if the user clicked 100 times on the links within the first region, clicked 10 times on the links within the second region, and clicked twice on links within the third region, the third interest ID unit 6013 may determine that the user is interested in the contents in the first region. A corresponding relationship between the divided regions and the categories of network information may be established in advance. Further, based on the relationship between the regions and the categories of the network information, the particular category corresponding to the most visited region may be determined as the user's interest. For instance, if the first region corresponding to the sports category, the third interest ID unit 6013 may determine that the user's interest is the sport category of the network information. Or if a total number of links clicked by the user within a particular region exceeds a predetermined threshold, the third interest ID unit 6013 may determine that the user's interest is the particular region and the corresponding category of network information. Because this method only needs to record which region the user clicks the link and the correspondence between the regions and the information categories, the third interest ID unit 6013 may determine the user's interest without analyzing the link text of links clicked by the user, which may lead to less operation steps and substantially higher efficiency.

[0052] When recording the region in which the user clicks the link, i.e., the corresponding relationship between the links clicked by the user and the regions, the third interest ID unit 6013 may first record link text of all links of individual regions when analyzing the HTML code of the web page to determine the region information. When the user clicks on a link in the web page, the link text of the link is matched with the prerecorded link text of all links from all regions. If a match is found for a particular link text, the region can be determined. Of course, other methods may also be used. For example, coordinates of the individual regions may be determined in advance. When the user clicks a link, the third interest ID unit 6013 may obtain the coordinates of the link being clicked, and may further determine which region the clicked link belongs to by comparing the coordinates of the clicked link and the coordinates of the individual regions.

[0053] After the user's interest is determined based on the user's browsing history, contents of the network resources interested by the user may be dynamically monitored by information pushing module 602 to determine whether any update is made to the monitored contents of the network resources interested by the user. When such update is made, the updated contents may be pushed to the user by information pushing module 602. [0054] Alternatively or additionally, the network resources to be dynamically monitored may be determined unrelated to the user's interest. The network resources to be monitored may be the same for multiple or all users. The information pushing module 602 may determine any update is made to the overall network resources for any updates. If there are updates, information pushing module 602 may then determine whether any update is within the user's interest. When there are updated contents interested by the user, the updated contents may then be pushed to the user by information pushing module 602.

[0055] As previously explained, when the contents interested by the user are used to express the user's interest, a set of keywords are determined for a particular user. The set of keywords may also be used to monitor the relevant web pages, if the web pages to be monitored is determined based on the user's interest, and to determine whether to push updated network information to the user. For example, all contents of the relevant web pages may be monitored by the first pushing unit 6021. When new contents are updated from these relevant web pages, the first pushing unit 6021 may determine whether the updated contents are interested by the user or are related to the contents interested by the user. If the updated contents are related to the contents interested by the user, the first pushing unit 6021 pushes the updated contents to the user. If the updated contents are not related to the contents interested by the user, the first pushing unit 6021 does not push the updated contents to the user. It should be noted that, when pushing the updated contents to the user, various methods may be used. For example, the user may be prompted with a particular web page that was analyzed as a web page potentially interested by the user, and the user may be asked whether the user is interested in the particular web page. If the user confirms the interest, any updated contents from this particular web page may be informed to the user. Alternatively, the contents potentially interested by the user may be informed to the user directly.

[0056] When a new link is found on a monitored web page, the link text may be obtained and analyzed by using the set of keywords. For example, if the link text reads "guess the fate of the summer movie," the keyword 'movie' from the link text may be used to determine that the link may be in the entertainment category. At this point, if the user is interested in the 'entertainment' category of network information, the updated information about this link may be pushed to the user. That is, the relevant web pages are monitored dynamically, and when there is any update on the contents interested by the user, the updated contents are pushed to the user. On the other hand, if the user's interest is not 'entertainment', the updated information about this link is not pushed to the user.

[0057] Further, if the web page to be monitored includes sub-pages, the contents of the sub-pages interested by the user may also be monitored dynamically by the second pushing unit 6022. When there is any update on the contents interested by the user from the sub-pages, the updated contents are pushed to the user by the second pushing unit 6022. The sub-pages may include channel sub-pages and/or content sub-pages. For example, if the user is interested in the contents in the

'entertainment' category, when monitoring a particular web page, the second pushing unit 6022 may monitor the 'entertainment' channel sub-page of the particular web page. If there are any updated contents from the 'entertainment' channel sub-page, the second pushing unit 6022 pushes the updated contents to the user.

[0058] When monitoring the sub-page(s) of the relevant web page, the URL and its pattern information (pattern series, including URL of the channel sub-page, etc.) of the relevant web page can be obtained in advance and stored in a database. The URL of a particular channel sub-page may then be retrieved dynamically to monitor the particular channel sub-page. For example, if the user's interest is still

'entertainment', the URL of an entertainment channel sub-page, such as

www.yule.sohu.com, may be retrieved from the database and the entertainment channel sub-page can then be monitored dynamically. When the contents of this sub- page are updated, the updated contents may be pushed to the user.

[0059] It should be noted that the URL of the web page to be monitored and the pattern information may be updated along with updates to the contents of the web page or sub-pages. In addition, the web page to be monitored may be different from the web page for determining the interest of the user. That is, it may be possible to use all web pages browsed by the user to obtain the user's browsing history, to determine the contents interested by the user, and to use the user's interest to identify web pages to be monitored. For example, if first one or more websites are used to obtain the user's interest, second one or more websites may be monitored, and the second one or more websites may be different from the first one or more websites. Further, respective browsing histories of individual web pages may be separately obtained to determine the user's interest in contents of individual web pages. When monitoring the relevant web pages, updated contents of the individual web pages are pushed to the user separately. For example, if it is determined that the user is interested in the entertainment category of contents in the Sohu home page and is also interested in the sports category of contents in the Sohu home page, the Sohu home page is monitored for both categories. If any entertainment contents are updated, the updated entertainment information is pushed to the user; and if any sports contents are updated, the updated sports information is also pushed to the user.

[0060] Alternatively or optionally, based on the user's browsing history, after recording the number of links clicked by the user in divided regions on a web page, the number of the clicked links in individual regions can be used to determine the user's interest in a particular region on the web page. For example, if the user clicked 100 times on the links within the first region, clicked 10 times on the links within the second region, and clicked twice on links within the third region, the third interest ID unit 6013 may determine that the user is interested in the contents in the first region. That is, the user's interest is the first region of the web page.

[0061] Of course, other methods may also be used to determine the user's interest in a particular region or regions. For example, when the number of links clicked by the user in any particular region exceeds a predetermined threshold or the frequency of links being clicked by the user exceeds a predetermined threshold, the third interest ID unit 6013 may determine that the particular region is interested by the user. For example, when the user is browsing a web page, the user clicks many links in the entertainment region, and the third interest ID unit 6013 may determine that the entertainment region is interested by the user.

[0062] Thus, the web pages for determining the user's interested regions may correspond to the web pages to be monitored. That is, after determining that the user is interested in a region of a web page TV, the web page 'A' is monitored using the region information of the user's interest. More particularly, the particular region(s) of a particular web page that is interested by the user is monitored dynamically by the third pushing unit 6023. When the third pushing unit 6023 determines that the contents in the particular region(s) are updated, the updated information is pushed to the user by the third pushing unit 6023.

[0063] For example, when the third interest ID unit 6013 determines that the user is interested in the first region on the Sohu home page, the Sohu home page is monitored by the third pushing unit 6023. For the user, only contents of the first region are monitored. If the third pushing unit 6023 determines that the contents in the first region are updated, the updated information is pushed to the user by the third pushing unit 6023. Of course, if the user is interested in multiple regions on the same web page, the multiple regions may be monitored simultaneously by the third pushing unit 6023.

[0064] Thus, only particular regions of particular web pages that are interested by the user need to be recorded. The contents of the particular regions are monitored, and any updates to the contents of the particular regions can be pushed to the user without determining the categories of network information of the particular regions. When the contents of the particular regions are updated, the updated

information can be pushed to the user without further analysis. The entire process may thus be simplified. In addition, this updated information pushing method may avoid certain disruptions to the user from advertisements to a certain degree. Because the advertisement information often appears in certain fixed region or regions of a web page, if the user rarely clicks the fixed region or regions, any updates to the contents of the fixed region or regions (e.g., new advertisements) are not pushed to the user. Thus, the user would not get too many useless advertisement updates.

[0065] Alternatively or additionally, certain regions of certain web pages are monitored for all users and determined unrelated to the user's interest. The divided regions of the web pages are monitored dynamically to determine whether any update is made to the region or regions of the web pages. If there is any update, information pushing module 602 may then determine whether any update is within the region or regions of the user's interest. When there are updated contents in regions interested by the user, the updated contents may then be pushed to the user by information pushing module 602.

[0066] In addition to determine the user's interest based on the user's browsing history, the user's interest can also be determined based on information entered by the user. For example, the pushing system 300 provides an interface for the user to input certain key information. The user enters key information, such as the categories of the network information or just certain network information interested by the user, etc., and the user inputted information is then be used to determine the user's interest. More specifically, user input ID unit 6014 may determine the user's interest in certain network information according to the user's input (e.g., key information).

[0067] The key information may include any appropriate type of information. For example, the key information may include keywords inputted by the user, such as 'entertainment', 'sports', and 'finance', etc. If the keyword entered by the user is 'entertainment', the user input ID unit 6014 can record this keyword and may determine that the user's interest includes "entertainment" category of network information, or any information containing the word "entertainment".

[0068] After the user's interest is determined by the inputted keywords, the information pushing module 602 or the fourth pushing unit 6024 may monitor relevant websites or web pages based on the keywords. When monitoring the relevant web pages, if the fourth pushing unit 6024 determines that there are updates on the contents related to the entertainment category on the monitored web pages or containing a keyword, the updated information is pushed to the user by the fourth pushing unit 6024. For example, if the keyword entered by the user is 'Yao Ming', any updates on the contents contains "Yao Ming" is pushed to the user by the fourth pushing unit 6024.

[0069] Although keywords are also used in the above examples of user entered interest information, it may be different from the keywords-based approaches based on the user's browsing history as previously described. As previously explained, the first interest ID unit 601 1 or second interest ID unit 6012 may automatically obtain the user's interest expressed in keywords and such keywords are not entered by the user. Thus, when contents updated are related to the keywords representing the user's interest (e.g., categories of information), the updated contents can be pushed to the user by the first pushing unit 6021 or second pushing unit 6022. For example, if the user's interest is expressed as 'entertainment', and the link text of a newly added link is "Hollywood fashion street shoot Weekly," this updated information can be pushed to the user, even though the link text does not contain the keyword "entertainment." However, in the case of the user entering key information via the user input ID unit 6014, the user may explicitly indicate the user's interest by the entered keywords, and may also indicate that only when the fourth pushing unit 6024 determines that the updated contents contain the key information (e.g., keywords), the updated contents would be pushed to the user by the fourth pushing unit 6024. Of course, the user may also indicate that the updated contents in one or more categories related to the explicitly entered key word would be pushed to the user even if the contents do not contain the key word.

[0070] It should be noted that, in this disclosure, a user may have multiple points of interest, and the user's multiple points of interest may be stored in the database in the form of a list or table. Other methods to determine the user's points of interest may also be used.

[0071] Further, the web pages to be monitored may include all web pages on the Internet. To improve personalized pushing of updated information, only certain identified web pages may be used as the web pages to be monitored for all users, or certain different web pages to be monitored are identified for different users. These web pages to be monitored may be identified by the users manually or by the pushing system 300 automatically using network resource identification module 603.

[0072] More particularly, the network resource identification module 603 (e.g., a browser client) may provide a new menu bar similar to the "Favorites" bar (i.e., a menu item for managing addresses of the user's favorite websites). For example, the new menu bar may be named as the "Dynamic Favorites" (i.e., a runtime configurable menu item for managing addresses of network resources being monitored) and buttons such as "Add", etc., can be added on to the new "Dynamic Favorites" bar. Alternatively, the existing "Favorites" menu bar can be used without adding the new menu bar. For example, certain new identifiers may be added to the existing "Favorites" bar to indicate which of the website addresses included in the "Favorites" bar need to be dynamically monitored; which of the websites are common websites; which of the websites need personalized pushing of the updated contents; and which of the websites need pushing of the updated contents without personalization, etc. It is understood that the names used for various menu items or other browser-based applications or user interfaces (e.g., "favorites", "dynamic favorites", and message window, etc.) are for illustrative purposes, other names may be used to refer to the same items without departing from the principles of the disclosed embodiments.

[0073] When the user manually adds the web pages to be monitored, the user may click on the "Add" button to add the web pages of interest (e.g., the Sohu home page, etc.) to the "Dynamic Favorites" to be monitored. The information pushing module 602 may then monitor the added web pages of interest. When new updates in the contents of these web pages happen, the updated information is pushed to the user. Or the overall network resources may be monitored for updates, and those updates related to these web pages may be pushed to the user.

[0074] When the network resource identification module 603 or the first resource ID unit 6031 (e.g., a browser client) automatically add the web pages to be monitored, the browser (e.g., the network resource identification module 603)

automatically adds web pages frequently getting the user's attention to the "Dynamic Favorites" to be monitored and also monitors these added web pages dynamically. Further, when adding the web pages automatically, the actual browsing activities of the user may also be considered, otherwise the user's normal browsing may be interfered without such personalized adjustment. More particularly, based on the configuration of the browser set by the user or the information recorded by the browser, personalized network resource information of the user can be obtained. The personalized network resources may be identified as the web pages to be monitored.

[0075] Alternatively, a semi-automatic approach may be used to determine the web pages to be monitored by the network resource identification module 603 or the second resource ID unit 6032. For example, the user may be prompted to add personalized web pages to the "Dynamic Favorites." If a web page to be added to the "Dynamic Favorites" is confirmed by the user, the confirmed web page is actually added to the "Dynamic Favorites" by the second resource ID unit 6032. [0076] The personalized network resources may include any appropriate Internet resources, such as the network resources collected by the user or the network resources most frequently visited by the user. For example, a browser often provide the "Favorites" containing a list of website addresses collected by the user and the "Most Frequently Visited" (i.e., a menu item for managing addresses of web pages most frequently visited by the user) containing a list of web pages most frequently visited by the user, etc. In general, the list of website addresses in the "Favorites" are manually added by the user, so that the user can click one of the website addresses to enter the corresponding web page without entering the web page address in the address bar. On the other hand, the list of website addresses in the "Most Frequently Visited" are calculated by the browser based on the number of visits to web pages by the user. That is, the web pages with largest numbers of visits by the user. The user may be prompted with the web sites or web pages on the "Most Frequently Visited" list, and may be asked whether the user is interested in these web sites or web pages. If the user confirms the interest in any or all of these web sites or web pages, any update from web sites or web pages interested by the user may be pushed to the user. Alternatively, the updates may be pushed to the user directly without prompting to the user or being confirmed by the user.

[0077] Thus, the web pages in the "Favorites" and the "Most Frequently Visited" can be automatically identified as the web pages to be monitored. Of course, the browser can also prompt the user to add the web pages in the "Favorites" and the "Most Frequently Visited" to the "Dynamic Favorites". If a web page to be added is confirmed by the user, the confirmed web page is actually added to the "Dynamic Favorites."

[0078] It should be noted that, with respect to the web pages manually added by the user, or the web pages in the "Favorites" and the "Most Frequently

Visited", it may also be feasible that only certain web pages of those web pages are monitored dynamically. For example, for those web pages with complex organizations and levels and frequent updates, the contents of those web pages are relatively complicated, and personalized prompting may be used during the dynamic monitoring process to avoid pushing too much useless information to the user. [0079] The pushing system 300 may also keep a list template in the database in advance. The list template may be manually configured to include certain web pages that can be or need to be monitored dynamically, such as the Sohu home page and the Sina home page, etc. The list template may then be used to determine the specific pages to be monitored by the network resource identification module 603 or the third resource ID unit 6033.

[0080] For example, in the case where the user manually adds web pages to be monitored, when the third resource ID unit 6033 receives a request from the user to add a web page to be monitored (e.g., adding the web page to the "Dynamic

Favorites"), the third resource ID unit 6033 may first determine whether the web page is on the pre-configured list template. If the web page is on the pre-configured list template, the third resource ID unit 6033 adds the web page to the "Dynamic Favorites". Otherwise, the request may be rejected.

[0081] Further, in the case where the browser automatically adds web pages to be monitored, the third resource ID unit 6033 may also first determine whether each of the web pages in the "Favorites" and the "Most Frequently Visited" is on the pre- configured list template. If a web page is on the pre-configured list template, the third resource ID unit 6033 adds the web page to the "Dynamic Favorites". Alternatively, the network resource identification module 603 may prompt the user with any web page determined as being on the pre-configured list template. The web page is then added to "Dynamic Favorites" after the user confirms the web page.

[0082] The relevant web pages or particular regions of the web pages may be dynamically monitored using various methods using the information pushing module 602. For example, to dynamically monitor a web page, information pushing module 602 may obtain two snapshots of the contents of the web page within the monitor period. The information pushing module 602 may further compare the two snapshots of the contents. If there is a change between the two snapshots, information pushing module 602 may determine that an update happens between the two snapshots, and the update is the difference between the two snapshots of the contents. Of course, certain threshold(s) may be used to determine whether the change is sufficient enough to determine the existence of the update. [0083] More particularly, information pushing module 602 may determine an updating period to obtain a snapshot of the contents periodically for every such updating period, or may obtain a snapshot when the user triggers such operation. The updating period may be configured by the information pushing module 602 or the user for all web pages to be monitored. For example, information pushing module 602 may check the web pages to be monitored every 60 minutes. Other periods such as those longer than 60 minutes or even real-time monitoring can also be used.

[0084] Further, information pushing module 602 may configure different updating periods for different web pages to be monitored based on the individual characteristics of the web pages. Information pushing module 602 may also establish a corresponding relationship between the URL of a web page to be monitored and the updating period for the web page.

[0085] When comparing the two snapshots of the contents, information pushing module 602 or comparing unit 6025 of the information pushing module 602 may compare the two snapshots based on the HTML source code of the web page being monitored. If the HTML source code changes between the two snapshots of the contents, information pushing module 602 may determine that the contents of the web page changed. For example, if the web page being monitored includes a plurality of links and a different link appears in a later snapshot of the contents, the different link is considered as an updated link (i.e., updated contents) of the web page. Of course, HTML source code may have various types and properties and, thus, various means may be used to compare the contents based on the HTML source code. For example, links may be extracted from the HTML source code and compared, or text contents of the document object model or other similar models may be extracted from the HTML source code and compared. For instance, the HTML source code may be downloaded over the network, and the document object model may be generated from the downloaded HTML source code. Certain nodes may then be selected from the document object model based on a pre-defined template, and the text contents from the certain nodes may then be extracted and compared. Any appropriate methods for performing comparison based on the HTML source code may be used, as long as such methods can determine changes or updates from the relevant web pages. [0086] In addition, to monitor a sub-page, information pushing module 602 may first obtain the URL of the sub-page, and then may treat the sub-page in the same way as a web page mentioned above. To monitor a particular region of a web page to be monitored, because the regional information of the web page is obtained in advance and the titles of the regions usually do not change, information pushing module 602 may take snapshots of the contents of a region within the monitoring period based on the title of the region. Updates may be determined based on whether the HTML source code of the region is changed between the two snapshots. Other methods may also be used. For example, when obtaining regional information of the web page to be monitored, the coordinate information of the region or regions to be monitored is also obtained. The information pushing module 602 may then compare snapshots of the contents of the region based on the coordinate information (i.e., the snapshots are taken for certain coordinates).

[0087] Thus, when the contents are compared, the contents of the entire web page may be compared or the contents of a selected region or regions of the web page may be compared, or the content of a particular element or elements of the web page may be compared. Any appropriate comparison method may be used. When the contents of a selected region or regions are compared, any information outside the selected region or regions may be considered as non-essential contents of the web page and not being interested by the user, such as advertisement, etc. Comparison based on particular regions and elements is one type of comparing methods extracting using specific contents from the web page. After obtaining the particular regions from the network resources, the contents of the particular regions are obtained and such contents are the specific contents of the network resources. Similarly, the particular elements can be obtained and the contents of the particular elements are also obtained and such contents are also the specific contents of the network resources. Further, the particular elements can be any single element of a network resource or a collection of elements of the network resources. The collection of elements may be spread across the network resources or may be concentrated in one or several network resources. In addition, the particular regions can be any single region or multiple regions. When a single particular region contains only one element, this particular region may be equivalent to a particular element. On the other hand, if the particular elements are on a single network resource and have a collection of elements in a particular area, the particular elements are equivalent to a particular region.

[0088] The updated information may be pushed to the user using various means. A particular pushing means may be configured by the browser automatically or by the user manually and information display unit 6026 may display the pushed information to the user accordingly. For example, the updated contents may be marked on the web page. More specifically, when the web page currently visited by the user is being updated, the newly updated contents (e.g., new links) may be displayed on the web page in a highlighted format. If the user is browsing the web page having updated contents, the updated contents may be displayed in bold font or other highlighted format.

[0089] For example, when there is new link in the sports region of the Sohu home page, the new link is displayed in bold text. Alternatively, a prompt may be displayed on "Dynamic Favorites" menu bar (e.g., with text such as "such web page has an update" or the new link is displayed directly and the user can click the new link to view the web page pointed by the new link). If the web page having updated

information to be pushed to the user is contained in the "Favorites" bar and/or "Most Frequently Visited" bar, the prompt may be displayed on the "Favorites" bar and/or "Most Frequently Visited" bar. At the same time, the link text of the link corresponding to a website in these menu bars may also be displayed in bold font. In addition, the prompt may also be displayed on the address bar, etc. When multiple prompts are displayed, the prompts may be displayed on the status bar with rolling text, or a separate "Update Express Window" may be provided to display all update information. Further, the multiple prompts may be displayed on the address bar in a "revolving door" format. Other methods may also be used.

[0090] Further, pushing the update information may be performed in different forms based on a combination of different attributes. These attributes may include shape, position, content, and effect, etc. The shape attribute may include one or more of a dialog box, a bubble, and a label; the position attribute may include one or more of a menu bar, a side bar, an address bar, a history bar, the "Most Frequently Visited" bar, the "Most Recently Visited" bar, the "Favorites" bar, the current page, and a blank page; the content attribute may include one or more of a title, an address, a brief description of the content, update time, and page invalid; and the effect attribute may include one or more of voice, text with different colors, highlighting, and flashing. Other attributes may also be included.

[0091] For example, when there is updated information to be pushed, pushing system 300 may pop up a dialog box at any position. The prompt information in the dialog box may be a simple text prompt, such as "such website has been updated". The prompt information in the dialog box may also be complex text prompt such as the brief description of the updated contents and other related information, or may be a text prompt with a corresponding voice prompt.

[0092] Also for example, when the user opens the menu bar, sidebar, or other bars, or set an option from the browser options, if there is updated information to be pushed, information pushing module 602 may display part or all of the updated contents using a bubble. The text inside the bubble can be displayed in different colors, highlighted, or flashing, or combined with a voice prompt, etc.

[0093] Also for example, when the user opens the browser's lists of browsing history records, the most frequently visited records, or the most recently visited records, if there is updated information to be pushed, pushing system 300 may display a prompt on the corresponding URL in these records using a bubble. The prompt in the bubble may include part or all of the updated contents or may be a simple text prompt. The new link in the corresponding list may be displayed in a different color, highlighted, or flashing to facilitate the user to check the new link.

[0094] Further, when the user clicks the drop-down list of the address bar, if there is updated information to be pushed to the user, information pushing module 602 may display a prompt on the corresponding URL from the drop-down list using a label. Similarly, when the user opens a page in the browser, if the page is a page to be monitored dynamically and there is a change on the page, the information pushing module 602 may display a prompt using a dialog box, a bubble, or a label, etc.

[0095] It is understood that the above examples are not exhaustive, those skilled in the art can make other forms of updated information pushing means using different combinations of the attributes without departing from the principles of the disclosed embodiments. Any appropriate form for prompting the user with the updated information on part or all websites or web pages may be used. For example, information pushing module 602 may display a prompt on an opened but currently blocked or invisible web page or window on the changes to the web page, or display a prompt directly in the front visible area to the user. That is, the pushing of updated information may be performed within the boundary of the browser or within the boundary of the terminal display via one or more of a dialog box, a bubble, a label, and voice, etc. Also, the pushing forms may include sending the updated information to the user's mobile terminal by using certain communication software (e.g., a third-party tool such as E-mail or instant messaging (IM), etc.). The user can then receive updated information alert even when the user is not sitting in front of the display screen of a desktop computer, etc.

[0096] In addition, when a plurality of updating items or updating messages need to be pushed to the user, a pushing form called "message window" may be used. More particularly, a "message window" icon may be displayed on the status bar or toolbar by icon display unit 6027. After the user clicks on the "message window" icon, a message window panel may be popped up by expanding unit 6028 and the updated information or updating messages is displayed on the message window panel. Fig. 5 illustrates an exemplary message window panel consistent with the disclosed embodiments.

[0097] As shown in Fig. 5, an icon 31 is displayed on status bar, and a message window panel 32 is displayed just above the status bar when the icon 31 is clicked by the user. The icon 31 may also include a number (e.g., 10) to indicate a total number of updating messages available. When the number of updating messages increases or decreases, the actual number of updating message is displayed inside the icon 31. Further, the icon 31 may also flash when the information is updating so as to provide a dynamic effect. Further, message window panel 32 may include a drop-down button, the user can click the drop-down button to configure related settings, such as emptying the current list, or keeping the message window panel 32 always visible from the front end window display, etc. [0098] Because a web page may have multiple updating messages to be pushed to the user, and a multiple websites may have updating messages to be pushed to the user simultaneously. Message window panel 32 may be organized based on these updating messages. For example, the message window panel 32 may be divided into multiple modules, each module being used to display updating messages from a corresponding website. That is, updating messages from the same websites are organized independently and separately to be displayed to the user, and each module can display the name of the web page containing updated information, links

corresponding to the updated information, and/or brief descriptions of the updated contents, etc. For example, the message window panel 32 includes three modules to respectively display updated information from websites "cnbeta.com", "§πΊ¾Ί-ί J¾(Sina home page)", and "sil¾f^(Douban Movie)". Of course, more modules may be provided by using scrolling bar to display updated information from more websites.

[0099] In each module, a certain number of links to the updated contents are displayed and the certain number may be configurable. For example, a default number of '4' links to the updated contents of a corresponding website are displayed. When the number of links to the updated contents from a website is larger than '4', a "iSlfli^view more. . . )" link may be provided. All links are then expanded when the user clicks on the "view more . . ." link. Further, the total number of links or updating messages may be shown following the name of the module. Further, the links or updating messages may be displayed in a time sequence (e.g., from the latest to the oldest). For example, as shown in Fig. 5, the "§πΊ¾Ί-ί J¾(Sina home page)" module includes "ttii¾ rlRiB(Du Lala's promotion)", "¾j¾H-¾^2ifilll^(Alice in Wonderland)," and "^ ^ ttif^Echoes of the Rainbow)." Because more than 4 updating items are provided, only the first three are displayed and a "iSlflL^view more. . . )" link is provided at the end.

[00100] Because the area of the message window panel 32 is limited, the amount of text displayed may be limited so as to display sufficient information to the user. For example, each module may set an upper limit of '14' words for the name of the website, an upper limit of '20' words for an updated content, etc. For the content with word-count beyond the upper limit, ellipses or other symbols may be used. [00101 ] After the user clicks on a website (the title/name of the website in a module), the title of the website is marked as being in a having-read state (for example, changing the font from bold to normal, or changing background color, etc.). Further, when the user opens the message window panel 32 for a second time, the module corresponding to the website the user clicked is no longer displayed. Alternatively, the module remains until all updated messages in the module have been read. Similarly, after the user clicks on an updating message, the updating message is marked as being in a having-read (e.g., changing background color, etc.). The total number shown following the title of the website is also decreased by one. Further, when the user opens the message window panel 32 for a second time, the updating message previously clicked by the user is no longer displayed.

[00102] In addition, when the message window panel is used for pushing updated information to the user, the user can also configure an automatic pop-up mode for a particular website. That is, when the particular website has updated information that is related to the user's interest, a message window is popped up to display the updated information directly without waiting for the user to click on the icon. Fig. 6 illustrates an exemplary pop-up message window. As shown in Fig. 6, when the user configures the automatic pop-up mode for the website "sili ¾f^(Douban Movie)", when there are updated contents on the Douban Movie home page, the updated contents are displayed in a pop-up message window automatically.

[00103] Further, if the user inputs keywords to express the user's interest, when the updated information is automatically displayed in the message window, the keywords may also be displayed at the same time such that the user can understand which interest the updated information is related to. Fig. 7 illustrates an exemplary message window display. As shown in Fig. 7, the user inputs the keywords "tt}_i}_i(Du Lala)" as an interest. When the message window displays the updated information related to "Du Lala" from the Douban Movie home page, the title of the message window also include "(Keywords: Du Lala)" to indicate that the updated information is related to the keywords "Du Lala". The related updated information or contents may include such keywords in page title of a web page, or may include such keywords in the web page contents, etc. The message window may thus show links to such web page or pages.

[00104] The disclosed systems and methods may provide many advantageous browser and other software/hardware applications in a variety of network or client environments, such as in personal computer equipment and the like, mobile phones, mobile communication devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and other electronic equipment. For example, updated web page contents may be pushed to the user using existing browsers or other servers, without the need for special software support or the need for the websites to support special output formats. Thus, it may be more convenient to push updated information to the user. Further, when pushing the updated information, the disclosed systems and methods can automatically obtain different interests from different users and automatically realize personalized updated information pushing for different users. Therefore, while reducing the operation cost, the effectiveness of pushing the updated information is improved, and the utilization rate for pushing the updated information is increased. Other advantages and applications may be obvious to those skilled in the art.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A method for pushing information to a user of a computer system, comprising: determining network information interested by the user based on at least one of the user's browsing history of first one or more websites and the user's input related to the user's interest; determining network resources to be monitored; dynamically monitoring the network resources determined to be monitored; determining updated information from monitored network resources related to the user's interest; and pushing the updated information to the user.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein: determining the network information interested by the user, expressed in a plurality of categories of network information, based on the user's browsing history includes at least one of: analyzing link text of links clicked by the user to determine the network information interested by the user, and analyzing links clicked by the user in divided regions of the first one or more websites.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein: the network information interested by the user is determined by one or more particular regions of the first one or more websites based on the user's browsing history associated with the one or more particular regions.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein analyzing link text of links includes: pre-configuring a set of keywords related to the user's interest; extracting a plurality of words from the link text; comparing the extracted words with the set of keywords to determine whether the extracted words contains any keyword from the set of keywords; and determining that the links are interested by the user when the extracted words contains any keyword from the set of keywords.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein analyzing link text of links includes: determining a category of the network information corresponding to the keyword contained in the extracted words; and determining that the category of the network information is interested by the user.

6. The method according to claim 2, wherein analyzing links clicked by the user in divided regions includes: establishing a corresponding relationship between the divided regions and the categories of network information; determining that a total number of links clicked by the user within a particular region exceeds a predetermined threshold; and determining that the particular region is interested by the user.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein dynamically monitoring the network resources includes: dynamically monitoring web pages of second one or more websites and sub-pages of the web pages including channel sub-pages and content sub-pages, wherein one web page corresponds to a category of the network information and a sub-page of the one web page corresponds to a sub-category of the network information.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein: the second one or more websites are not the same as the first one or more websites.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein: the user's input includes at least one keyword to indicate a particular interest of the user.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein determining the network information interested by the user based on the user's input further includes: analyzing link text of links with respect to the user inputted keyword; analyzing article text pointed by the links with respect to the user inputted keyword; determining that the links are interested by the user when the link text or the article text contains the user input keyword or fits in an information category related to the keyword.

1 1. The method according to claim 1 , wherein dynamically monitoring the network resources determined to be monitored and determining the updated information further include: taking two snapshots of contents of a web page to be monitored in every updating period; comparing the two snapshots of contents; and when there is a change between the two snapshots, determining that the updated information exists as a difference between the two snapshots.

12. The method according to claim 1 1 , wherein: each of the snapshots is an HTML code of the web page to be monitored.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining network resources to be monitored, and determining the updated information further include: determining the network resources to be monitored according to the network information interested by the user; and determining the updated information from the network resources monitored as the updated information interested by the user.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining network resources to be monitored, and determining the updated information further include: determining the network resources to be monitored as overall network resources unrelated to the network information interested by the user; and determining the updated information interested by the user from updates of the overall network resources.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein pushing the updated information to the user includes: providing a dynamic favorites menu bar; adding web pages having the updated information pushed to the user; and prompting the user of the pushed updated information.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein adding the web pages includes: pre-configuring a list template containing certain web pages to be monitored; comparing the web pages to be added to the dynamic favorites menu bar; and adding the web pages to the dynamic favorites menu bar if the web pages match with the certain web pages to be monitored.

17. The method according to claim 15, wherein prompting further includes: providing an icon box on a status bar; and providing a message window panel containing a plurality of modules each corresponding to a different website having updated information pushed to the user, wherein the message window panel is expanded above the status bar after the status bar is clicked by the user.

18. The method according to claim 1 , wherein pushing the updated information to the user includes: prompting the updated information based on a combination of a plurality of attributes including shape, position, content, and effect, wherein: the shape attribute includes one or more of a dialog box, a bubble, and a label; the position attribute includes one or more of a menu bar, a side bar, an address bar, a history bar, the most frequently visited bar, the most recently visited bar, the favorites bar, the current page, and a blank page; the content attribute includes one or more of a title, an address, and a brief description of the content; and the effect attribute includes one or more of voice, text with different colors, highlighting, and flashing.

19. A system for pushing information to a user of the system, comprising: an interest identification module configured to determine network information interested by the user based on at least one of the user's browsing history of first one or more websites and the user's input related to the user's interest; a network resource identification module configured to determine network resources to be monitored; and an information pushing module configured to: dynamically monitor the network resources determined to be monitored; determine updated information from monitored network resources related to the user's interest; and push the updated information to the user.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein: when the interest identification module is configured to determine the network information interested by the user, expressed in a plurality of categories of network information, based on the user's browsing history, the interest identification module is further configured to: analyze link text of links clicked by the user to determine the network information interested by the user, and analyze links clicked by the user in divided regions of the one or more websites.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein, to analyze link text of links, the

interest identification module is further configured to: pre-configure a set of keywords related to the user's interest; extract a plurality of words from the link text; compare the extracted words with the set of keywords to determine whether the extracted words contains any keyword from the set of keywords; and determine that the link is interested by the user when the extracted words contains any keyword from the set of keywords.

22. The system according to claim 21 , wherein, to analyze link text of links, the

interest identification module is further configured to: determine a category of the network information corresponding to the keyword contained in the extracted words; and determine that the category of the network information is interested by the user.

23. The system according to claim 20, wherein, to analyze links clicked by the user in divided regions, the interest identification module is further configured to: establish a corresponding relationship between the divided regions and the categories of network information; determine that a total number of links clicked by the user within a particular region exceeds a predetermined threshold; and determine that the particular region is interested by the user.

24. The system according to claim 19, wherein, to dynamically monitor the network resources, the information pushing module is configured to: dynamically monitor web pages of second one or more websites and sub-pages of the web pages including channel sub-pages and content sub-pages, wherein one web page corresponds to a category of the network information and a sub-page of the one web page corresponds to a sub-category of the network information.

25. The system according to claim 24, wherein: the second one or more websites are different from the first one or more websites.

26. The system according to claim 19, wherein: the user's input includes at least one keyword to indicate a particular interest of the user.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein, to determine the network information interested by the user based on the user's input, the interest identification module is further configured to: analyze link text of links with respect to the user input keyword; analyze article text pointed by the links with respect to the user input keyword; determine that the links are interested by the user when the link text or the article text contains the user input keyword or fits in an information category related to the keyword.

28. The system according to claim 19, wherein, to dynamically monitor the network resources determined to be monitored and to determine the updated information, the information pushing module is further configured to: take two snapshots of contents of a web page to be monitored in every updating period; compare the two snapshots of contents; and when there is a change between the two snapshots, determine that the updated information exists as a difference between the two snapshots.

29. The system according to claim 28, wherein: each of the snapshots is an HTML code of the web page to be monitored.

30. The system according to claim 19, wherein, to determine network resources to be monitored, and to determine the updated information, the information pushing module is further configured to: determine the network resources to be monitored according to the network information interested by the user; and determine the updated information from the network resources monitored as the updated information interested by the user.

31. The system according to claim 19, wherein, to determine network resources to be monitored, and to determine the updated information, the information pushing module is further configured to: determine the network resources to be monitored as overall network resources unrelated to the network information interested by the user; and determine the updated information interested by the user from updates of the overall network resources.

32. The system according to claim 19, wherein, to push the updated information to the user, the information pushing module is further configured to: provide a dynamic favorites menu bar; add web pages having the updated information pushed to the user; and prompt the user of the pushed updated information.

33. The system according to claim 32, wherein, to add the web pages, the information pushing module is further configured to: pre-configure a list template containing certain web pages to be monitored; compare the web pages to be added to the dynamic favorites menu bar; and add the web pages to the dynamic favorites menu bar if the web pages match with the certain web pages to be monitored.

34. The system according to claim 32, wherein, to prompt the user, the information pushing module is further configured to: provide an icon box on a status bar; and provide a message window panel containing a plurality of modules each

corresponding to a different website having updated information pushed to the user, wherein the message window panel is expanded above the status bar after the status bar is clicked by the user.

35. The system according to claim 19, wherein, to push the updated information to the user, the information pushing module is further configured to: prompt the updated information based on a combination of a plurality of attributes including shape, position, content, and effect, wherein: the shape attribute includes one or more of a dialog box, a bubble, and a label; the position attribute includes one or more of a menu bar, a side bar, an address bar, a history bar, the most frequently visited bar, the most recently visited bar, the favorites bar, the current page, and a blank page; the content attribute includes one or more of a title, an address, and a brief description of the content; and the effect attribute includes one or more of voice, text with different colors, highlighting, and flashing.