Web browser which checks availability of hot links

United States Patent [w]

Pivnichny et al.

US005974445A [ii] Patent Number: [45] Date of Patent:

5,974,445 Oct. 26,1999

[54] WEB BROWSER WHICH CHECKS AVAILABILITY OF HOT LINKS

[75] Inventors: John Robert Pivnichny; Arthur Jay Samodovitz, both of Vestal, N.Y.

[73] Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y.

[21] Appl. No.: 08/959,507 [22] Filed: Oct. 28, 1997

[51] Int. CI. G06F 13/00

[52] U.S. CI 709/203

[58] Field of Search 364/DIG. 1 MS File,

364/DIG. 2 MS File; 709/200, 202, 203, 217, 224, 218, 219, 221, 223, 228, 229;

706/10

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

5,727,129 3/1998 Barrett et al 706/10

5,870,559 2/1999 Leshem et al 709/224

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

IBM Patent Application S.N. 08/659,100, filed Jun. 4, 1996, "System And Method For Recording History Of Use of An Information System", R. C. Barrett.

IBM Patent Application S.N. 08/785,912, Filed Jan. 21,
1997, "Pre-Loading Of Web Pages Corresponding To Des-
ignated Links In HTML", M. Bomar et al.
IBM Patent Application S.N. 08/785,913, Filed Jan. 21,
1997, "Deferred Display Of Web Pages Corresponding To
Links Selected By User", M. Allen et al.
IBM Patent Application S.N. 08/656,458, Filed May 31,
1996, "System And Method For Displaying A Graphical
Representation Of An Entity Along With A Related Param-
eter Of The Entity", R. D. Barrett.
Web Techniques, vol. 2, No. 6, Jun., 1997.
Battle of the Web Site Builders, vol. 21, No. 2, Jul., 1996.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol—HTTP/1.1.

Primary Examiner—Robert B. Harrell
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Arthur J. Samodovitz

A web browser checks availability of hot links on a displayed web page. The web browser requests header information from one or more servers for a plurality of hot links on the displayed web page. In response to receipt of the header information for one of the hot links, the web browser indicates on the displayed web page that the one hot link is available. In response to failure to receive the header information for another of the hot links, the web browser indicates on the displayed web page that the other hot link is not available.

35 Claims, 9 Drawing Sheets