Meta refresh

Abstract: In this article, we study how we can maintain local copies of remote data sources "fresh," when the source data is updated autonomously and independently. In particular, we study the problem of Web crawlers that maintain local copies of remote Web pages for Web search engines. In this context, remote data sources (Websites) do not notify the copies (Web crawlers) of new changes, so we need to periodically poll the sources to maintain the copies up-to-date. Since polling the sources takes significant time and resources, it is very difficult to keep the copies completely up-to-date.This article proposes various refresh policies and studies their effectiveness. We first formalize the notion of "freshness" of copied data by defining two freshness metrics, and we propose a Poisson process as the change model of data sources. Based on this framework, we examine the effectiveness of the proposed refresh policies analytically and experimentally. We show that a Poisson process is a good model to describe the changes of Web pages and we also show that our proposed refresh policies improve the "freshness" of data very significantly. In certain cases, we got orders of magnitude improvement from existing policies.

Abstract: A Web browser running on a client machine typically includes an address field in which a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) may be entered. The URL identifies a particular server (or file) located at a target Web site. If a given URL is entered incorrectly at the Web client, a fuzzy URL detection scheme automatically performs a fuzzy search that returns a list of URLs that most closely match what was originally entered into the browser address field. The user can then select the correct URL from the list and launch the browser to the desired site, or to a directory or file within that site. If the fuzzy search does not reveal a match, the browser may contact a server dedicated to performing a broader fuzzy search. In another alternative, the browser contacts a Web server and the fuzzy search is implemented at the Web server in order to return a particular file.

Abstract: Searches are automatically initiated to intelligently locate resources, particularly World Wide Web sites, within a distributed environment in response to a user specifying text via a user interface element. In a particular embodiment, a Web browser is enhanced to include a browser search capability. The browser includes a text box allowing the user to enter a URL. Depending on the particular browser used in the embodiment, this text box may be called, among other things, a destination field, location field, or URL field. When the user enters a valid URL, the corresponding web site is accessed. If the user enters text that is not a URL, the system may first try to construct a valid URL from the user-entered text. If a valid URL cannot be constructed, the browser then automatically formats a search engine query using the user-entered text and forwards the query to an Internet search engine. The browser chooses a particular search engine by determining the meaning or category of the user-entered text. The search engine locates web pages containing the query terms and either (1) returns a list of the search results or (2) redirects the user's browser to the most relevant web site discovered in the search. The browser may modify a returned web page to highlight search terms used in the query.

Abstract: An intelligent method, apparatus and computer program product are provided for automated refreshing of internet web pages. Page data are stored including a record of page data values for each user selected internet web page. The page data values include at least one refresh interval, a last time refreshed and a last time accessed. A user request for refreshing an internet web page is received and the internet web page is refreshed. Utilizing the refreshed internet web page, checking for changes in the refreshed internet web page is performed. Then scanning the stored page data is performed and for each user selected internet web page, the stored refresh interval is compared with a current refresh time interval. For each user selected internet web page, responsive to the current refresh time interval being greater than the stored refresh time interval, the internet web page is refreshed. A feedback message is sent to the user responsive to refreshing an internet web page and the stored refresh interval is updated.