Crowd-source as a backup to asynchronous identification of a type of form and relevant fields in a credential-seeking web page

A computer system for determining web form information in a web page for a web site, the computer system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• memory to store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause at least one of the one or more of the processors to at least:
• discover field and form information for a web page of a web site, the web page accessed over a network by an analysis server;
• create an annotated image of the web page to mark a position for a field of the field and form information, the annotated image created without displaying the web page to a user, the annotated image including the field and form information;
• transmit the annotated image including the field and form information to a crowd-sourcing service;
• accept the field and form information as validated field and form information responsive to a positive result from the crowd-sourcing service, the positive result indicating that the marked position of the field is correct;
• receive corrected field and form information from a human reviewer responsive to a negative result from the crowd-sourcing service, the negative result indicating that the marked position of the field is incorrect;
• send the annotated image with field and form information to a human arbiter responsive to a mixed result from the crowd-sourcing service, and receive either corrected field and form information from the human arbiter responsive to a negative decision from the human arbiter or validated field and form information responsive to a positive decision from the human arbiter, the mixed result indicating that a minority of votes received by the crowd-sourcing service identify the marked position of the field as incorrect;
• send the at least one of the validated or corrected field and form information from the analysis server to a credential manager application;
• instruct the credential manager application to cache the at least one of the validated or corrected field and form information, and the marked position of the field, in a cache memory;
• and
• instruct the credential manager application to insert credentials into a web page based on the at least one of the validated or corrected field and form information stored in the cache memory.

A method for determining web form information in a web page for a web site, the method comprising:

• discovering field and form information for a web page of a web site, the web page accessed over a network by an analysis server;
• creating an annotated image of the web page to mark a position for a field of the field and form information, the annotated image created without displaying the web page to a user, the annotated image including the field and form information;
• transmitting the annotated image with the field and form information to a crowd-sourcing service;
• accepting the field and form information as validated field and form information responsive to a positive result from the crowd-sourcing service, the positive result indicating that the marked position of the field is correct;
• receiving corrected field and form information from a human reviewer responsive to a negative result from the crowd-sourcing service, the negative result indicating that the marked position of the field is incorrect;
• sending the annotated image with the field and form information to a human arbiter responsive to a mixed result from the crowd-sourcing service, and receive either corrected field and form information from the human arbiter responsive to a negative decision from the human arbiter or validated field and form information responsive to a positive decision from the human arbiter, the mixed result indicating that a minority of votes received by the crowd-sourcing service identify the marked position of the field as incorrect;
• sending the at least one of the validated or corrected field and form information from the analysis server to a credential manager application;
• instructing the credential manager application to cache the at least one of the validated or corrected field and form information, and the position of the field, in a cache memory;
• and
• instructing the credential manager application to insert credentials into a web page based on the at least one of the validated or corrected field and form information stored in the cache memory.