Method and system to selectively secure the display of advertisements on web browsers

A computer program stored on a computer usable medium for modifying a document object model (DOM) tree of an interpreted markup file comprising one or more displayable elements, the computer program comprising instructions for:

• defining a particular displayed area of the interpreted markup file;
• obtaining the DOM tree of the interpreted markup file, the DOM tree comprising at least one parent node and a plurality of child nodes, each node being associated with at least one of the displayable elements;
• identifying in the DOM tree a set of the child nodes whose displayable elements comprise at least a part of the particular displayed area;
• identifying in the DOM tree a first parent node comprising the set of child nodes;
• converting all displayable elements associated with the identified first parent node to a master image;
• generating a second parent node comprising the master image;
• and
• modifying the DOM tree into a modified DOM tree by deleting the identified set of child nodes and by replacing the identified first parent node by the second parent node.

A system for modifying a document object model (DOM) tree of an interpreted markup file comprising one or more displayable elements, the system being configured to:

• define a particular displayed area of the interpreted markup file;
• obtain the DOM tree of the interpreted markup file, the DOM tree comprising at least one parent node and a plurality of child nodes, each node being associated with at least one of the displayable elements;
• identify in the DOM tree a set of the child nodes whose displayable elements comprise at least a part of the particular displayed area;
• identify in the DOM tree a first parent node comprising the set of child nodes;
• convert all displayable elements associated with the identified first parent node to a master image;
• generate a second parent node comprising the master image;
• and
• modify the DOM tree into a modified DOM tree by deleting the identified set of child nodes and by replacing the identified first parent node by the second parent node.