Visual summarization of web pages

A computer-implemented process for visually summarizing a web page in a form that when rendered produces a summarization that is smaller in size than the web page, comprising using a computer to perform the following process actions:

• identifying at least one of,
• an image associated with the web page that is exemplary of the page content,
• text associated with the web page that is exemplary of the page content, and
• a logo associated with the web page;
• scaling at least a portion of the web page to a prescribed size matching a desired size of the web page visual summarization to create a background image;
• scaling the image associated with the web page to a prescribed size which is smaller than the size of the background image, whenever an image associated with the web page is identified;
• scaling the logo to fit within a prescribed-sized area while preserving the original aspect ratio of the logo, whenever a logo associated with the web page is identified;
• identifying a prescribed-sized text area of the background image to be used for inserting text associated with the web page, whenever said text is identified;
• inserting a prescribed number of the characters of the text associated with the web page into the text area, whenever text associated with the web page is identified;
• overlaying the scaled logo onto the background image at a prescribed position, whenever a logo associated with the web page is identified;
• and
• overlaying the scaled image onto the background image at a prescribed position, whenever an image associated with the web page is identified.

A web page visual summarization system, comprising:

• a general purpose computing device comprising a display;
• and
• a computer program comprising program modules executable by the computing device, wherein the computing device is directed by the program modules of the computer program to display a visual summarization of a web page on the display comprising,
• a background image depicting at least a part of the web page as it would appear scaled to a prescribed smaller size, and
• a plurality of sectors overlying the background image which are smaller than the background image and which do not extend past the boundaries of the background image, said sectors comprising,
• an image sector depicting an image associated with the web page that is exemplary of the page content,
• a text sector displaying text associated with the web page that is exemplary of the page content, and
• a logo sector displaying a logo associated with the web page.