Systematic Process For Creating Large Numbers Of Relevant, Contextual Marginal Comments Based On Existing Discussions Of Quotations And Links

A method for searching a plurality of digital works for comments, comprising the steps of:

• providing a server;
• providing a database in electronic communication with the server;
• quote searching, on a computer, the plurality of digital works for quotes (Q) which are in proximity to a reference to another digital work (L);
• identifying, on a computer, content (BA) in proximity to a quote Q;
• reference searching, on a computer, the another work referenced by L for the corresponding quote Q in order to determine a reference point (R) in the work;
• and
• storing at least one of Q, L, BA and R in the database;
• wherein the step of quote searching comprises searching for some delimiter;
• and
• the step of quote searching comprises searching the plurality of digital works over a network.

A comment display system, comprising:

• a server;
• a comment database;
• a comment display application having a graphical user interface for displaying comments in relation to a web page;
• quote search software executing on a computer readable medium for searching a plurality of web pages for quotes (Q) which are in proximity to a reference to another digital work (L);
• identification software executing on a computer readable medium for identifying content (BA) in proximity to a quote Q;
• reference search software executing on a computer readable medium for searching the another work referenced by L for the corresponding quote Q in order to determine a reference point (R) in the work;
• and
• storage software executing on a computer readable medium for storing at least one of Q, L, BA and R in the comment database;
• wherein the quote search software searches for quotes by searching for a quote character;
• the quote search software searches the plurality of web pages over the Internet;
• and
• the comment display application displays a stored comment BA in reference to a digital work L.

A system for searching a plurality of digital works for comments, comprising:

• a server;
• a database in electronic communication with the server;
• reference search software executing on a computer readable medium for searching the plurality of digital works for references to another digital work (L);
• identification software executing on a computer readable medium for identifying content (A) in proximity to a reference L;
• content parsing software executing on a computer readable medium for parsing content A for identifiable elements (E);
• work parsing software executing on a computer readable medium for parsing referenced work L for identifiable elements (E′);
• comparison software executing on a computer readable medium for comparing elements E and E′ in order to determine a reference point (R) in referenced work L;
• and
• storage software executing on a computer readable medium for storing at least one of A, L, and R in the database;
• wherein the reference search software searches the plurality of digital works over a network.