Web browser with enhanced history classification

An add-on for a web browser of the kind that is operable to present web pages to a user and to navigate between web pages by following hyperlinks and which has a history generator configured to write a log entry for each visited web page to a history log, each log entry comprising metadata including:

• the visited web page's URL, the visited web page's HTML page title, and a date and time stamp of when the web page was visited,
• wherein the add-on augments the history generator by logging additional metadata for visited web pages, the additional metadata comprising category tags and a confidence score for each category tag, the additional metadata being generated by:
• a web page analyzer configured to analyze a currently visited web page to identify text terms of significance for the currently visited web page;
• and
• a category tag generator configured to select a set of category tags for the currently visited web page from candidate category tags including the text terms of significance found by the web page analyzer and, when the currently visited web page was opened via a hyperlink from another web page, the category tags of the linking web page, wherein the selection is carried out by applying a scoring formula to obtain confidence scores for the candidate category tags and by selecting as category tags those with the highest scores, the scoring formula being configured to
• mimic a user's mental association between a category tag and a web page;
• wherein the add-on further provides the web browser with a user interface via which a user is able to perform a category tag search of the history log in order to locate and open previously visited web pages.

A method of operating a browsing session with a web browser, the web browser being operable to present web pages to a user and to navigate between web pages by following hyperlinks, the method comprising:

• opening a browsing session;
• writing a log entry for each visited web page to a history log, each log entry comprising metadata including:
• the visited web page's URL, the visited web page's HTML page title, and a date and time stamp of when the web page was visited, category tags, and a confidence score for each category tag, the category tags and confidence scores being generated by:
• analyzing the currently visited web page to identify text terms of significance for the currently visited web page;
• and
• selecting a set of category tags for the currently visited web page from candidate category tags including the text terms of significance found by the web page analyzer and, when the currently visited web page was opened via a hyperlink from another web page, the category tags of the linking web page, wherein the selection is carried out by applying a scoring formula to obtain confidence scores for the candidate category tags and by selecting as category tags those with the highest scores, the scoring formula being configured to mimic a user's mental association between a category tag and a web page.