Categorizing document elements based on display layout

A method comprising:

• accessing a plurality of elements for display in a display area, each of said plurality of elements occupying a position within the display area, and each of the plurality of elements having a height and width associated therewith;
• and
• for at least one of the accessed plurality of elements:
• determining a ratio between a height and a width of the element;
• calculating a threshold distance based at least on the determined ratio, said threshold distance being measured perpendicularly from an edge of the display area;
• determining whether the element is positioned within an area defined by the edge and the threshold distance;
• and
• assigning an element type to the element based on said determining, wherein the assigned element type identifies a region of the display area,
• wherein y represents a ratio of the width to the height, and wherein calculating the threshold distance comprises calculating M to identify sidebar panels, where
• M
• =
• 0.3
• *
• Width
• DISPLAYAREA
• +
• 40
• 20
• *
• y
• +
• 1
• .

One or more computer storage media having computer-executable components, said components comprising:

• an interface component for receiving a plurality of elements for display in a display area, each of said plurality of elements occupying a position within the display area, and each of the plurality of elements having a height and width associated therewith;
• and
• a subdivision component for recursively dividing one or more of the elements received by the interface component into sub-elements having an area less than a defined threshold, said threshold being defined based on a size of the display area;
• and
• a category component for assigning an element type to one or more of the elements received by the interface component and the elements from the subdivision component, wherein the category component:
• determines a ratio between a height and a width of the element;
• calculates a threshold distance based at least on the determined ratio, said threshold distance being measured perpendicularly from an edge of the display area;
• determines whether the element is positioned within an area defined by the edge and the threshold distance;
• and
• assigns the element type to the element based on the determined position,
• wherein the subdivision component recursively divides the elements having more than 250,000 pixels, and wherein the category component further discards elements having a ratio less than 0.01.