Variably controlling access to content
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorsAlma W. Whitten, Joseph K. O'Sullivan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A software module is presented that enables a person to determine the relevance of a document while preventing the person from making a copy of the entire document. In one embodiment, this is accomplished by programmatically controlling which portions of a document will be presented to a user and which portions will not be presented to the user. In one embodiment, the software module is used in conjunction with a search engine to present a document search result.
Claims50
A computer-implemented method for controlling access to a portion of a document, the method comprising:
- receiving a request from a user to access one of a plurality of portions of the document;
- identifying at least one portion of the plurality of portions that has not been accessed by any users;
- accessing usage data that describes how many times other users have accessed other portions of the document;
- and
- determining, based on the identification and based on the usage data, whether to provide access to the requested document portion to the user.
A computer-implemented method for controlling access to a portion of a document, the method comprising:
- receiving a request from a user to access one of a plurality of portions of the document, the requested document portion containing a part of the document that matches a search query;
- identifying at least one portion of the plurality of portions that has not been accessed by any users;
- accessing usage data that describes how many times other users have accessed other portions of the document;
- and determining, based on the identification and based on the usage data, whether to provide access to the requested document portion to the user.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program for performing a method of controlling access to a portion of a document, the method comprising:
- receiving a request from a user to access one of a plurality of portions of the document;
- identifying at least one portion of the plurality of portions that has not been accessed by any users;
- accessing usage data that describes how many times other users have accessed other portions of the document;
- and
- determining, based on the identification and based on the usage data, whether to provide access to the requested document portion to the user.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a computer program for performing a method of controlling access to a portion of a document, the method comprising:
- receiving a request from a user to access one of a plurality of portions of the document, the requested document portion containing a part of the document that matches a search query;
- identifying at least one portion of the plurality of portions that has not been accessed by any users;
- accessing usage data that describes how many times other users have accessed other portions of the document;
- and
- determining, based on the identification and based on the usage data, whether to provide access to the requested document portion to the user.
A computer-implemented method for controlling access to a search result, the method comprising:
- receiving a search query;
- identifying a document that satisfies the search query, wherein the document comprises a plurality of portions;
- identifying at least one portion of the plurality of the portions that has not been accessed by any users;
- receiving a request from a user to access the document;
- accessing usage data that describes how many times other users have accessed other portions of the document;
- and
- for each document portion within the plurality of portions:
- determining whether to provide the user access to the document portion based on the at least one identified unaccessed portion and based on the usage data;
- and
- responsive to determining to provide the user access to the document portion, providing the document portion for display to the user.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.