System and method for collecting, storing, managing and providing categorized information related to a document object Number:7,386,792 from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) owispatent A method and system for enabling users of a network to create, store, and provide access to relationships between document objects stored on the network. The method may include the steps for allowing a user of the network to create a link relationship between a first document object and a second document object; for storing the link relationship in one or more link directories; and for providing all users of the network access to the link relationships stored in the one or more link directories based upon the document object currently accessed by the users. The system may include one or more client devices that access document objects stored on the network and create link relationships between the first document object and the second document object; and one or more servers that store and filter the link relationships created by the client devices and transmit one or more link relationships and link references to the client devices.<H information, categorized, System, and, meth, 7386792.html, Patent, pto, 7386792

Title: System and method for collecting, storing, managing and providing categorized information related to a document object

Abstract: A method and system for enabling users of a network to create, store, and provide access to relationships between document objects stored on the network. The method may include the steps for allowing a user of the network to create a link relationship between a first document object and a second document object; for storing the link relationship in one or more link directories; and for providing all users of the network access to the link relationships stored in the one or more link directories based upon the document object currently accessed by the users. The system may include one or more client devices that access document objects stored on the network and create link relationships between the first document object and the second document object; and one or more servers that store and filter the link relationships created by the client devices and transmit one or more link relationships and link references to the client devices.

Patent Number: 7,386,792 Issued on 06/10/2008 to Bascom, et al.

Inventors: Bascom; Thomas Layne (McLean, VA), Jones; Tanya (Durwood, MD)
Assignee: Bascom; Thomas Layne (McLean, VA)

Appl. No.: 10/050,515

Filed: January 18, 2002

Related U.S. Patent Documents


Application Number	Filing Date	Patent Number	Issue Date
60282470	Apr., 2001
60273520	Mar., 2001

Current U.S. Class: 715/205

Field of Search: 715/501.1,517,513,500

References Cited [Referenced By]

U.S. Patent Documents


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Primary Examiner: Alam; Shahid
Assistant Examiner: Stevens; Robert
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Andrews Kurth LLP

Parent Case Text

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of, and incorporates by reference, U.S. Provisional Application Nos. 60/273,520 and 60/282,470, filed Mar. 7, 2001 and Apr. 10, 2001 respectively.

Claims

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for enabling users of a network to create, store, and provide access to relationships among document objects stored on the network, the method comprising the steps of: allowing creation of a link relationship between a first document object and a second document object, wherein the link relationship includes fields referencing a first and second document object and the allowing includes: locating the first document object; locating the second document object related to the first document object; and creating a link relationship which references the first document object and the second document object; storing the link relationship in one or more link directories, wherein the storing comprises: storing a link relationship entry in a link relationship table, wherein the link relationship entry comprises fields including a first link reference to the first document object and a second link reference to the second document object; and assigning link relationship attributes to the link relationship entry; accessing one or more link relationships stored in the one or more link directories using a unique identifier for the first document object, wherein the one or more link directories are separate from the first document object; and providing a link reference to a third document object, wherein the link reference provided is determined by identifying those one or more link relationships stored in the one or more link directories that include the unique identifier of the first document object, wherein providing a link reference includes displaying the link reference to a user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the accessing step comprises providing access only to authorized users.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising authorizing users of the network to perform the allowing, storing and accessing steps.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the steps of the method are accomplished by automated procedures not requiring interaction with the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the storing step further comprises: setting a directional indicator for the link relationship entry.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the step of storing the link relationship in one or more link directories further comprises: storing the first link reference to the first document object in a document object table; assigning document object attributes to the first link reference associated with the first document object; storing the second link reference to the second document object in the document object table; and assigning document object attributes to the second link reference associated with the second document object.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein one or more of the link relationship attributes are set; and a directional indicator for the link relationship attribute is set by associating one document object attribute for the first link reference with one document object attribute for the second link reference.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the displayed link reference is related to a document object the user is currently accessing, wherein the link reference displayed to the user is determined by identifying those link relationships stored in the one or more link directories that include a link reference to a network address of the currently accessed document object.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the displaying step comprises displaying more than one link reference from one or more link directories.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the displaying step comprises sorting and presenting one or more link references by the one or more link directories storing the link references.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the displaying step comprises sorting and presenting the one or more link references by attributes of the link relationships and link references.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the method is used on one or more of: a private network, a closed network, a public network, and a private network that is connected to a public network.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more link directories are accessible only by a specific individual user of a client device.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more link directories are stored on a server connected to the network by means of a secure connection.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising assigning attributes to the link relationship established between the first document object and the second document object.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising assigning attributes to a first link reference to the first document object and a second link reference to the second document object.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the link references stored in the one or more link directories is capable of being organized, sorted, searched and filtered by one or more attributes assigned to the link references.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein the link relationship stored in the one or more link directories is capable of being organized, sorted, searched and filtered by one or more attributes assigned to the link relationship.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying one or more link references to document objects on the network, the displaying comprising: selecting the displayed link references for display based on a link relationship to a currently displayed document object; and filtering the displayed link references by attributes.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the link relationship includes a directional indicator.

21. A system for establishing and providing access to relationships between document objects stored on a network, the system comprising: one or more client devices that access document objects stored on the network and allow creation of link relationships between document objects, wherein the link relationship includes fields referencing a first and second document object and the one or more client devices allow creation of link relationships by: locating the first document object; locating the second document object related to the first document object; and creating a link relationship which references the first document object and the second document object; one or more servers that store the link relationships created by the client devices, allow access to one or more stored link relationships using a unique identifier for the first document object and transmit one or more link relationships and link references to one or more user client devices, wherein the one or more stored link relationships are separate from the first document object and the one or more servers comprise: one or more link directories that store the link relationships created on the one or more client devices, wherein the one or more link directories comprise: a link relationship table comprising a plurality of link relationship entries, the link relationship entries comprising: a first field comprising a first link reference to a primary document object of the link relationship; a second field comprising a second link reference to a second document object of the link relationship; and one or more link relationship attributes providing information that places the link relationship in a context useful to the user; a server manager module that coordinates communication between the one or more link directories, a user directory, and the one or more client devices if those client devices are requesting services from the server; and a user data store that stores information regarding authorized users of the servers and link directories; and one or more user client devices that receive one or more link references from the one or more servers and display the one or more link references to one or more users.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more servers filter and sort the link relationships and link references before transmitting the link relationships and link references to the client devices.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein the client devices filter and sort the link relationships and link references after the link relationships and link references are transmitted to the client devices from the one or more servers.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the user data store comprises: a user directory, the user directory comprising one or more user data records containing personal identifying information and information regarding which of the one or more link directories and the one or more servers a user is authorized to access; a user profile store, the user profile store comprising one or more user profile records each containing one or more user profiles for each authorized user of the servers and link directories; and a user account store, the user account store comprising one or more user account records each containing usage data for each authorized user of the servers and link directories.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more client devices comprise: a client tool, wherein the client tool comprises a graphic user interface display; a rendering tool that renders and displays document objects, the rendering tool comprising: a graphic user interface display; and a document object network address; and a network access tool that connects the rendering tool and the client tool to the network.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the document object network address comprises a Uniform Resource Locator.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein the client device further comprises one of: one or more link directories that store the link relationships; a communications module that coordinates communication between the one or more link directories, a user directory, a database of user profile data, and the one or more client devices; and a user data store that stores information regarding authorized users of the client tool.

28. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more link directories further comprise a directional indicator that indicates whether the link relationship between the first link reference to the first document object of the link relationship and the second link reference to the second document object of the link relationship applies in either direction or in both directions.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the directional indicator comprises a plurality of directional indicator fields, each directional indicator field corresponding to one of the one or more link relationship attributes and indicating whether the corresponding link relationship attribute applies in one direction or in both directions between the first link reference to the first document object of the link relationship and the second link reference to the second document object of the link relationship.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein the one or more link directories further comprise: a document object table comprising a plurality of link reference entries, the link reference entries comprising: a network address of the document object on the network indicated by the link reference entry wherein the unique identifier for a document object is the network address of the document object; and one or more document object attributes providing information that places the document object indicated by the link reference entry in a context that is useful to the user.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the network address comprises a Uniform Resource Locator.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the link reference entries further comprise a listing of all link relationship entries in which the network address of the document object indicated by the link reference entry is present in the first field or the second field of the link relationship entries.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the network address comprises a Uniform Resource Locator.

34. The system of claim 28, wherein a network address of the document object on the network includes information necessary to specify the location of the document object on the network.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the network address comprises a Uniform Resource Locator.

36. The system of claim 21, wherein the network is one or more of: a private network, a closed network, a public network, and a private network that is connected to a public network.

37. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more link directories are accessible only by a specific individual user of a client device.

38. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more link directories are stored on a server connected to the network by means of a secure connection.

39. The system of claim 21, wherein the link relationship includes a directional indicator.

40. The system of claim 21 wherein the one or more client devices include one or more user client devices.

41. A computer readable storage medium upon which is embedded instructions for carrying out a method for enabling users of a network to create, store, and provide access to relationships among document objects stored on the network, the method comprising the steps of: allowing creation of a link relationship between a first document object and a second document object, wherein the link relationship includes fields referencing a first and second document object and the allowing includes: locating the first document object; locating the second document object related to the first document object; and creating a link relationship which references the first document object and the second document object; storing the link relationship in one or more link directories, wherein the storing comprises: storing a link relationship entry in a link relationship table, wherein the link relationship entry comprises fields including a first link reference to the first document object and a second link reference to the second document object; and assigning link relationship attributes to the link relationship entry; accessing one or more link relationships stored in the one or more link directories using a unique identifier for the first document object, wherein the one or more link directories are separate from the first document object; and providing a link reference to a third document object, wherein the link reference provided is determined by identifying those one or more link relationships stored in the one or more link directories that include the unique identifier of the first document object, wherein providing a link reference includes displaying the link reference to a user.

42. The computer readable storage medium of claim 41, wherein the accessing step comprises providing access only to authorized users.

43. The computer readable storage medium of claim 41, further comprising authorizing users of the network to perform the allowing, storing and accessing steps.

44. The computer readable storage medium of claim 41, wherein the allowing step comprises: a first user locating a first document object; the first user locating a second document object related to the first document object in some manner determined by the first user; and the first user creating a link relationship which references the first document object and the second document object.

45. The computer readable storage medium of claim 44, wherein one or more of the steps of the method are accomplished by automated procedures not requiring interaction with the user.

46. The computer readable storage medium of claim 44 further comprising: selecting a link reference to a first document object related to a second document object that a second user is currently accessing, by identifying those link relationships, stored in the one or more link directories, that include a link reference to a network address of the second document object the second user is currently accessing; and displaying the selected link reference to the second user.

47. The computer readable storage medium of claim 46, wherein the displaying step comprises displaying more than one link reference from one or more link directories.

48. The computer readable storage medium of claim 46, wherein the displaying step comprises sorting and presenting one or more link references by the one or more link directories storing the link references.

49. The computer readable storage medium of claim 48, wherein the displaying step comprises sorting and presenting the one or more link references by attributes of the link relationships and link references.

50. The computer readable storage medium of claim 41, wherein the storing step further comprises: setting a directional indicator for the link relationship entry.

51. The computer readable storage medium of claim 50, wherein the step of storing the link relationship in one or more link directories further comprises: storing the first link reference to the first document object in a document object table; assigning document object attributes to the first link reference associated with the first document object; storing the second link reference to the second document object in the document object table; and assigning document object attributes to the second link reference associated with the second document object.

52. The computer readable storage medium of claim 51, wherein one or more of the link relationship attributes are set; and a directional indicator for the link relationship attribute is set by associating one document object attribute for the first link reference with one document object attribute for the second link reference.

53. The computer readable storage medium of claim 41, wherein the one or more link directories are accessible only by a specific individual user of a client device.

54. The computer readable storage medium of claim 41 wherein the one or more link directories are stored on a server connected to the network by means of a secure connection.

55. The computer readable storage medium of claim 41 further comprising assigning attributes to the link relationship established between the first document object and the second document object.

56. The computer readable storage medium of claim 55 further comprising assigning attributes to a first link reference to the first document object and a second link reference to the second document object.

57. The computer readable storage medium of claim 56 wherein the link references stored in the one or more link directories is capable of being organized, sorted, searched and filtered by one or more attributes assigned to the link references.

58. The computer readable storage medium of claim 55 wherein the link relationship stored in the one or more link directories is capable of being organized, sorted, searched and filtered by one or more attributes assigned to the link relationships.

59. The computer readable storage medium of claim 41, wherein the link relationship includes a directional indicator.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The technical field is relating documents on computer networks and storing, indexing and presenting those relationships to network users.

BACKGROUND

Networks connecting many computers offer users access to a wide variety of information. Computers are exceptional devices for storing, sorting and relating large amounts of information. Information is stored on computers and networked computing and storage devices as documents or objects, together referred to as document objects. Such document objects may contain any form of information, from text documents and articles, financial data, statistical information, electronic mail, images and photos, music, animation, and even motion pictures.

The Internet, as a network of interconnected networks, offers users access to an even broader collection of information--the Worldwide Web (the "Web"). On the Web, publishers offer information for educational, recreational, and commercial purposes. The Internet, and it's predominant Web form, is organized and accessed by assigning document objects an address, or Uniform Resource Locater ("URL"). These URLs define the transfer protocol for and location of each individual document object on the Internet, or other network, including the Internetworking Protocol ("IP") address of the host computer system of the document object.

Users accessing computer networks and the Internet are generally required to perform their own searches across the networks for the information, stored as document objects, that they desire or need. As the amount of information available on computer networks, and on the Internet in particular, grows exponentially, existing search and information location techniques become increasingly less effective. Existing Internet search techniques often yield too many seemingly related references which are not, in fact, truly useful to the user. The usefulness of traditional Internet search and indexing systems is actually decreasing as the number of documents on the Internet explodes.

Existing search, categorization, and retrieval techniques for document objects stored on computer networks, while generally executed at the high speeds of modern computer systems, are increasingly imprecise and often much too broad, as well as time and labor intensive, owing to the explosion of information being added to those networks.

A need exists to enhance the network user's information browsing experience. A need exists to provide network users with information relevant to the individual document object they are accessing and provide that information in a context of value to them by relating the document object they are accessing to link references to other document objects within a specific context. Such other document objects may or may not be offered by the publisher of the document object currently accessed. A need exists to provide network users with information relevant to the specific information the user may be searching for and relevant to the user's immediate personal, professional, geographic and other interests.

A need exists for entities or groups to be able to communicate information to their employees or members as those employees or members access document objects on a network, and to enable those employees or members to view content deemed important to the entities or groups. A need further exists for publishers of content on the Internet to be able to personalize content presented to Internet users without requiring the establishment of a personal relationship between the user and the content publisher. A need exists to enable the collection of the search experiences of a group of users and share that experience with other users of networked information devices.

SUMMARY

The systems, apparatus and methods of the present invention (hereinafter "Linkspace") incorporate and provide many improvements on existing methods for publishing, distributing, relating and searching document objects on computer networks, including the Internet.

Linkspace operates to provide many beneficial improvements in searching, identifying and publishing information over computer networks.

Linkspace permits a user of a computer network or the Internet to establish relationships between document objects located on the network or the Internet. Those relationships may comprise link relationships and link references and are maintained by Linkspace in one or more link directories. The contents of link directories may be organized, categorized, sorted and filtered in groupings based on various criteria relating to, among other things, user interests and attributes, the types of document objects and the nature of the content of those document objects. Linkspace allows a network user to be presented with a selection of links to document objects related to the document object the user is currently accessing based upon the URL of the current document object, and link relationships created by the user and other users of the network stored in the link directories.

When a network user equipped with Linkspace identifies and locates a first document object on the network that is of interest to her, she may initiate one method of the present invention to mark the location, through its URL, as a start point of a link relationship. When she accesses a second document object on the network that she considers relevant to the first document object, she initiates another step of one method of the invention to mark the second document object as an end point of the link relationship. Upon marking the second document object as the end point, the link relationship is created and stored on a link directory selected to store similar link relationships. When a second network user equipped with Linkspace, and with access to the link directory, accesses the first document object, he is then presented with a link to the second document object as a relevant document object that may be of interest to him. Likewise, if the second network user accesses the second document object, he may then be presented with a link to the first document object as a relevant document object that may be of interest to him.

Linkspace consists primarily of a system and method for creating and publishing link relationships, a system and method for storing and managing link relationships in link directories, and a system and method for presenting a network user with links related by link relationships to the document object the user is currently accessing.

In one respect what is described is a method for enabling users of a network to create, store, and provide access to relationships between document objects stored on the network. The method may include the steps for allowing a user of the network to create a link relationship between a first document object and a second document object; for storing the link relationship in one or more link directories; and for providing all users of the network access to the link relationships stored in the one or more link directories based upon the document object currently accessed by the users.

In another respect what is described is a system for establishing and providing access to relationships between document objects stored on a network wherein the relationship between a first document object and a second document object may be created by an individual user of the network and provided to other users of the network. The system may include one or more client devices that access document objects stored on the network and create link relationships between a first document object and a second document object; and one or more servers that store and filter the link relationships created by the client devices and transmit one or more link relationships and link references to the client devices.

In yet another respect, what is described is a computer readable medium on which is embedded a program. The embedded program comprises modules that execute the above method.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate these and other advantages and benefits of various embodiments of the invention upon reading the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the below-listed drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description will refer to the following drawings, wherein like numerals refer to like elements, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a client device which is Linkspace-enabled and its interaction with other hardware and software;

FIG. 3a is a diagram showing the components of a server which is Linkspace-enabled and its interaction with other hardware and software;

FIG. 3b is a diagram showing more detail of one embodiment of a user data store from FIG. 3a;

FIG. 4a is a diagram illustrating one embodiment of a link directory according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4b is a diagram illustrating another embodiment of a link directory according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the invention implemented on public, private or closed computer networks;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for identifying link relationships between document objects according to one embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for publishing link relationships between document objects according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is one example screen view of a user interface for a relate links dialog box according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 is an example of a screen view for a client user interface according to one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a system 100 for collecting, storing, managing and providing to network users categorized information related to an open document object. A document object may contain any form of information, including text documents and articles, financial data, statistical information, electronic mail, images and photos, music, voice data, animation, and even motion pictures. The system 100 includes a network 10, such as the Internet or other network of interconnected computers or a combination of networks and the Internet; one or more Linkspace-enabled client devices 20; one or more Linkspace-enabled servers 30, one or more first document objects 40; one or more second document objects 50; one or more link references 42 and 52, corresponding to the first document objects 40 and the second document objects 50 respectively; and one or more link relationships 45. The system 100 may also include one or more links 41 and 51 pointing to the first document objects 40 and second document objects 50 respectively. The client devices 20, as well as the server 30, are preferably Linkspace-enabled. The client device 20 may comprise a computer or other digital information device running software enabled by the present invention to create, filter, sort and display the link references 42, 52, and the link relationships 45. The server 30 may comprise a server computer or other digital information device running software enabling the present invention to store, index, search, filter, sort and transmit the link references 42, 52, and the link relationships 45 to client devices 20. The server 30 further comprises one or more link directories 35 for storing and indexing information regarding the link relationships 45 and link references 42 and 52 developed by the client devices 20 with respect to the one or more first documents 40 and second documents 50.

The link reference 42, 52 comprises a pointer to one document object 40, 50 on the network 10 and attributes associated with that document object 40, 50. The link relationship 45 comprises two pointers, one each to the first document object 40 and to the second document object 50, and attributes describing characteristics of the relationship between the two document objects 40, 50 related by the link relationship 45. The pointers included in a link relationship 45 may be comprised of pointers to a link reference 42, 52. The link relationship 45 establishes a meaningful relationship between two document objects 40, 50, whereas the locations of the document objects 40, 50 may be maintained within the Linkspace system 100 by means of the link references 42, 52.

The system 100 shown in FIG. 1 operates to create and store link relationships 45. The system 100 creates and stores link relationships 45 between a first document object 40 and a second document object 50, preferably on one or more servers 30 in one or more link directories 35 in the manner described as follows. The client device 20 is enabled by means of software or other devices to request, access and display document objects on the network 10. When the user of a client device 20 identifies one first document object 40 of interest to her that she wishes to associate with a second document object 50, she utilizes the software running on the Linkspace-enabled client device 20 to create a link relationship 45 between the first document object 40 and the second document object 50. This link relationship 45 is then stored on the server 30 in a link directory 35.

In an alternate embodiment, the system 100 may operate to perform the functions described above, including the creation of link relationships 45 and link references 42, 52, the storing of link relationships 45 and link references 42, 52, and providing access to and retrieval of link relationships 45 and link references 42, 52, by means of automated procedures requiring little or no user interaction.

When a client device 20 later requests and accesses a first document object 40 for which the server 30 has stored an associated link relationship 45 in one or more link directories 35, the server 30 delivers to the client device 20 the link references 42 and the link relationships 45, along with contextual information, or attributes, associated with the link references 42 and the link relationships 45. The client device 20 then displays to the user of the client device 20 the existence of a link relationship 45 between the first document object 40 being accessed by the client device 20 and the second document object 50. This enables the user of the client device 20 to be made aware of the second document object 50, the context of the second document object 50, and the context of the relationship between the second document object 50 and the first document object 40 as that relationship may be of interest to the user of the client device 20 while viewing the first document object 40.

Each link relationship 45 may also operate in the reverse direction. In this manner, when a user of the client device 20 is accessing the second document object 50 for which an associated link relationship 45 is stored in the one or more link directories 35 on the server 30, the server 30 then transmits the link references 42 and the link relationships 45, with contextual information, to the client device 20. This enables display of the availability of the related first document object 40 to the user of the client device 20 with the context of the first document object 40, and within the context of its relationship to the displayed second document object 50.

While the system 100 is generally described as having enabling software resident on the client device 20 and on the server 30, various other software configurations are possible, including having all of the software resident at either the server 30 (making the client device 20 essentially a "dumb terminal") or at the client device 20 (making the client device 20 essentially perform server functions), or various software sharing arrangements. For example, the client device 20 may include the one or more link directories 35, a communications module (described later in reference to FIG. 3a), and a user data store that may maintain information regarding authorized users of the client device 20 (described later in reference to FIGS. 2, 3a, and 3b).

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the components of a Linkspace-enabled client device 20 and its interaction with other software and hardware. The client device 20 preferably includes a rendering tool 210, such as a web page browser like Microsoft.RTM. Internet Explorer, for rendering document objects located on the network 10 and displaying those document objects to users of the client device 20; a client tool 220, for allowing the user of the client device 20 to create and access link relationships 45 between document objects; and a network access tool 240, such as a TCP/IP stack or other interface, for allowing software modules on the client device 20 to connect to and communicate with other devices and document objects on the network 10. The client device 20 operates primarily to create and present link relationships 45 to users.

The rendering tool 210 may store a document object URL address 215 for referring to the document object currently being accessed and rendered by the rendering tool 210. The rendering tool 210 may also include a Graphic User Interface ("GUI") display 218, or other type of display, for displaying the document objects accessed and rendered by the rendering tool 210. In alternate embodiments of the invention, the client device 20 may include more than one rendering tool 210 enabling the user of the client device 20 to access multiple document objects.

The client tool 220 may include a client GUI display 225, or other display software and hardware, for displaying link references 42, 52 and link relationships 45 to the user of the client device 20. Typically, the displayed link references 42, 52 and link relationships 45 would be those link references 42, 52 and link relationships 45 relevant to the document object currently being rendered and displayed by the rendering tool 210 (as determined by the document object URL address 215 in the rendering tool 210). The client tool 220 may also include Linkspace user profile data 230 for storing information about the user of the client device 20, the link directories