Webpage Content Removal at the Visual Rendering Layer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face unwanted content during web browsing, which can be circumvented or retaliated against by content providers, and existing web browsers lack effective methods to block such content without detection.
Innovation Solution
A web browser application implements user-defined content blocking techniques by storing user preferences and preventing visual content display at a visual rendering layer, using area-based paint avoidance to hide content without modifying underlying code, and employing content detection and recognition to update the block list.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If content blocking features are implemented in web browsers, then unwanted content is prevented from displaying, but content providers can detect the blocking and retaliate or circumvent it
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dimensionality change by implementing content blocking at the visual rendering layer rather than at the code level. This creates a new dimension of operation between the webpage code and the final visual display, allowing the browser to prevent unwanted content from rendering without modifying the underlying code that content providers can detect. The blocking occurs in the visualization dimension rather than the code execution dimension.
Solution Approach 2:
The visual rendering layer acts as an intermediary between the webpage code and the final display. This intermediary layer processes the rendering instructions and selectively prevents unwanted visual content from being displayed while leaving the original code intact. The intermediary approach allows blocking functionality without exposing the user's blocking preferences to content providers.
2Reliability
If user preferences are stored to block content, then content blocking becomes persistent and effective, but user privacy may be compromised through tracking
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by storing blocking preferences locally in the browser rather than synchronizing them across devices or uploading to external servers. The preferences are maintained in local storage, ensuring persistence and effectiveness of content blocking while keeping the data confined to the user's device. This local approach prevents privacy loss through tracking while maintaining reliable blocking functionality.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If code modification is used to block content, then blocking is effective, but it modifies the underlying webpage structure and may cause side effects
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the blocking functionality from the code modification process and places it in the visual rendering layer. Instead of modifying the webpage code to remove unwanted content, the system extracts and prevents only the visual rendering of unwanted content while leaving the underlying code structure completely intact. This extraction approach achieves effective blocking without the complexity and side effects of code modification.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes, by a web browsing application, receiving an input identifying unwanted content of a first webpage to be erased from display on a user interface, storing user preference data identifying the unwanted content, identifying, based on the unwanted content, visual content corresponding to the unwanted content, and preventing, at a visual rendering layer of the web browsing application, display of the visual content corresponding to the unwanted content. Preventing display of the visual content includes one of preventing the display of the visual content without modifying, in underlying layers of the web browsing application, code associated with display of the unwanted content, or storing, in one or more of the underlying layers, data instructing the web browsing application to prevent the display of the visual content.