CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] The application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 201310192457.2, filed on May 22, 2013, which is incorporated by reference in its entireties.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

[0002] The present disclosure relates to a method and a system for controllingaddress input. Such address input may or may not include Chinese characters, and the wherein the address input being through anyone of: a terminal browser interface, a voice command interface, a web application or a native application,to name a few.

BACKGROUND

[0003] The majority of mainstream browser systems, such as Internet Explorer (IE) browser system and Google Chrome browser system receive English characters as input to an address bar of a browser. Accordingly, non-English inputs (such as in Chinese characters) would need to be at least phonetically translated into English characters for matching to URL entries based on similar spellings.

[0004] Some browser systems may develop URL entry matching of non-Chinese characters input which is received in the input box of the address bar. However, such browser systems cannot perform direct URL entry matching with the inputted Chinese characters. For example, when Chinese characters are inputted in the input box of the address bar, these browser systems can only develop searching aiming at an exact input match to the correct Chinese characters. In other words, if a user knows only the Chinese name of a certain web page, but does not know or cannot spell in English the exact characters for the correct URL entry, the search result will lead to many irrelevant websites having the incorrectly spelled URL entry. Thus, the current browser system is quite limited in its popularity in terms of searching for URL entries in non-English characters, such as Chinese characters input.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure discloses a method and system for controlling address input. In an aspect of the disclosure, the method includes: receiving an event of characters input to an address input; matching the characters input to one or more pre-stored Uniform Resource Locator (URL) entries, and generating a URL entrywhich comprises the characters input; and in response to the URL entry from among the one or more matched pre-stored URL entries, [0005] Another aspect of the disclosure discloses a system which may include at least a processor operating in conjunction with at least a memory which stores instruction codes operable as plurality of modules, wherein the plurality of modules may include: an input detecting module, which detects an event of characters input to an address input a URL matching module, which matches the characters input to one or more pre-stored Uniform Resource Locator (URL) entries, and generating a URL entry which includes the characters input; and a link control module, which responds to the URL entry from among the one or more matched pre-stored URL, linking the particular matched pre-stored URL entry to a corresponding web page.

[0006] Yet in another embodiment, the disclosure discloses a non-transitory computer- readable medium having stored thereon, a computer program having at least one code section being executable by a mobile terminal which causes the mobile terminal to perform steps for controlling address input. The exemplary steps include: receiving an event of characters input to an address input; matching the characters input to one or more pre-stored Uniform Resource Locator (URL) entries, and generating a URL entry which comprises the characters input; and in response to the URL entry from among the one or more matched pre-stored URL entries, linking a particular matched pre-stored URL entry to a corresponding web page.

[0007] The method implements matching pre-stored URL entries after detecting that there are characters input event (Chinese characters and non-Chinese characters) in the input. A URL entry list is generated (for user's selection or automatic selection by the terminal) according to the matched URL entries, such that the terminal may select and match the pre- stored URL entries and accordingly direct URL website links which match the characters input.

[0008] The implementation of the method and system in the present disclosure, in effect, enables the terminal to both search for matched characters input (Chinese characters and non- Chinese characters) and directly matching the characters input to a URL entry. The implementation of the present disclosure therefore simplifies and speeds up accurate URL websites matching operations when the characters information is being input to the terminal. The characters input may be through a browser interface address bar, a voice command, a web application or through a native application running in the terminal. The same method may be applied to browsers of non-Chinese characters input, using pre-stored URL entries in the respective language characters.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the detailed description and illustrated embodiments described serve to explain the principles defined by the claims and may not be construed in a limited sense.

[0010] Figure 1 is an exemplary functional block diagram of an apparatus or a terminal which performs the method, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0011] Figure 2 discloses in detail a portion of the exemplary functional block diagram which performs input control to an address bar on a browser interface as shown in Figure 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0012] Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method for controlling browser interface address bar input, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0013] Figure 4 illustrates an exemplary method of matching URL entries to Chinese characters input to the input box address bar of the browser interface, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0014] Figure 5 illustrates an exemplary method of matching URL entries to non-Chinese characters input to the address bar input of the browser interface, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

[0015] The various embodiments of the present disclosure are further described in details in combination with attached drawings and embodiments below. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described here are used only to explain the present disclosure, and are not used to limit the present disclosure. In addition, for the sake of keeping description brief and concise, the newly added features, or features that are different from those previously described in each new embodiment will be described in details. Similar features may be referenced back to the prior descriptions. Alternately, features in higher numbered drawings may be referenced to in order to provide further details to the description in the currently described drawing. It should be understood that the embodiments described herein are merely examples to illustrate the present disclosure without limitations to their scope.

[0016] A glossary is provided below to define a general meaning of the terms used in the disclosure:

[0017] Address bar: It refers to an interface control portion of a browser on a terminal. After clicking to open, a URL entry may be inputted to access a certain website

[0018] URL entry: It refers to a combination of data including a URL website and a title corresponding to the URL website. For example, "www.sina.com (Sina)", "www.qq.com (Tencent)", etc. Wherein, "www.sina.com" represents the URL website of "www.sina.com (Sina)", and "Sina" represents the title corresponding to the www.sina.com website; and represents the title corresponding to the www.qq.com website.

[0019] Historical URL entry: It refers to a combination of data including a web page URL website and a corresponding title accessed by inputting certain characters in the address bar and pressing the "Enter" key, or accessed by opening other link on an opened web page. In brief, the combined data includes a historically accessed page URL and a corresponding title.

[0020] URL entry from bookmark or favorites: It refers to the combined data of a URL and its corresponding title saved by a user.

[0021] URL entry of frequently visited websites: It refers to the combined data of some frequently visited website URLs on the Internet and the corresponding titles, such as "www.sina.com (Sina)", "www.qq.com (Tencent)", etc. which have been pre-stored in a browser or downloaded from a server.

[0022] Figure 1 is an exemplary functional block diagram of an apparatus or a terminal (1) which performs the method, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 1, terminal (1) may include at least a processor (10), a memory cell (15), a browser system (13), an input/output (I/O) unit (16) and an input control system for address bar on a browser interface (11), a native application (14) running in the terminal (1) or a voice command interface (12). The terminal (1) may be a smart phone, mobile terminal such as a tablet PC, a computer or any other applicable electronic equipment which may connect to a web server (30) through a network (20).

[0023] In an embodiment, the input/output unit (16) may enable a user to input characters or commands to a browser interface (11) under the control of a browser system (13) (such as a QQ browser system) and output data of the browser system (13) in response to the user's input command.

[0024] The browser interface (11) may include an input box (20) address bar of the browser interface (11) (such as the input box (20) of address bar as shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5). Alternately, the input characters may be generated through a voice command interface (12), a running native application (14), or the input characters may even be generated by a running web application from the web server (30).

[0025] The memory cell (15) may store the codes which execute the browser system (13) and the input control system for address bar on browser interface (11), and their respective operating data. It should be pointed out that the memory cell (15) may be one or more individual memory devices on the terminal (1).

[0026] The processor (10) may be a processing unit, which calls and executes codes to implement the browser system (13) to realize the functions of the browser interface (11), such as input control system for address bar on browser interface (11). which performs input control to an address bar on a browser interface (11) as shown in Figure 1, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0028] More specifically, the input control system for address bar on browser interface (11) may include an input detection module (110), a URL matching module (111) and a link control module (112).

[0029] The input detecting module (110) may detect a character input event in the input box of the address bar on the browser interface (such as the input box (20) of address bar as shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5). In an embodiment, the characters input may include one or both of Chinese characters or non-Chinese characters. It should be pointed out that the input detecting module (110) may be configured to analyze whether the characters inputted in the input box (20) of address bar pertains to Chinese characters or not.

[0030] The URL matching module (111) may match the non-English characters input to one or more pre-stored Uniform Resource Locator (URL) entries, and generating a URL entry list comprising one or more matched pre-stored URL entries which comprises Chinese and non- Chinese characters for user's selection, wherein the non-Chinese characters comprising at least one of: English characters, Korean characters, Japanese characters, Spanish characters, French characters, German characters, Hebrew characters and Arabic characters, to name a few. For the purpose of illustrations, Chinese and English characters may be used in the disclosed examples. It should be pointed out that the detecting module (110) may detect characters input from a combination of different languages.

[0031] The URL matching module (111) may match the pre-stored URL entities for the inputted Chinese characters and generate a URL entity list for user's selection according to the matched URL entities. For example, the method of matching pre-stored URL entities with the inputted Chinese characters may include: the URL matching module (111) matching to different titles, all of which include the inputted Chinese character "¾t "(phonetically pronounced as "XIN"). Such titles may include: (i.e., "Sina"), "§f §fcW" (i.e.,

"Sina Microblog"), "Sina Sports"), etc. As seen, all of the above Chinese titles include the inputted Chinese character " IP? "(phonetically pronounced as "XIN"). Accordingly, the URL matching module (111) may match the pre-stored URL entities corresponding to the matched titles having the inputted Chinese character "¾f " _·

[0032] As shown in Figure 4, after inputting the Chinese character of "iPf" in the input box (20) of address bar, the matched pre-stored URL entities corresponding to the Chinese "www.sina.com.cn" (i.e., sina or "m. weibo.com" (i.e., Sina Microblog or ^f^^ t$), "ent.sina.com.cn" (i.e., Sina Entertainment or "sports, sina.com.cn" (i.e., Sina Sports or ¾f etc.

[0033] The methods of generating a URL entity list according to the matched pre-stored URL entities may vary. Some of the steps may include: setting the matched title corresponding to the pre-stored URL entry being the pre-stored URL entry matching to the non-English characters input, categorizing the pre-stored URL entries into different URL entry priority sets, wherein the URL entry priority sets comprise sets of common web sites URL entries; categorizing a respective priority for each of the pre-stored URL entries; and generating the URL entry list according to a respective priority order of the matched pre- stored URL entry in a high-to-low order according to their priorities. The following exemplary steps may be implemented in the following orders:

[0034] Step A: firstly, setting the matched title corresponding to the pre-stored URL entry being the pre-stored URL entry matching to the non-English characters input. Categorizing URL entry sets of different priorities for the pre-stored URL entries by types. For example, two URL entry sets of different priorities may be set as: a set of historical URL entries of the browser (recorded as "Set 1") and another set of URL entries of bookmark or favorites (recorded as "Set 2"), respectively; wherein, the order of priority for Set 1 and Set 2 may be either Set 1 having a higher priority over Set 2 or vice versa.

[0035] In order to realize the matching of the URL entries of frequently visited or common websites with the characters inputted in the input box (20) of address bar, the pre-stored URL entry sets may include the sets of URL entries of the frequently visited or the common websites. For example, three URL entry sets of different priorities may be set: a set of historical URL entries of the browser (recorded as "Set 1"), a set of URL entries of bookmark or favorites (recorded as "Set 2"), and a set of URL entries of the frequently visited or common websites (recorded as "Set 3"), respectively. The order of priority for Set 1, Set 2 and Set 3 may be categorized as Set 1 having a higher priority over Set 2, or vice versa, and the order of priority for Set 2 and Set 3 may be categorized as Set 2 having a higher priority over Set 3, or vice versa.

[0036] If the pre-stored URL entry sets include the set of historical URL entries, the URL matching module (111) may record and save the URL data inputted and accessed by the user through the input box (20) of address bar.

[0037] Step B: setting or categorizing a respective priority for each of the pre-stored URL entries. For example, the rule for setting priority may be: the priority of URL entry, such as . . ., or title matched to the inputted Chinese character "¾f " or www.si, would have a higher priority than the other URL entries (such as "www.baidu.com (Baidu)), which has a beginning portion starting with the inputted Chinese character (pronounced as "du"), of which the URL or a remaining part of title other than the beginning may be matched.

[0038] The skilled in the art may provide details to further refine the rules for priority settings, for example, providing a priority between the URL entries, of which the URL entry or the portion of title other than beginning portion being matched with the inputted Chinese character. For example, a higher priority may be given to a URL with a higher number of historical visits or accesses.

[0039] In another example, the rule for priority setting may also be based on: setting a higher priority of URL entry which has a domain name beginning with the inputted character starting with such as "s", over URL entries with the domain name which includes the inputted character "s", but the domain name does not begin with the inputted character "s".

[0040] Step C: generating the URL entry list according to a respective priority order of the matched pre-stored URL entry in a high-to-low order according to their priorities (such as the URL entry list (40), as shown in Figure 4 and the URL entry list (30), as shown in Figure 5).

[0041] For example, the Chinese character (pronounced as "Xin") may be inputted to the input box (20) of the address bar. Various matched pre-stored URL entries, including

"www.sina.com.cn" (i.e., sina or "m. weibo.com" (i.e., Sina Microblog or ^f^^ t$), "ent.sina.com.cn" (i.e., Sina Entertainment or "sports, sina.com.cn" (i.e., Sina Sports or ¾f etc. may be found.

[0042] The "www.sina.com.cn" (i.e., sina or ¾fi¾) URL entry may belong to Set 1, the "m. weibo.com" (i.e., Sina Microblog or Iff ί1¾ ί¾ t$ ) and "ent.sina.com.cn" (i.e., Sina Entertainment or i rili^ i ) URL entries may belong to Set 2, and "sports, sina.com.cn" (i.e., Sina Sports or ^f^^ ) URL entry may belong to Set 3. Accordingly, the URL entry "www.sina.com.cn ( f V¾)" may have the highest priority among all the matched URL entries due to Set 1 being the highest priority according to the priority rule (as shown being in the first place in the generated URL entity list (40) in Figure 4, and in the generated URL entity list (30) as shown in Figure 5).

[0043] Furthermore, in order to reduce the number of input operations by the user to the input box (20) of the address bar on the browser interface (11), the URL matching module (111) may perform the following: when it is determined that the characters input includes pronounced as "XIN")), the URL matching module (111) may match the non-English characters input (i.e., the inputted Chinese character "¾f") to one or more pre-stored URL entries, and generating a URL entry list including one or more matched pre-stored URL entries which includes the non-English characters (i.e., having the inputted Chinese character "¾t"for user's selection.

[0044] More specifically, the inputted characters, i.e., the Chinese character "¾f"(having a URL title beginning with "www.s") may be matched to the beginning of URL or title of the URL entry having "s" (such as "www.sina.com.cn (Sina)") in a specific position (such as the beginning position) in the generated URL entity list. Afterwards, the Chinese character (phonetically pronounced as "LANG"), may be appended to complement "s" (i.e., the character"!^") to form the remaining portion (such the title (201) "ina.com.cn" as shown in Figure 4 or shown in Figure 5) of the URL entry www.sina.com.cn (¾f ^).

[0045] In other words, the appended portion or "ina.com.cn" other than the beginning portion, is the remainder portion of the title (201) of the URL entry in the specific position following the starting characters input (such as the Chinese character of shown in

Figure 4 or "www.s" shown in Figure 5) in the input box (20) of the address bar on the browser interface (11).

[0046] Furthermore, in order to realize matching to non-Chinese characters (such as "www.s" as shown in Figure 5) to the pre-stored URL entry inputted in the input box of address bar, the URL matching module (111) may determine whether the characters input are non-Chinese characters. When it is determined that the characters input being the non- Chinese characters input, matching the non-Chinese characters input to the one or more pre- stored Uniform Resource Locator (URL) entries, and generating a URL entry list comprising one or more matched pre-stored URL entries which comprises non-Chinese characters for user's selection.

[0047] In another embodiments of the present disclosure, when non-Chinese characters (such as English characters of "www.s" as shown in Figure 5) are inputted in the input box (20) of the address bar, the matching with the pre-stored URL entries may not need to be performed using the pre-stored URL entries in Chinese characters. Instead, the same method may be configured to pre-stored URL entries in other non-Chinese language characters, such as Korean characters, Japanese characters, Spanish characters, or Arabic characters, to name a few. The browser interface (11) may realize and perform matching to the pre-stored URL [0048] The link control module (112) may respond to the user's selection command instruction of a particular matched pre-stored URL entry from among the one or more matched pre-stored URL entries in the generated URL entry list, and links the particular matched pre-stored URL entry to a corresponding web page. More specifically, the link control module (112) may aim at the generated URL entry list and respond to the input characters to confirming user's instruction in the input box (20) of the address bar on the browser interface (11), so as to link the webpage of the URL of the URL entry corresponding to the selection instruction or command, and link the webpage of the URL corresponding to the characters inputted in the input box of address bar.

[0049] For example, the URL entity list (40) as shown in Figure 4 and the URL entity list (30) as shown in Figure 5 illustrate that if the user's selection instruction corresponds to the URL entry of "www.sina.com.cn (ΐ ίίΙΙ)", the link control module (112) may respond to the selection instruction to link the webpage of corresponding URL "www.sina.com.cn". If the user provides the input character confirming instruction (for example, click the "GO" function button to activate the input character confirming instruction), the link control module (112) may point at the input characters (such as "www.s" or the appended "www.sina.com.cn" ) in the input box (20) of the address bar on the browser interface (such as the input box (20) of address bar shown in Figure 5). The link control module (112) may respond to the input character confirming instruction or command to link to the webpage which corresponds to "www.s" or the appended "www.sina.com.cn" URL entry.

[0050] Figure 3 is a flow chart illustrating an exemplary method for controlling browser interface address bar input, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method may include the following exemplary steps:

[0051] Step S10: detecting an event of characters input to an address bar input box (20) of a browser interface (11), wherein, the characters input include Chinese characters and non- Chinese characters.

[0052] Step S12: matching the Chinese characters input to one or more pre-stored Uniform Resource Locator (URL) entries, and generating a URL entry list comprising one or more matched pre-stored URL entries which comprises non-English characters for user's selection.

[0053] For example, the method of matching pre-stored URL entries with inputted Chinese characters of "Iff " (phonetically pronounced as "XIN") in the input box (20) of address bar, may include: the URL matching module (111) matches to titles such as "www.sina.com.cn" (i.e., sina or iPf^), "m. weibo.com" (i.e., Sina Microblog or |Pr 1¾i¾t$), "ent.sina.com.cn" (i.e., Sina Entertainment or ^f^^^), "sports, sina.com.cn" (i.e., Sina Sports or ¾f ^W ), [0054] Step S13: in response to the user's selection of a particular matched pre-stored URL entry from among the one or more matched pre-stored URL entries in the generated URL entry list, linking the particular matched pre-stored URL entry to a corresponding web page.

[0055] For example, referring to the URL entry list (40) shown in Figure 4 and the URL entity list (30) shown in Figure 5, if the user's selection instruction corresponds to the URL entry of "www.sina.com.cn" (i.e., sina or ¾fi¾), it responds to the selection instruction to link the webpage of corresponding URL "www.sina.com.cn"; if the user confirms the input character (for example, click the "GO" function button to activate the input character confirming instruction) aiming at the input characters (such as "www.s" or added "www.sina.com.cn") in the input box (20) of the address bar on the browser interface (such as the input box (20) of address bar shown in Figure 5), it responds to the input character confirming instruction to link the webpage of corresponding "www.s" or added "www.sina.com.cn".

[0056] It shall be noted that if no pre-stored URL entry is matched with the inputted characters when non-Chinese characters are inputted in the input box (20) of address bar, the method may also include the step of analyzing if the characters inputted in the input box of address bar are Chinese ones.

[0057] Further, in order to reduce the user's operation of inputting characters in the input box of the address bar on the browser interface, the method may also include the step: when the inputted characters (such as the Chinese character of ¾f "Xin" or "www.s") are matched with the beginning portion of URL or the title of the URL entity (such as "www.sina.com.cn

(i.e., sina or ¾fi¾)" in a specific position (such as the first place or the beginning portion) in the generated URL entry list, appending to the part other than the beginning of the URL or the title (201) (such as the Chinese character of phonetically pronounced as "LANG", as shown in Figure 4 or "ina.com.cn" shown in Figure 5) of the URL entry in the specific position to the end of the characters (such as the Chinese character of ¾f "XIN" as shown in

Figure 4 or "www.s" shown in Figure 5) inputted in the input box (20) of the address bar on the browser interface (11).

[0058] Further, in order to realize the matching with the pre-stored URL entry even when non-Chinese characters (such as the English characters input "www.s" as shown in Figure 5) is inputted in the input box (20) of address bar. The method may also include the step: matching the pre-stored URL entries with the inputted non-Chinese characters, and generating a URL entry list for user's selection according to the matched pre-stored URL for example, when the input characters are generated through a native application (14) running on the terminal (1), a web application running on a web server (30), or through a voice command interface (12) after voice to text conversion.

[0059] Of course, in other embodiments of the present disclosure, when non-Chinese characters (such as the English characters input "www.s" shown in Figure 5) are inputted in the input box (20) of address bar, the matching with the pre-stored URL entries may not be performed. When non-Chinese characters are inputted in the input box of address bar, it may realize the matching of pre-stored URL entries with the inputted non-Chinese characters.

[0060] The steps in the various methods in the aforementioned embodiments may be completed via programs, which command corresponding hardware. Such programs may be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium. The non-transitory computer- readable memory medium may include: flash memory disk, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), disk or compact disk, etc.

[0061] Disclosed above are only preferred embodiments of the present disclosure and these preferred embodiments are not intended to be limiting the scope of rights of the present disclosure, hence any equivalent changes made according to the claims of the present disclosure shall fall within the scope of the present disclosure.