Patents by Inventor Ian V. Hollier

Ian V. Hollier has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20140304828
    Abstract: A method facilitating secure financial transactions using email is presented comprising the steps of receiving bill data at a server implementing the method, and generating an email message to a recipient with information including at least a portion of the received bill data. The amount of bill data included in the email message is based, at least in part, on the email address of the recipient.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 23, 2014
    Publication date: October 9, 2014
    Inventors: Ian V. Hollier, Michael L. Waterston
  • Patent number: 8793185
    Abstract: A method facilitating secure financial transactions using email is presented comprising the steps of receiving bill data at a server implementing the method, and generating an email message to a recipient with information including at least a portion of the received bill data. The amount of bill data included in the email message is based, at least in part, on the email address of the recipient.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 16, 2001
    Date of Patent: July 29, 2014
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ian V. Hollier, Michael L. Waterston
  • Patent number: 8126869
    Abstract: Methods and computer-storage media for automated generation of domain sitemap files are provided. A universal resource locator (URL) for a web site having a plurality of web pages associated therewith is received. Log files and permission controls are analyzed to ascertain whether each web page has been previously crawled and which web pages may be crawled and/or indexed. The permitted, not-previously-crawled web pages are subsequently crawled and the relational structure of the web site is ascertained. Other items of metadata, such as web page modification frequency or priority values, also are determined. Once the structure and metadata are available, a current sitemap is generated that provides the hierarchy and related details in the form of metadata. The sitemap file is then written to a disk and may then be sent to search engines as generated or in a compressed format.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2008
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2012
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Ian V. Hollier, Martina Hiemstra
  • Publication number: 20090204638
    Abstract: Methods and computer-storage media for automated generation of domain sitemap files are provided. A universal resource locator (URL) for a web site having a plurality of web pages associated therewith is received. Log files and permission controls are analyzed to ascertain whether each web page has been previously crawled and which web pages may be crawled and/or indexed. The permitted, not-previously-crawled web pages are subsequently crawled and the relational structure of the web site is ascertained. Other items of metadata, such as web page modification frequency or priority values, also are determined. Once the structure and metadata are available, a current sitemap is generated that provides the hierarchy and related details in the form of metadata. The sitemap file is then written to a disk and may then be sent to search engines as generated or in a compressed format.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 8, 2008
    Publication date: August 13, 2009
    Applicant: MICROSOFT CORPORATION
    Inventors: IAN V. HOLLIER, MARTINA HIEMSTRA
  • Patent number: 6976077
    Abstract: A method and system via which a client application hosting a browser notifies a server of its existence, whereby the server provides enhanced operating functionality, such as state synchronization, to the client. Instead of requesting a server's normally-accessible website, a client application provides a URL to a hosted browser to access a hidden web page. The hidden web page returns awareness information (e.g., a “cookie”) identifying the client as an enhanced client, and also automatically forwards the client to the server's normally-accessible website. Based on the awareness data, the server distinguishes enhanced clients from ordinary clients, and modifies its behavior accordingly. For example, the server and client application may communicate in the background, such as to synchronize the client application's data with server state information. To synchronize, the server data may be written into a client storage mechanism, or the server data may be passed in a page.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 1999
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2005
    Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
    Inventors: Christian R. Lehew, Michael L. Waterston, Robert A. Kleewein, Ian V. Hollier