Abstract: A system is provided to monitor a user's interaction with a computer. The system may comprise a random reference data generator to generate a random reference string, an image generator to create an image including the random reference string, a modification module to iteratively modify the image until a distortion criterion is satisfied, and a communications module to communicate the image to a client computer for display to a user. The random reference string comprises a plurality of alphanumeric characters.

Abstract: A system is provided to monitor a user's interaction with a computer. The system may comprise a random reference data generator to generate a random reference string, an image generator to create an image including the random reference string, a modification module to iteratively modify the image until a distortion criterion is satisfied, and a communications module to communicate the image to a client computer for display to a user. The random reference string comprises a plurality of alphanumeric characters.

Abstract: A system is provided to monitor a user's interaction with a computer. The system may comprise a reference string generator to generate a random reference string, an image generator to generate an image including the random reference string, a communications module to communicate the image to a client computer for display to a user and to receive user input data and a comparator to compare the random reference string and the user input data to detect human interaction with the computer. The image including the random reference string may be generated such that each character in the random reference string is off-centered.

Abstract: A method of, and system for, monitoring interaction between a user and a computer is provided. The method includes generating an image including random reference data readable by the user, and communicating the image to the computer for display to the user. User input data is then received and a comparison between the random reference data and the user input data is performed to determine if the user is interacting with the computer.

Abstract: A method and system of providing listing recommendations to users of a network-based commerce system including a plurality of listings arranged in a plurality of divisions is described. The method includes identifying a division of the plurality of divisions based on user interaction with the network-based commerce system, and identifying at least one frequently used search term associated with the division. A link is provided to the user to listings associated with the frequently used search term. The search terms may be ranked by retrieving frequently used search terms from a first memory location and determining a number of listings in each division associated with each frequently used search term. Each frequently used search term may then be ranked based on the number of listings in each division.

Abstract: A method of, and system for, monitoring interaction between a user and a computer is provided. The method includes generating an image including random reference data readable by the user, and communicating the image to the computer for display to the user. User input data is then received and a comparison between the random reference data and the user input data is performed to determine if the user is interacting with the computer.

Abstract: A dynamic search result refinement for refining a general search query into a more specific search query. For a general search query, a user is presented with a list of more specific queries. The entries in the list selected from a log-file of queries according to the index frequency of each query. The user can choose a new query from the list of more specific queries and run a database search. The user also has the option to be presented with a list of even more specific queries based on the chosen query and to have a database search run with one of these queries.

Abstract: A table of web pages is maintained by requesting a web page, receiving the requested web page, and identifying an address, such as a URL, of the received web page. A locator, such as a fingerprint, which represents the address of the received web page is entered into the table of web pages to maintain the table. The locator has a size smaller than the address.

Abstract: A Web crawler system and method for quickly fetching and analyzing Web pages on the World Wide Web includes a hash table stored in random access memory (RAM) and a sequential Web information disk file. For every Web page known to the system, the Web crawler system stores an entry in the sequential disk file as well as a smaller entry in the hash table. The hash table entry includes a fingerprint value, a fetched flag that is set true only if the corresponding Web page has been successfully fetched, and a file location indicator that indicates where the corresponding entry is stored in the sequential disk file. Each sequential disk file entry includes the URL of a corresponding Web page, plus fetch status information concerning that Web page. All accesses to the Web information disk file are made sequentially via an input buffer such that a large number of entries from the sequential disk file are moved into the input buffer as single I/O operation.