Microsoft granted ‘Tabbed Browsing’ patent

“Microsoft has been granted a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on a process known as tabbing through a Web page in order to find links. Although the patent award has raised the ire of some in the open source browser community, the implications for the widely used technique are unclear. The patent (number 6,785,865) is officially titled ‘Discoverability and navigation of hyperlinks via tabs,'” Sean Michael Kerner reports for InternetNews.com. “Microsoft filed for the patent in March of 1997. It covers the process of shifting between links on a Web page using the computer’s tab button.”

“According to the U.S. Patent office, a ‘user may discover and navigate among hyperlinks through the use of a keyboard. For example, a user may press a tab key to discover and navigate to a first hyperlink that is part of a hypertext document.’ Virtually all modern Web browsers, including… Apple’s Safari, …allow for tabbing between links on a page,” Kerner reports.

Full article here.

30 Comments

  1. gee….

    I think I’ll file for a patent for my idea …

    Let me tell you about it….

    I have this idea for a button that resides at the bottom of your screen… lets call it the “START” menu…

    Yeah…. you hit the “Start” menu to shut down your computer….

    That makes a lot of sense… doesnt it???

    Anyone think I can make a few bucks with that one ??

  2. Way To Go M$.
    Now you can file lawsuits with everyone for using it, as you’ve the Patient. Even though this is another piece of software you didn’t create, just stole like the rest. I guess they do have to find the money somewhere, to pay for that Longdrawn ‘Longhorn’.

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