Increasing web page browsing efficiency by periodically physically distributing memory media on which web page data are cached
First Claim
1. A method for increasing a speed with which at least a portion of an online content stored at a first location is displayed to a user at a second location connected in communication with the first location over a network, comprising the steps of:
- (a) storing data for said at least the portion of the online content as part of a data cache on a physical medium that includes data for a plurality of specified online content sources;
(b) distributing the physical medium on which is stored the data cache for the plurality of specified online content sources to the user; and
(c) when the user at the second location has connected to the first location and has selectively chosen to display the online content, displaying the online content to the user with the data for said at least the portion of the online content included in the data cache, said online content being displayed to the user substantially faster using the data that were stored in the data cache on the physical medium than if all data for the online content were instead transferred over the network from the first location to the second location.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Data for selected web sites likely to be accessed are stored on memory media (compact disks) that are physically transported to subscribers for use when browsing the Internet. New copies of the memory media with the data for the selected web sites are periodically produced and distributed to the subscribers. In addition, if the data cached on the memory media are stored on a local hard drive of the subscriber, the content of the cache can be updated by a local proxy program during the subscriber'"'"'s connection to the network when the connection is not otherwise in use. The local proxy program is installed on the subscriber'"'"'s computer from the distributed memory media. A data center provides Intelligent Prefetching and implements a validation service to determine if the cached data items are current. If not, the current data are loaded into the browser program through the Internet connection.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method for increasing a speed with which at least a portion of an online content stored at a first location is displayed to a user at a second location connected in communication with the first location over a network, comprising the steps of:
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(a) storing data for said at least the portion of the online content as part of a data cache on a physical medium that includes data for a plurality of specified online content sources;
(b) distributing the physical medium on which is stored the data cache for the plurality of specified online content sources to the user; and
(c) when the user at the second location has connected to the first location and has selectively chosen to display the online content, displaying the online content to the user with the data for said at least the portion of the online content included in the data cache, said online content being displayed to the user substantially faster using the data that were stored in the data cache on the physical medium than if all data for the online content were instead transferred over the network from the first location to the second location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for enabling subscribers to a service to more rapidly display each of a plurality of specified online content sources, comprising the steps of:
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(a) periodically collecting and storing data for each of the plurality of specified online content sources on a storage at a data center;
(b) replicating the data for the plurality of specified online content sources that are stored in the storage as a data cache stored on a plurality of distributable physical storage media;
(c) distributing a physical storage medium on which the data cache is stored, to each subscriber of the service;
(d) enabling each subscriber to install a proxy program that serves as an interface between the data cache that was received on the physical storage medium, a network over which online content sources are accessed, and a browser program with which online content sources are displayed to the subscriber; and
(e) for an online content that is being selectively accessed over the network by a subscriber, using any data for said online content that are included in the data cache received on the physical storage medium to speed the display of the online content with the browser program, by avoiding the need to transfer the data over the network from a site at which the online content is being accessed. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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- 18. A physically distributable memory medium on which is stored a machine readable data cache, said data cache including data for a plurality of specific online content sources for use in increasing a speed with which the specific online content sources are displayed to a user by a browser program when one of the specific online content sources is selectively accessed over a network by the user, data for said specific online content from the data cache being used to display the online content in the browser program instead of data transferred from a site of the online content over the network.
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24. A method for enabling data referenced by a uniform reference locator (URL) included in a selected online content to be more rapidly displayed when chosen for display by a user, comprising the steps of:
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(a) sending an identification of the selected online content over a network to a service operating at a remote site, said service identifying one or more URLs in the selected online content that are likely to be subsequently selected by the user for display of the data referenced thereby, and including said one or more URLs in a prefetch list;
(b) transmitting the prefetch list over the network from the service to a computing device of the user that is being employed by the user to display the selected online content; and
(c) in a background task, loading data referenced by the URLs in the prefetch list into a prefetch cache, so that the data in the prefetch cache are immediately available for use by the computing device in displaying the data, if a URL in the selected online content that is also in the prefetch list is chosen for display by the user.
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25. A system for enabling an online content being accessed at a first location to be more rapidly displayed to a user disposed at a second location, comprising:
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(a) a processor;
(b) a physically distributed memory medium on which is stored a data cache that includes data for a plurality of selected online content sources, said physically distributed memory medium being coupled in communication with the processor so that the data cache stored on the physically distributed memory medium is accessible by the processor;
(c) a network interface that couples the processor in communication with a network;
(d) an output device for displaying output to the user using data for an online content, said online content having been selected by a user over the network; and
(e) a memory in which are stored a plurality of machine instructions, said memory being coupled to the processor, said plurality of machine instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the processor to more rapidly display an online content selected by the user using the data in the data cache, if data for the online content selected by the user are included in the data cache stored on the physically distributed memory medium, so that the data for the online content need not be transferred over the network through the network interface. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27)
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28. A system for enabling data indicated by a uniform resource locator (URL) included in an online content being accessed at a first location to be more rapidly displayed to a user disposed at a second location that is coupled to the first location over a network, comprising:
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(a) a processor;
(b) a network interface that couples the processor in communication with a network;
(c) an output device for displaying an online content selected by a user over the network; and
(d) a memory in which are stored a plurality of machine instructions, said memory being coupled to the processor, said plurality of machine instructions, when executed by the processor, causing the processor to transmit an identifier for an online content that is being displayed over the network to a data center, and to employ a prefetch list of uniform resource locators (URLs) referenced in the online content received from the data center to load data referenced by the URLs into a prefetch cache stored in the memory, so that data for any URL included in the prefetch list is immediately displayed on the output device by the processor using the data in the prefetch cache for the URL, if the URL is selected for display by a user.
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Specification