PRELOADER EMPLOYING ENHANCED MESSAGES

• US 20090144396A1
• Filed: 11/30/2007
• Published: 06/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Knowledge Ventures, L.P. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Walton, Denis Brent
• Granted Patent: US 8,745,507 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics

Abstract

A disclosed method of serving web page requests includes detecting a client request for a web page that contains an object. A preloader application is invoked to execute while the object is downloading to the client. The preloader application displays a preloader message during at least part of the downloading interval. At least a part of the preloader message is an advertisement or is otherwise unrelated to a progress of the downloading of the object. A size of the object may exceed a specified threshold and/or a type of the object may match any of a set of predetermined object types. The set of predetermined object types may include a Java® object type, a Flash® object type, or another object type suitable for implementing motion graphics. In some embodiments, the preloader application resides on a third party web site.

Claims

1. A method of serving web page requests, comprising:

detecting a client request for a web page containing an object; and

invoking a preloader application to execute during at least part of a downloading interval during which the object is downloading to the client;

wherein the preloader application displays a preloader message during at least part of the downloading interval and wherein at least a part of the preloader message is unrelated to a progress of the downloading of the object.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a size of the object exceeds a specified threshold or a type of the object matches any of a set of predetermined object types.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the set of predetermined object types includes a Java®

object type and a Flash®

object type.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the part of the preloader message unrelated to the downloading progress includes an advertisement for goods or services.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the preloader application resides on a third party web site.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein invoking the preloader application comprises the web server requesting a universal resource locator of the third party web site.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the part of the preloader message unrelated to the downloading progress includes an advertisement for goods or services of a fourth party.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the preloader application plays a plurality of preloader messages.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the preloader application selects the preloader message from a set of available messages based at least in part on an estimate of a time for downloading the object.

10. A computer program product comprising computer executable instructions stored on a computer readable medium, for serving web pages, the instructions comprising instructions to:

detect a preloader request from a web server, the preloader request being associated with the web server downloading an object in a web page requested by a client; and

play a preloader message while the object is downloading, wherein the preloader message includes an advertisement.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising instructions to select the preloader message from a plurality of available preloader messages.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein selecting the preloader message includes selecting the preloader message based at least in part on an estimate of a time required to download the object.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising instructions to:

detect completion of the preloader message;

determine an estimate of a remaining time for downloading the object to the client;

select a next preloader message to play based at least in part on the remaining time estimate; and

play the selected next preloader message.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising instructions to estimate a time required to download the object prior to playing the preloader message.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the preloader message includes an advertisement of a fourth party.

16. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising instructions to play a progress item indicative of a progress of the downloading of the object.

17. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the preloader request includes the web server transmitting a request for a universal resource locator associated with a preloader application.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein the preloader application is located remote to the web server.

19. A service for processing web page requests comprising providing a network accessible preloader application, wherein the preloader application is operable to respond to a preloader request from a web server by playing a preloader message during at least part of an interval during which an object is downloading to a client, wherein at least part of the message is unrelated to progress of the downloading of the object.

20. The service of claim 19, wherein the message comprises an advertisement for goods or services.

21. The service of claim 19, wherein the preloader application is operable to select the message from a plurality of available messages.

22. The service of claim 21, wherein selection of the message includes selecting the message based at least in part on an estimate of the duration of the downloading of the object.

23. The service of claim 22, wherein the preloader application is operable to generate the estimate of the duration.

24. The service of claim 23, wherein the preloader application is operable to select and play a plurality of messages during the downloading of the object.

25. The service of claim 24, wherein the preloader application is operable to select a second message after completion of the first message based at least in part on an estimate of time remaining to complete the download of the object.