Method and system for improving user experience while browsing

• US 8,069,406 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2006
• Issued: 11/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Flash Networks, Ltd. (Constellation Software Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Flash Networks, Inc. (Constellation Software Incorporated)
• Inventors: Weiss, Yoav, Flomin, Petro, Shapira, Yair
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vaughn; Gregory J
• Application Number:
  US11/814,907
• Publication Number:
  US 20080222242A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,120 Days
• Field of Search: 715/200, 715/205, 715/208, 715/234, 715/236
• US Class Current: 715/208
• 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 67/55 Push-based network services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics

Abstract

The rendering of markup language based files is accelerated by employing an apparatus to capture requests for markup language pages. The requested pages are retrieved and then examined to identify additional links that are contained therein. The markup language page is then modified by adding a trigger or tag into the page. The trigger or tag is basically a mechanism to automate a request for additional markup language information or pages. The trigger or tag, when received by the device requesting the markup language page, will invoke a request to obtain the markup language information or file represented by the tag. The tag can be a browser activated link or a JavaScript. A predictive module is used to review the additional links in the requested pages to identify a predicted next page to be downloaded or requested. This predicted next page or link can be a most likely candidate for what a user viewing the current page would request.

Claims

1. A method for accelerating the presentation of a file based at least in part on a markup language, the method comprising the steps of:

a. intercepting, at a manipulation equipment (MEq) server, a request for a first markup language (ML) file sent from a requester device, the requester device having a browser application, to a web server;

b. fetching, by the MEq server from the web server, the requested first ML file;

c. selecting a predicted link for a predicted second file;

d. parsing and modifying, at the MEq server, the fetched requested first ML file by adding a tag for fetching a multipart object; and

e. sending the modified fetched requested first ML file to the requester device;

wherein the multipart object bundles a transparent object with the predicted second file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting the predicted link further comprises the steps of fetching, by the MEq server, the predicted second file.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

f. responding to a request caused by the modification to the first ML file by sending the fetched predicted second file bundled in the multipart object with the transparent image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the transparent object is a transparent image.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the tag is related to a scripting language code that causes the browser to fetch the multipart object.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the tag is a link to the location of the multipart object.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the tag is a link to an arbitrary URL of an object for enabling sending any predicted second file within the multipart object.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first file includes a plurality of browser links and hyper links, and the step of selecting a predicted link further comprises the steps of:

ranking one or more of the hyper links in the first file; and

selecting the predicted link by selecting the hyper link with the highest ranking.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the step of ranking the one or more hyper links further comprises ranking the one or more hyper links based on a previous hit rate for the one or more hyper links.

10. A method for accelerating the presentation of markup language based files over a network, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving, at a manipulation equipment (MEq) server, a request from a requesting device to retrieve a first markup language based file from a web server, the first markup language based file including a plurality of browser links and hyper links and the requesting device including a rendering application;

retrieving, at the MEq server, from the web server, the requested first markup language based file;

parsing and modifying, at the MEq server, the first markup language based file by inserting a trigger to invoke a multipart object that bundles further markup language based information;

providing the modified first markup language based file to the requesting device;

retrieving at the MEq server, from the web server, the further markup language based information;

in response to the rendering application of the requesting device rendering the trigger, receiving a request for the multipart object; and

providing multipart object that bundles the further markup language information to the requesting device.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of modifying the first markup language based file by inserting a trigger further comprises inserting a browser activated link.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the further markup language information comprises another web page.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the step of modifying the first markup language based file by inserting a trigger further comprises inserting a scripting language code that causes the browser to fetch the multipart object.

14. A manipulation equipment (MEq) server that accelerates the presentation of markup language based files sent from one or more content servers over a data network to a user device, the MEq server is communicatively coupled to the data network and comprising:

a user module; and

a predictive module comprising;

i. a cache memory;

ii. a predictive engine; and

iii. a data network communication module that interfaces to data network;

the user module comprising;

i. a user communication module that communicates with the user device and receives a user'"'"'s request;

ii. a request parser that parses the request and determines if the request is for a first markup language based file;

iii. a manager module that obtains the requested first markup language based file by either accessing the cache memory to determine if the first markup language based file is presented and if not to request the data network communication module to fetch the first markup language based file;

iiii. a response parser that receives a response to the manager module request and parses the first markup language file;

iiiii. a response modifier that modifies the first markup language file by adding a trigger to a multipart object that bundles a first transparent image with a first pre-fetch object; and

the user communication module being further operable to transfer the modified first markup language file to the user device.

15. The MEq server of claim 14, wherein the response parser further extracts links from the first markup language file, and the predictive engine operable to receive one or more links from the response parser and defines at least one predicted link, from the one or more received links, and the manager module being further operable to receive the at least one predicted link to retrieve a second markup language based file associated with the at least one predicted link and to modified the retrieved second markup language based file to include a trigger to a second multipart object that bundles a second transparent image and a second pre-fetch object.

16. The MEq server of claim 15, wherein the predictive engine determines a predicted link by examining statistical data pertaining to the one or more links received from the response parser.

17. The MEq server of claim 15, further comprising:

the user communication module further receives a request that is associated with the trigger to the first multipart object; and

the manager module in response to the request, which is associated with the trigger to the first multipart object, causing the transfer of the multipart object to the user device, the multipart object including the first transparent image and the first pre-fetched object.

18. The MEq server of claim 14, wherein the trigger to trigger to the multipart object is a browser activated link that invokes the sending of the multipart object.

19. The MEq server of claim 14, wherein the trigger is a scripting language code, which when executed causes the fetching of the multipart object.

20. The MEq server of claim 14, wherein the cache is used to store additional markup language file content for expedited retrieval.