Reducing latencies in web page rendering

• US 9,158,845 B1
• Filed: 07/18/2005
• Issued: 10/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Reddy, Sailu, Togaru, Sripal, Trillo, Christian
• Primary Examiner(s): Liao, Jason
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mitiku, Berhanu
• Application Number:
  US11/183,184
• Time in Patent Office: 3,739 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707709-711, 709/203, 709/224, 709/232, 709/245, 709/246, 709217-220, 358/1.15
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• 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 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

A page structure may be used to begin validation of an embedded resource prior to the time a browser issues a request to validate the embedded resource. A page structure includes information indicating one or more embedded resources in the web page and, in some implementations, its corresponding cache characteristics. The page structure may be used to generate a validation message that indicates resources to be validated. The validation message may be sent to a server at substantially the same time that the browser begins rendering the web page. The server can then begin validating the resources indicated in the validation message by sending validation requests to an origin or other server storing the embedded resources. The server then may send the validation responses back to the client computer executing the browser so that the validation responses can be used to satisfy corresponding validation requests generated by the browser.

Claims

1. A method for validating cached embedded resources in a web page, the method comprising:

receiving a validation message from a client system executing a web browser, the validation message identifying at least one resource embedded in a web page and stored in a cache of the web browser, wherein the validation message is sent by the client system prior to the web browser issuing an HTTP validation request for the embedded resource;

generating a request to validate the embedded resource to determine whether the embedded resource has been modified since the embedded resource was stored in the cache of the browser, the embedded resource being identified in the validation message sent by the client system;

sending the request to validate the embedded resource to a server;

receiving, from the server and in response to the request sent to the server, a validation response;

sending the validation response to the client system to provide the validation response to the web browser rendering the web page to satisfy the HTTP validation request issued by the browser to validate the embedded resource;

determining whether a URL for the web page is similar to a URL for a second web page based on canonicalizing the URL for the web page and the URL for the second web page;

when the URL for the web page is determined to be similar to the URL for the second web page, performing a differential mapping between the page structure corresponding to the web page and a page structure corresponding to the second web page to determine if similarities between the page structures exceed a threshold; and

when the similarities between the page structure corresponding to the web page and the page structure corresponding to the second web page exceed the threshold, determining the second web page to be a sibling web page and updating the page structure corresponding to the web page based on changes to the sibling web page.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the validation message comprises receiving the validation message at a traffic server on a network of an Internet service provider and receiving the validation response comprises receiving the validation response at the traffic server.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein sending the request to validate the embedded resource to a server comprises sending a conditional-GET for the embedded resource to the server.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving multiple validation messages from one or more client systems, the multiple validation messages identifying embedded resources in the web page;

generating an aggregate page structure by determining common embedded resources among the multiple validation messages; and

prioritizing the request to validate the embedded resource based on the validation message sent by the client system and the aggregate page structure.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving multiple validation messages from one or more client systems, the multiple validation messages identifying embedded resources in the web page;

generating an aggregate page structure by determining which one of the multiple validation messages was most recently received; and

determining to send the request to validate the embedded resource based on a union of the aggregate page structure and the validation message sent by the client system.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving the validation message in a single message.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the validation message from the client system executing the web browser includes receiving the validation message at a proxy server, the validation message being sent from the client system executing the web browser.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the request to validate the embedded resource includes generating the request at a proxy server.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program for validating cached embedded resources in a web page, the computer program comprising instructions for causing a computer to perform the following operations:

generate a page structure that corresponds to a web page and indicates at least one resource embedded in the web page;

generate a validation message based on the page structure, the validation message identifying the embedded resource stored in a cache of a web browser;

send the validation message to a first server prior to the web browser issuing an HTTP validation request for the embedded resource;

receive, from the first server, a validation response for the embedded resource;

and

provide the validation response to a web browser rendering the web page to satisfy an HTTP validation request to validate the embedded resource issued by the web browser,

wherein the computer program further comprises instruction for causing the computer to;

determine whether a URL for the web page is similar to a URL for a second web page based on canonicalizing the URL for the web page and the URL for the second web page;

when the URL for the web page is determined to be similar to the URL for the second web page, perform a differential mapping between the page structure corresponding to the web page and a page structure corresponding to the second web page to determine if similarities between the page structures exceed a threshold; and

when the similarities between the page structure corresponding to the web page and the page structure corresponding to the second web page exceed the threshold, determine the second web page to be a sibling web page and update the page structure corresponding to the web page based on changes to the sibling web page.

8. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to:

send requests for embedded resources in the web page during an initial rendering of the web page; and

wherein, to generate the page structure, the computer program comprises instructions for causing a computer to generate the page structure based on responses received in response to the requests for embedded resources sent during the initial rendering of the web page.

9. The non-transitory medium of claim 8 wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to:

send requests for embedded resources in the web page during a subsequent rendering of the web page; and

update the page structure based on responses received in response to the requests for embedded resources sent during the subsequent rendering of the web page.

10. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 wherein, to update the page structure based on changes to the sibling web page, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to:

send requests for embedded resources in the sibling web page during a rendering of the sibling web page; and

update the page structure corresponding to the web page based on responses received in response to the requests for embedded resources sent during the rendering of the sibling web page.

11. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 wherein the first server comprises a traffic server on a ISP network such that the instructions for causing a computer to send the validation message to the first server comprise instructions for causing a computer to send the validation message to a traffic server on a ISP network.

12. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to:

receive a request for the web page from a web browser; and

wherein, to send the validation message to the first server prior to the web browser issuing the request to validate the embedded resource, the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to send the validation message to the first server substantially simultaneous to receiving the request for the web page from the web browser.

13. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 wherein the computer program further comprises instructions for causing a computer to generate a single validation message.

14. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 wherein the validation message identifies the embedded resource by indicating a URL for the embedded resource.

15. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 wherein the page structure only indicates cacheable embedded resources of the web page.

16. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 wherein a cached copy of the embedded resource is stale when the validation message is generated.

17. The non-transitory medium of claim 16 wherein:

a cached copy of a second embedded resource of the web page will become stale at a set time in the future when the validation message is generated, and the generated validation message additionally indicates the second embedded resource.

18. The non-transitory medium of claim 7 wherein, to send the validation message and receive the validation response, the computer program comprises instructions for causing a computer to:

send the validation message to a first server prior to a web browser issuing a request to validate the embedded resource such that the first server sends a request to validate the embedded resource to a second server; and

receive, from the first server, a validation response for the embedded resource received by the first server in response to the request sent to the second server.

24. The medium of claim 7, wherein sending the validation message to the first server prior to the web browser issuing an HTTP validation request for the embedded resource includes sending the validation message from a proxy server to the first server.

19. A method for validating cached embedded resources in a web page, the method comprising:

receiving a validation message from a client system executing a web browser, the validation message identifying multiple resources embedded in a web page and stored in a cache of the web browser, wherein the validation message is sent by the client system prior to the web browser issuing an HTTP validation request for the embedded resource;

generating requests to validate the embedded resources to determine whether the embedded resource has been modified since the embedded resource was stored in the cache of the browser, the embedded resource being identified in the validation message sent by the client system;

sending the requests to validate the embedded resources to one or more servers;

receiving, from the servers and in response to the requests sent to the server, validation responses;

sending the validation responses to the client system to provide the validation responses to the web browser rendering the web page to satisfy the HTTP validation requests issued by the browser to validate the embedded resources;

determining whether a URL for the web page is similar to a URL for a second web page based on canonicalizing the URL for the web page and the URL for the second web page;

when the URL for the web page is determined to be similar to the URL for the second web page, performing a differential mapping between the page structure corresponding to the web page and a page structure corresponding to the second web page to determine if similarities between the page structures exceed a threshold; and

when the similarities between the page structure corresponding to the web page and the page structure corresponding to the second web page exceed the threshold, determining the second web page to be a sibling web page and updating the page structure corresponding to the web page based on changes to the sibling web page.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein receiving the validation message from the client system executing the web browser includes receiving the validation message at a proxy server, the validation message being sent from the client system executing the web browser.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein generating requests to validate the embedded resource includes generating requests at a proxy server.