PRELOADER EMPLOYING ENHANCED MESSAGES

• US 20170041425A1
• Filed: 10/24/2016
• Published: 02/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: WALTON, Denis Brent
• Granted Patent: US 11,425,212 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 processing web page requests, the method comprising:

responsive to detecting a client request for a web page containing a preloadable object, initiating a download of the object to the client; and

before download completion, invoking a preloader to perform operations including;

selecting a preloader message from a set of available messages based at least in part on;

a size of the object;

demographic information associated with the client;

subject matter with which the requested web page is concerned; and

at least one of;

a time of day; and

a day of the week; and

displaying the preloader message wherein the preloader message includes;

an indication of a progress of the download; and

an independent part comprising a message that is independent of a progress status of the download; and

responsive to detecting completion of the preloader message prior to completion of the download, selecting and displaying an additional message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein invoking the preloader occurs in response to a size of the object exceeding a specified threshold.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein invoking the preloader occurs in response to a type of the object being associated with motion graphics.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising estimating a download interval for the object wherein the download interval indicates a time interval required to complete the download of the object.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the independent part of the preloader message includes an advertisement.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the invoking of the preloader includes requesting, by the web server, a third party server to invoke the preloader.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the invoking of the preloader includes the web server indicating a universal resource locator of the third party server.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the preloader displays a plurality of preloader messages to the client before the download completes.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium including computer executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

responsive to detecting a client request for a web page containing a preloadable object, initiating a download of the object to the client; and

before download completion, invoking a preloader to perform operations including;

selecting a preloader message from a set of available messages based at least in part on;

an estimate of a download interval indicative of a time required to download the object;

demographic information associated with the client;

subject matter with which the requested web page is concerned; and

at least one of;

a time of day; and

a day of the week; and

displaying the preloader message with an indication of a progress of the download wherein at least a part of the preloader message is independent of a progress status of the download; and

responsive to detecting completion of the preloader message prior to completion of the download, displaying an additional message.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, further comprising:

estimating the download interval based, at least in part, on a size of the object exceeding a specified threshold.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein a type of the object is a type suitable for implementing motion graphics.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the independent part of the preloader message includes an advertisement.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein invoking the preloader includes requesting a preloader server to invoke the preloader.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13, wherein invoking the preloader includes indicating a universal resource locator of the preloader server.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein displaying the additional message includes:

estimating a remaining download interval and selecting the additional message based, at least in part, on the remaining download interval.

16. A preloader resource, comprising:

a processor; and

a storage medium, accessible to the processor, including processor executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

responsive to detecting a request for a web page containing a preloadable object, initiating a download of the object to a requesting resource;

before download completion, invoking a preloader to perform operations including;

estimating a download interval based on a size of the object;

selecting a preloader message from a set of available messages based at least in part on;

the estimate of the download interval;

demographic information associated with a user of the requesting resource;

subject matter with which the requested web page is concerned; and

at least one of;

 

a time of day; and

 

a day of the week; and

displaying the preloader message with an indication of a progress of the download wherein at least a part of the preloader message is independent of a progress status of the download; and

responsive to detecting completion of the preloader message prior to completion of the download, selecting and displaying an additional message.

17. The preloader resource of claim 16, wherein the preloader message comprises an advertisement.

18. The preloader resource of claim 16, wherein the preloader message includes a first message and wherein the operations include:

after completion of the first message, selecting a second message based at least in part on an estimate of time remaining to download the object.

19. The preloader resource of claim 16, wherein invoking the preloader comprises requesting a preloader server to execute a preloader application.

20. The preloader resource of claim 16, wherein detecting the request for the web page comprises detecting a web browser request from a client device.