Browser cache pre-population

• US 8,725,849 B1
• Filed: 09/14/2011
• Issued: 05/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/11/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Lloyd, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne, Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): Williams, Clayton R
• Application Number:
  US13/232,121
• Time in Patent Office: 972 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 709/220
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching

Abstract

A device may generate, based on historical access pattern information of web content items, a set of web content items that are likely to be accessed by a first user of a client device through a browser program. The device may transmit the determined set of web content items to the client device for pre-population of the cache of the browser program.

Claims

1. A method performed by a device, comprising:

receiving, by the device, access pattern information relating to web content items that are likely to be relevant to a plurality of users;

receiving, by the device, particular user-specific information of a particular user of the plurality of users;

receiving, by the device and from a client device of the particular user, a request for pre-population of a cache of a browser of the client device independent of any user using the browser for any web browsing activity;

identifying, by the device, the particular user-specific information based on the request;

determining, by the device, access rates for the web content items based on the access pattern information;

calculating, by the device, scores of the web content items based on the access rates and sizes of the web content items;

determining, by the device and based on the particular user-specific information and the scores of the web content items, one or more of the web content items that are associated with websites that the particular user is likely to visit; and

transmitting, by the device, the one or more of the web content items to the client device for the client device to pre-populate the cache of the browser with the one or more of the web content items.

2. The method of claim 1, where the access pattern information includes information identifying visited web pages that is received from browser toolbars.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

fetching the one or more of the web content items; and

storing hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) headers associated with the one or more of the web content items.

4. The method of claim 1, where the particular user-specific information includes information relating to a geographic location of the particular user, demographic information of the particular user, or a type of operating system being used by the particular user.

5. The method of claim 1, where determining the one or more of the web content items includes:

determining a likelihood that the web content items will be requested by the particular user based on the particular user-specific information and the scores of the web content items; and

identifying the one or more of the web content items based on the determined likelihood.

6. The method of claim 1, where determining the one or more of the web content items includes:

training a machine learning model based on the scores of the web content items; and

using the machine learning model to determine the one or more of the web content items based on the particular user-specific information.

7. The method of claim 1, where determining the one or more of the web content items further includes:

determining the one or more of the web content items further based on a segmentation technique in which the web content items are categorized into categories corresponding to discrete values of the particular user-specific information and in which the one or more of the web content items correspond to web content items in a category of the particular user.

8. The method of claim 1, where transmitting the one or more of the web content items includes:

transmitting uniform resource locators (URLs), of the one or more of the web content items, to the browser of the client device.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions executable by at least one processor of a server, the instructions comprising:

one or more instructions to receive access pattern information relating to a plurality of web content items that are likely to be relevant to a plurality of users;

one or more instructions to receive particular user-specific information of a particular user of the plurality of users;

one or more instructions to receive, from a client device of the particular user, a request for content items to use in pre-population of a cache of a browser of the client device independent of any user using the browser for any web browsing activity;

one or more instructions to identify the particular user-specific information based on the request;

one or more instructions to determine access rates for the web content items based on the access pattern information;

one or more instructions to calculate scores of the web content items based on the access rates and sizes of the web content items;

one or more instructions to determine, based on the particular user-specific information and the scores of the web content items, one or more of the web content items that are associated with websites that the particular user is likely to visit; and

one or more instructions to transmit the one or more of the web content items to the client device to pre-populate the cache of the browser with the one or more of the web content items.

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

one or more instructions to fetch and store hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) headers associated with the one or more of the web content items.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, where the particular user-specific information includes information relating to a geographic location of the particular user, demographic information of the particular user, or a type of operating system being used by the particular user.

12. A server device comprising:

a memory; and

one or more processors to;

identify historical access pattern information associated with a plurality of web content items that are likely to be relevant to a plurality of users;

determine access rates for the plurality of web content items based on the historical access pattern information;

calculate scores of the plurality of web content items based on the access rates and sizes of the plurality of web content items;

receive, from a client device, a request to pre-populate a cache of a browser program of the client device independent of any user using the browser program for any web browsing activity;

identify, based on the scores of the plurality of web content items and the request, a set of web content items that are likely to be accessed by a particular user of the client device,

the set of web content items being a subset of the plurality of web content items, and

the plurality of users including the particular user; and

transmit the set of web content items to the client device to pre-populate the cache of the browser program.

13. The server device of claim 12, where the one or more processors are further to:

determine the plurality of web content items as a list of web content items that have been accessed by two or more of the plurality of users.

14. The server device of claim 12, where the historical access pattern information includes information regarding visited web pages that is based on selection information generated as part of website search logs.

15. The server device of claim 12, where the one or more processors are further to:

store hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) headers associated with the plurality of web content items.

16. The server device of claim 12, where, when identifying the set of web content items, the one or more processors are further to:

identify the set of web content items that are likely to be accessed by the particular user further based on particular user-specific information of the particular user.

17. The server device of claim 16, where the particular user-specific information includes information relating to a geographic location, demographic information, or a type of operating system of the particular user.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions executable by at least one processor of a server, the instructions comprising:

one or more instructions to identify historical access pattern information associated with a plurality of web content items that are likely to be relevant to a plurality of users;

one or more instructions to determine access rates for the plurality of web content items based on the historical access pattern information;

one or more instructions to calculate scores of the plurality of web content items based on the access rates and sizes of the plurality of web content items;

one or more instructions to receive, from a client device, a request to pre-populate a cache of a browser program of the client device independent of any user using the browser program for any web browsing activity;

one or more instructions to determine, based on the scores of the plurality of web content items and based on the request, a set of web content items that are likely to be accessed by a particular user of the plurality of users,

the set of web content items being a subset of the plurality of web content items; and

one or more instructions to transmit the set of web content items to the client device for the client device to pre-populate the cache of the browser program.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the request is received from the browser program when the client device is downloading an installation file for the browser program.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the historical access pattern information includes information that is based on link selection information that is generated as part of website search logs.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 18, where the one or more instructions to calculate the scores of the plurality of web content items comprise:

one or more instructions to divide the access rates by values associated with the sizes of the plurality of web content items.

22. A method comprising:

receiving, by one or more server devices, access pattern information relating to web content items that are likely to be relevant to a plurality of users;

determining, by the one or more server devices, access rates for the web content items based on the access pattern information;

calculating, by the or more server devices, scores of the web content items based on the access rates and sizes of the web content items;

determining, by the one or more server devices, a list of the web content items based on the scores of the web content items;

determining, by the one or more server devices, one or more web content items, from the list of the web content items, that a particular user, of the plurality of users, is likely to visit, the one or more web content items being determined independent of any user using a browser, of a client device of the particular user, for any web browsing activity; and

transmitting, by the one or more server devices, the determined one or more web content items to the client device for the client device to pre-populate a cache, of the browser of the client device, with the determined one or more web content items.

23. The method of claim 22, where determining the one or more web content items includes:

determining particular user-specific information of the particular user; and

determining the one or more web content items based on the list of the web content items and the particular user-specific information.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

receiving, from the client device, a request to pre-populate the cache of the browser of the client device independent of any user using the browser for any web browsing activity,

determining the one or more web content items including;

determining the one or more web content items based on the list of the web content items and the request.

25. The method of claim 22, where transmitting the determined one or more web content items further includes:

transmitting, to the client device, hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) header information associated with the determined one or more web content items.

26. The method of claim 22, where determining the access rates comprises:

determining a quantity of instances associated with a particular web content item, of the one or more web content items, based on the access pattern information, and

determining a particular access rate, of the access rates, by dividing the quantity of instances by a particular time period associated with the access pattern information.