Patent ID: 9667714
Date: 2017-05-30
CPC Classifications: G06F,G06Q,H04L

Claim:
1. A method comprising: communicating, over a network from a first user computing device, a request for content, said request originating from a browser helper application associated with and embedded in a browser application running on the first user computing device; receiving, at the browser helper application running on the first user computing device, a list of alternative user computing devices in response to said request, each alternative user computing device housing at least a portion of the content; selecting from the list of alternative user computing devices, via the first user computing device, at least one second user computing device; initiating, via the first user computing device, a peer to peer connection with the at least one second user computing device; requesting, via the first user computing device, at least a portion of the content from the at least one second user computing device; presenting, via the first user computing device, the content to a user of the first user computing device upon receipt of at least a portion of the content from the at least one second user computing device; monitoring, via the first user computing device, the progress of the receipt of the requested at least a portion of the content; terminating, via the first user computing device, the request if the progress slows beyond a predefined rate; and requesting, via the first user computing device, at least a portion of the content from the content server if no second user computing devices are available.