Patent ID: 6067565
Filing Date: 2000-05-23
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
In a client computer system that, in response to user interaction with the system, requests items of information, as desired by a user, from a server, a method of obtaining the items of information comprising the steps of:(a) downloading, in response to a request from the user, a first item of information from the server so as to define a current download and rendering portions of the first item of information as it is being downloaded; and(b) while the current download progresses:determining, in response to a predefined aspect of the first item and a predefined user model, at least one second item of information which the user is likely to request next from the server;ascertaining incremental benefit to the user of continuing the current download and expected incremental benefit to the user of the second item of information; andin the event the expected incremental benefit of the second item exceeds the incremental benefit of continuing the current download, deallocating computational or network resources from continuing the current download and allocating the resources towards collectively prefetching and storing the second item of information so as to then obtain the second item for future access in the event the user subsequently requests the second item.