Patent ID: 7483941

Claim:
A method for automatically instructing a proxy to prefetch a webpage from a web server, comprising: establishing a proxy between a web browser on a user's computer and the web server; recording, in a database connected to the web server, a plurality of user preferences and a plurality of user configuration data; when the user sends a request for a user-requested webpage that is not in a cache memory of the proxy, forwarding the request to the web server; cross-referencing a hyperlink in the user-requested webpage with the plurality of user preferences and the plurality of user configuration data in the database; when the web server receives the request, and only when a match results from cross-referencing the hyperlink with the plurality of user preferences and the plurality of user configuration data, causing the web server to add an instruction to the user-requested webpage and then returning the user-requested webpage to the proxy; when the proxy receives the user-requested webpage, forwarding the user-requested webpage to the browser, and only after forwarding the user-requested webpage to the browser, automatically obtaining a prefetched webpage from the web server in accordance with the instruction, and storing the prefetched webpage in a proxy cache memory; wherein the proxy stores the prefetched webpage in the proxy cache memory in an anticipation of a request for the prefetched webpage by the user; and wherein the proxy is automatically instructed to prefetch a webpage by the instruction placed in the user-requested webpage.