Preloader employing enhanced messages

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.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 responsive to detecting a client request for a web page containing a preloadable object, initiating a download of the preloadable object to a client associated with the client request; and   before a completion of the download, invoking a preloader to perform operations, wherein the operations include:
 identifying, from a set of available preloader messages, a first preloader message, wherein the first preloader message is identified based on at least one of a plurality of factors comprising:
 a size of the preloadable object; 
 demographic information associated with the client; 
 a subject matter with which the web page is concerned; 
 a time-of-day; or 
 a day-of-week; 
 
 displaying the first preloader message, wherein the first preloader message includes:
 an indication of a progress status of the download; and 
 an independent part comprising a message that is independent of the progress status of the download; and 
 
 responsive to detecting the displaying of the first preloader message prior to the completion of the download, displaying an additional message. 
   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the invoking the preloader occurs in response to the size of the preloadable object exceeding a specified threshold. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the invoking the preloader occurs in response to a type of the preloadable object being associated with motion graphics. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 estimating a download interval for the preloadable object, wherein the download interval indicates a time interval required to complete the download of the preloadable object.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the independent part of the first preloader message includes an advertisement. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the invoking of the preloader includes requesting a third party server to invoke the preloader. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the requesting of the third party server to invoke the preloader comprises providing a web server with a universal resource locator of the third party server. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the preloader displays a second preloader message of the set of available 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, the operations comprising:
 responsive to detecting a client request for a web page containing a preloadable object, initiating a download of the preloadable object to a client associated with the client request; and   before a completion of the download, invoking a preloader to perform additional operations, wherein the additional operations include:
 identifying, from a set of available preloader messages, a first preloader message, wherein the first preloader message is identified based on at least one of a plurality of factors comprising:
 a size of the preloadable object; 
 demographic information associated with the client; 
 a subject matter with which the web page is concerned; 
 a time-of-day; or 
 a day-of-week; 
 
 displaying the first preloader message, wherein the first preloader message includes:
 an indication of a progress status of the download; and 
 an independent part comprising a message that is independent of the progress status of the download; and 
 
 responsive to detecting the displaying of the first preloader message prior to the completion of the download, displaying an additional message. 
   
     
     
         10 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , the operations further comprising:
 estimating a download interval based, at least in part, on the size of the preloadable object exceeding a specified threshold.   
     
     
         11 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein a type of the preloadable 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 first preloader message includes an advertisement. 
     
     
         13 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the invoking the preloader includes requesting a preloader server to invoke the preloader. 
     
     
         14 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 13  wherein the invoking the preloader includes indicating a universal resource locator of the preloader server. 
     
     
         15 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 9 , wherein the 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, the operations include:
 responsive to detecting a client request for a web page containing a preloadable object, initiating a download of the preloadable object to a client associated with the client request; and 
 before a completion of the download, invoking a preloader to perform additional operations, wherein the additional operations include:
 identifying, from a set of available preloader messages, a first preloader message, wherein the first preloader message is identified based on at least one of a plurality of factors comprising:
 a size of the preloadable object; 
 demographic information associated with the client; 
 a subject matter with which the web page is concerned; 
 a time-of-day; or 
 a day-of-week; 
 
 displaying the first preloader message, wherein the first preloader message includes:
 an indication of a progress status of the download; and 
 an independent part comprising a message that is independent of the progress status of the download; and 
 
 responsive to detecting the displaying of the first preloader message prior to the completion of the download, displaying an additional message. 
 
   
     
     
         17 . The preloader resource of  claim 16 , wherein the first preloader message comprises an advertisement. 
     
     
         18 . The preloader resource of  claim 16 , wherein the first preloader message includes a first message and wherein the operations include:
 after displaying of the first message, selecting a second message based at least in part on an estimate of time remaining to download the preloadable object.   
     
     
         19 . The preloader resource of  claim 16 , wherein the invoking the preloader comprises requesting a preloader server to execute a preloader application. 
     
     
         20 . The preloader resource of  claim 16 , wherein the detecting the client request for the web page comprises detecting a web browser request from the client.