Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-04
2004-06-01
Nguyen, Cao (Kevin) (Department: 2173)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06744452
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to displaying web pages on a web browser and in particular to the caching and displaying of web pages downloaded from the Internet using a web browser. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to method and system for identifying cached web pages to a user using a modified web browser.
2. Description of the Related Art
The development of computerized distributed information resources, such as the “Internet,” allows users to link with servers and networks, and thus retrieve vast amounts of electronic information heretofore unavailable in an electronic medium. Such electronic information increasingly is displacing more conventional means of information transmission, such as newspapers, magazines, and event television. The term “Internet” is an abbreviation for “Inter-network,” and refers commonly to a collection of computer networking. TCP/IP is an acronym for “Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol,” a software protocol developed by the Department of Defense for communication between computers.
Internet services are typically accessed by specifying a unique address, or universal resource locator (URL). The URL has two basic components, the protocol to be used, and the object pathname. For example, the URL “http://www.uspto.gov” (home page for the United States Patent & Trademark Office) specifies a hypertext transfer protocol (“http”) and a pathname of the server (“www.uspto.gov”). The server name is associated with a unique numeric value (a TCP/IP address, or “domain”).
The Internet has rapidly become a valuable source of information to all segments of society. In addition to commercial enterprises utilizing the Internet as an integral part of their marketing efforts in promoting their products or services, many federal, state, and local government agencies are also employing Internet sites for informational purposes, particularly agencies which must interact with virtually all segments of society such as the Internal Revenue Service. The information provided is often updated regularly to keep the users up to date with changes which may occur from time to time.
The World Wide Web (Web) is a graphic, interactive interface for the Internet. There are different programs (web browser clients, referred to hereinafter as web browser) on a data processing system (also referred to as a computer) connected to the Web that are utilized to access servers (a program on another data processing system) connected to the Web. The program on the server is generally termed a “web site.” Web sites are a collection of “web pages,” where web pages are graphic displays which are usually linked together and may be downloaded to a data processing system utilizing a browser client. Each web page has a unique address, or Universal Resource Locator (URL) within the Web that is accessible by utilizing Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) transactions via telecommunication networks and a modem. The address allows Internet “browser” clients (computer program applications) to connect and communicate with a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server over the Web.
Retrieval of information on the Web is generally accomplished with a hypertext markup language (HTML)—compatible “browser”—an application program capable of submitting a request for information identified by an URL—at the client machine. The information is provided to the client formatted according to HTML.
Each WWW address specifies or implies a reference to one particular site on the Internet. This means that without some kind of additional machinery, whenever a person requests a specific WWW address, no matter where she is from and no matter how often others in her network request the same address, she will make a network call to that specific site, leading to unnecessarily high use of network links and excessive load on the servers for popular sites.
High use of network lines and excessive load on popular servers leads to one of the single biggest problems experienced by Internet users today: lack of adequate bandwidth. Information abounds on the Internet, but the delay involved in retrieving that information frustrates many users. Until the Internet infrastructure upgrades to bigger “pipes” which can transmit greater amounts information in the same amount of time, Web surfers must look to other means to relieve the congestion.
When Web pages are retrieved under direct user control, it is common practice for contemporary Web browsers to cache pages accessed by the user. Large traffic demands to specific Web sites can make access to such sites difficult. The amount of time which a user must wait to view a Web page during peak utilization periods can be very long. Network bandwidth is finite, and the time required to retrieve a Web page depends in part on the number of servers at the site from which the Web page is being retrieved. Furthermore, Web pages often include sizable graphics files or other large files requiring a substantial amount of time to transfer from the source to the requesting client. Caching Web pages allows a user to repeatedly view the information within a short span of time without retrieving the Web pages each time. It provides a local (or networked) copy of a web page previously retrieved off the Internet to speed up reloading of the page when desired.
Caching is a generic term meaning “to store.” It typically is completed to avert internet traffic. As applied to the Internet, “caching” means the copying of a web page, made incidental to the first access to the page, and storage of that copy for that purpose of speeding subsequent access.
Caching helps to relieve Internet congestion by expediting user access time, decreasing the amount of bandwidth each user uses and bandwidth used on the Internet generally, on network servers, and on remote servers.
There are two ways to cache web pages on the Internet: “client caching” and “proxy caching.” Client caches reside within an individual user's Web browser (such as Netscape or Mosaic). Client caching takes two forms: persistent and non-persistent. A persistent client retains its documents between invocations of the Web browser. Netscape uses a persistent cache. A non-persistent client cache (used in Mosaic) removes any memory or disk space used for caching when the user quits the browser.
When the user's computer requests a website, the computer will first check to see if the data requested already resides in the cache. If the cache has a copy of the requested data then the cache provides the data very quickly to the user. If the data is not in the cache, the computer fetches the item needed from the Internet, and also stores a copy in the cache. Now the cache has this data available if the processor requests it again. The larger the cache, the more data the cache can store and the more likely the cache will have the requested item.
The second form of caching, “proxy caching. ” takes place on a network used by the World Wide Web (“WWW” or “Web”). Proxy caches reside on machines in strategic places (typically gateways) in the network of the WWW. Proxy servers act as intermediaries between local clients and remote content servers. Caching of Web pages is also performed at proxies. Thus, caching in proxies, which serve an entire intranet, can benefit the entire local network.
When a user asks a client for a certain web page, the client heads out to the Internet. If there is a caching proxy, client requests go to the proxy server, not to the remote web page. The proxy checks to see if it has already cached the requested page on the proxy server. If the server has cached a copy of the web page, the server returns the page to the client directly. Reporting cached information to clients occurs rapidly because it requires reduced internet activity. Caching reduces the computational load on the remote content server and makes it possible for that server to supply data to more machines exponentially. If the server does not have a cached copy of the requeste
McBrearty Gerald Francis
Mullen Shawn Patrick
Shieh Johnny Meng-Han
Bracewell & Patterson L.L.P.
Emile Volel
International Business Machines - Corporation
Nguyen Cao (Kevin)
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