Time-dependent machine-generated hinting

A system for hint generation comprising:

• a hinting machine disposed in a communications network, the hinting machine comprising:
• a sample data store;
• a resource sampler that operates to receive, from one or more client machines, feedback information generated based on prior renderings of a web page by the one or more client machines, wherein rendering the web page comprises obtaining a root object and one or more child resources, the feedback information comprising a plurality of resource samples of one or more of the one or more child resources for the web page, each resource sample comprising a sample time corresponding to one of the one or more child resources and indicating a rendering status of the respective child resource during the corresponding prior rendering of the web page at the respective sample time, the rendering status indicating whether the respective child resource was loaded at the corresponding sample time or not;
• a hint generator that operates to:
• determine resource relationships between the plurality of resource samples, the resource relationships indicating a correspondence of a rendering status of a first resource sample with a rendering status of a second resource sample;
• determine, as a function of the plurality of resource samples, a time-based probability function that generates a probability that an individual child resource of the one or more child resources will be requested and that a second child resource will be requested based on the determined resource relationship with the individual child resource in the course of rendering the web page, the time-based probability function determined by applying a weighting function to each resource sample of the plurality of resource samples to weight an impact of each resource sample on the probability generated by the time-based probability function for the individual child resource;
• calculate one or more probabilities using the time-based probability function, each probability corresponding to one of the one or more child resources and indicating a probability that the corresponding one of the one or more child resources will be requested from a content server in the course of rendering the web page at a particular time in the future;
• and
• generate, according to the probability, a hint for prefetching one or more of the one or more child resources as a part of a future rendering of the web page by a requesting client machine;
• and
• a communications subsystem that operates to communicate the hint to the requesting client machine.

A method for hint generation, the method comprising:

• receiving, at a client machine from a hinting machine over a communications network, a plurality of hints for prefetching one or more child resources in association with loading a web page, the hints generated by the hinting machine by using a time-based probability function, determined as a function of a plurality of resource samples, that generates a probability that an individual child resource of the one or more child resources will be requested and that a second child resource will be requested based on a determined resource relationship with the individual child resource in the course of rendering the web page and by calculating one or more probabilities using the time-based probability function, each probability corresponding to one of the one or more child resources and indicating a probability that the corresponding one of the one or more child resources will be requested from a content server in the course of rendering the web page at a particular time in the future, each resource sample received by the hinting machine with respect to a corresponding sample time and indicating a rendering status of a corresponding resource with respect to rendering the web page at the corresponding sample time, the rendering status indicating whether the respective child resource was loaded at the corresponding sample time or not, and the time-based probability function determined by applying a weighting function to each resource sample of the plurality of resource samples to weight an impact of each resource sample on the probability generated by the time-based probability function for the individual child resource;
• and
• prefetching at least some of the one or more child resources in association with loading the web page and in accordance with the received plurality of hints.