Automatically collecting and compressing style attributes within a web document

A method for improving compression of a web document, wherein the web document comprises a plurality of elements each referencing at least one style attribute, comprising:

• collecting a plurality of separate selections of style attributes each assigned to a separate element within a web document;
• replacing each reference to a particular style attribute within the plurality of separate selections of style attributes with a same key assigned to the particular style attribute, wherein each of the plurality of types of style attributes is assigned a separate key from among a plurality of keys;
• running a Lempel-Ziv algorithm to compress the sequences of keys representing the plurality of separate selections of style attributes into a minimized number of entries;
• and
• replacing each of the plurality of separate selections of style attributes each assigned to a separate element with a class attribute associated with one of the minimized number of entries referencing at least one of the style attributes.

A system for improving compression of a web document, wherein the web document comprises a plurality of elements each referencing at least one style attribute, comprising:

• a style compressor executing on at least one computer system for receiving the web document;
• the style compressor further comprising:
• means for collecting a plurality of style attributes referenced by the plurality of elements of the web document into a central style repository;
• means for replacing each reference by each of the plurality of elements to a particular at least one of the plurality of style attributes with a separate class attribute assigned in the central style repository to the particular at least one of the plurality of style attributes;
• means for compressing the plurality of style attributes in the central style repository into a minimized selection of class attributes each referencing at least one of the plurality of style attributes;
• and
• means for updating each of the plurality of elements of the web document to reference one or more of the minimized selection of class attributes, such that the web document is reorganized and compressed in length.