Pre-fetching items in a virtual universe based on avatar communications

A system for pre-fetching items in a virtual universe (VU) based on avatar communications, comprising:

• a module for analyzing communications between a set of avatars in the VU;
• a module for extracting a set of terms from the communications based on the analysis;
• a module for ranking the set of terms based on at least one of a frequency, a recency, and a relevance of the set of terms as used in the communications;
• and
• a module for calculating a relative priority of each of the set of terms based on the ranking.

A computer readable medium containing a program product for pre-fetching items in a virtual universe (VU) based on avatar communications, the computer readable medium comprising program code for causing a computer to:

• analyze communications between a set of avatars in the VU;
• extract a set of terms from the communications based on the analysis;
• rank the set of terms based on at least one of a frequency, a recency, and a relevance of the set of terms as used in the communications;
• and
• calculate a relative priority of each of the set of terms based on the ranking.

A method for deploying a system for pre-fetching items in a virtual universe (VU) based on avatar communications, comprising:

• providing a computer infrastructure being operable to:
• analyze communications between a set of avatars in the VU;
• extract a set of terms from the communications based on the analysis;
• rank the set of terms based on at least one of a frequency, a recency, and a relevance of the set of terms as used in the communications;
• and
• calculate a relative priority of each of the set of terms based on the ranking.