Predictive prefetching to reduce document generation times

Non-transitory computer storage having stored thereon program instructions that instruct a server system to respond to a page request from a user computing device by a process that comprises:

• selecting, based at least partly on statistical data regarding content retrieval tasks previously used to dynamically generate at least one page associated with the page request, a content retrieval task to perform preemptively;
• preemptively performing the selected content retrieval task in response to the page request, to thereby predictively prefetch content for potential use in dynamically generating a page in response to the page request;
• and
• dynamically generating the page in response to the page request, wherein dynamically generating the page comprises incorporating the predictively prefetched content into the page.

A system for responding to content requests, comprising:

• a computing system comprising one or more physical machines, said computing system programmed to at least:
• maintain, in computer storage, a mapping of resource identifiers to corresponding content retrieval tasks, said mapping reflective of statistical data regarding how frequently specific content retrieval tasks are performed in dynamically generating resources associated with particular resource identifiers, said statistical data based on monitored resource generation events initiated by user computing devices;
• and
• dynamically generate resources in response to resource requests from user computing devices, wherein a response to a request from a user computing device for a resource is generated by using the mapping to identify one or more corresponding content retrieval tasks, and by preemptively performing the one or more identified content retrieval tasks to prefetch content for generating the page.