Caching proxy server for a peer-to-peer photosharing system

A proxy server comprising:

• a) a communication interface adapted to communicatively couple the proxy server to a network;
• b) cache adapted to store a plurality of previously requested digital assets associated with a plurality of keywords, each keyword of the plurality of keywords being associated with one or more of the plurality of previously requested digital assets and being a descriptor that describes content of the one or more of the plurality of previously requested digital assets, wherein metadata and headers associated with each of the plurality of digital assets is removed prior to storage;
• and
• c) a metadata usage table adapted to:
• i) store a number of hits in a plurality of hit counters for each keyword of the plurality of keywords associated with the previously requested digital assets stored in the cache;
• and
• ii) store time stamps for each keyword, the time stamps indicating when a digital asset of the previously requested digit assets stored in the cache was requested;
• d) a control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to:
• i) normalize each keyword of the plurality of keywords prior to the plurality of keywords being stored in the cache;
• ii) determine a popularity of each of the plurality of keywords;
• iii) manage the cache based on the popularity of each of the plurality of keywords;
• iv) identify ones of the plurality of previously requested digital assets to remove from the cache based on the popularity of each of the plurality of keywords, the popularity being based on the number of hits and the time stamps stored in the metadata usage table;
• v) receive a request for a digital image;
• vi) identify keywords used to tag the requested digital image in response to receiving the request for the digital image by examining metadata associated with the requested digital image;
• vii) in response to identifying the keywords used to tag the requested digital image, increment a hit counter of the plurality of hit counters for the identified keywords used to tag the requested digital image;
• viii) pre-fetch desired digital assets from at least one peer node hosting the desired digital assets, wherein in order to pre-fetch the desired digital assets, the control system is further adapted to:
• A) receive a request for a digital asset tagged with a first keyword;
• B) based on past experience and past requests for assets tagged with the first keyword, determine that requests for digital assets tagged with a second keyword have been made prior to the request for the digital asset tagged with the first keyword and temporally proximate to the past requests for assets tagged with the first keyword;
• and
• C) send a request to the at least one peer node for the digital assets associated with the second keyword based on determining that requests for the digital assets tagged with the second keyword have been made temporally proximate to the past requests;
• ix) determine a least popular keyword of the plurality of keywords by examining the metadata usage table;
• and
• x) remove digital images from the cache associated with the least popular keyword.