Systems and methods for improved web-based document retrieval and object manipulation

An apparatus, comprising:

• a storage device;
• and
• a processor coupled to the storage device, wherein the storage device stores a program for controlling the processor, and wherein the processor, being operative with the program, is configured to:
• identify a portion of a retrieved web document that is visible to a user, the visible portion having a first boundary in a first scrolling direction and a second boundary in a second scrolling direction;
• identify at least one object within the retrieved web document, the identified object being associated with object metadata and a corresponding manipulation;
• expand at least one of the first boundary in the first scrolling direction or the second boundary in the second scrolling direction to establish an expanded portion of the retrieved web document, the expanded portion comprising the visible portion and a portion of the retrieved web document that is invisible to the user;
• identifying whether the object will require a substantial bandwidth to load based on the object metadata;
• immediately downloading the object when the object does not require substantial bandwidth to load;
• detect whether a portion of the identified object falls between a first boundary and a second boundary of the expanded portion, when the object requires substantial bandwidth to load;
• perform the corresponding manipulation of the identified object when the portion of the identified object falls between the first and second boundaries of the expanded portion, the corresponding manipulation including refreshing previously downloaded electronic content associated with the identified object by requesting and retrieving updated content from a server;
• and
• add the identified object to a polling queue when no portion of the identified object falls between the first and second boundaries of the expanded portion.

A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, perform a method for manipulating objects in a web document, the method comprising:

• identifying a portion of a retrieved web document that is visible to a user, the visible portion having a first boundary in a first scrolling direction and a second boundary in a second scrolling direction;
• identifying at least one object within the retrieved web document, the identified object being associated with object metadata and a corresponding manipulation;
• expanding at least one of the first boundary in the first scrolling direction or the second boundary in the second scrolling direction to establish an expanded portion of the retrieved web document, the expanded portion comprising the visible portion and a portion of the retrieved web document that is invisible to the user;
• identifying whether the object will require a substantial bandwidth to load based on the object metadata;
• immediately downloading the object when the object does not require substantial bandwidth to load;
• detecting whether a portion of the identified object falls between a first boundary and a second boundary of the expanded portion, when the object requires substantial bandwidth to load;
• performing the corresponding manipulation of the identified object when the portion of the identified object falls between the first and second boundaries of the expanded portion, the corresponding manipulation including refreshing previously downloaded electronic content associated with the identified object by requesting and retrieving updated content from a server;
• and
• adding the identified object to a polling queue when no portion of the identified object falls between the first and second boundaries of the expanded portion.