Methods and systems for generating and displaying a preview image of a content area

Abstract

Systems, methods and articles of manufacture for generating and displaying a preview image of a content area are described herein. An embodiment includes rendering an image representing the content area requested by a browser, providing the rendered image to the browser for display, and enabling the browser to display the requested content area in place of the rendered image when the content area is received by the browser. The method further includes updating language defining the requested content area to reference the rendered image and to enable transition from a display of the rendered image to a display of the requested content area, and providing the updated language to the browser to enable the browser to display the rendered image while the requested content area is being provided to the browser.

1 . A computer implemented method for generating a preview image of a content area, comprising:
 rendering an image representing the content area requested by a browser;   providing the rendered image to the browser;   updating mark-up language defining the requested content area to include a reference to the rendered image and one or more instructions to the browser to transition from a display of the rendered image to a display of the requested content area; and   providing the updated mark-up language to the browser to enable display of the requested content area in place of the rendered image when the updated mark-up language is received by the browser,   wherein the rendering, the updating, the providing the rendered image and the providing the updated mark-up language are performed using one or more processors.   
     
     
         2 . (canceled) 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a request from the browser for a rendered preview image of the requested content area.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 executing scripts associated with the requested content area;   fetching resources associated with the requested content area;   processing cookies associated with the requested content area; and   applying graphical user interface elements to construct the requested content area.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a request from the browser to enable selection of a rendering engine to render the image.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 rendering images representing a plurality of pre-defined content areas prior to receiving requests from the browser;   caching the plurality of rendered images; and   providing the cached rendered images in response to requests from the browser for the pre-defined content areas.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising updating the cached rendered images based on updates to the pre-defined content areas. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 rendering images representing one or more content areas, the rendering based on one or more of respective popularities of the content areas and relevance of the content areas to a user, the rendering performed prior to receiving a request for the one or more content areas.   
     
     
         9 . A computer implemented method for displaying a preview image of a content area in a browser, comprising:
 providing a request for the content area to a server;   receiving a rendered image representing the content area in response to the request;   displaying the rendered image while retrieving mark-up language defining the requested content area, the mark-up language including a reference to the rendered image and one or more instructions to transition from a display of the rendered image to a display of the requested content area; and   displaying the requested content area in place of the rendered image, when the mark-up language is received from the server,   wherein the providing and the displaying are performed using one or more processors.   
     
     
         10 . A computer-based system for generating a preview image of a content area, comprising:
 one or more processors;   a rendering engine configured to receive a request for the content area from a browser and to render an image representing the requested content area; and   a code re-writer configured to update mark-up language defining the requested content area to include a reference to the rendered image and one or more instructions to the browser to transition from a display of the rendered image to a display of the requested content area, and configured to provide the updated mark-up language to the browser to enable display of the requested content area in place of the rendered image when the updated mark-up language is received by the browser,   wherein the rendering engine and the code re-writer are implemented on the one or more processors.   
     
     
         11 . (canceled) 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the content area is a web page. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the language is Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML). 
     
     
         14 . An article of manufacture including a computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computing device, cause said computing device to perform operations comprising:
 rendering an image representing a content area requested by a browser;   providing the rendered image to the browser;   updating mark-up language defining the requested content area to include a reference to the rendered image and one or more instructions to the browser to transition from a display of the rendered image to a display of the requested content area; and   providing the updated mark-up language to the browser to enable display of the requested content area in place of the rendered image when the updated mark-up language is received by the browser,   wherein the rendering, the updating, the providing the rendered image and the providing the updated mark-up language are performed using one or more processors.   
     
     
         15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . The article of manufacture of  claim 14 , the operations further comprising:
 receiving a request from the browser for a rendered preview image of the requested content area.   
     
     
         17 . The article of manufacture of  claim 14 , the operations further comprising:
 executing scripts associated with the requested content area;   fetching resources associated with the requested content area;   processing cookies associated with the requested content area; and   applying graphical user interface elements to construct the requested content area.   
     
     
         18 . The article of manufacture of  claim 14 , the operations further comprising:
 receiving a request from the browser to enable selection of a rendering engine to render the image.   
     
     
         19 . The article of manufacture of  claim 14 , the operations further comprising:
 rendering images representing a plurality of pre-defined content areas prior to receiving requests from the browser;   caching the plurality of rendered images; and   providing the cached rendered images in response to requests from the browser for the pre-defined content areas.   
     
     
         20 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 dynamically selecting a rendering engine or a cached preview image based on a request for content area requested by the browser.   
     
     
         21 . The computer implemented method of  claim 20 , wherein the dynamically selecting comprises dynamically selecting the rendering engine or the cached preview image based on information in a header of the request. 
     
     
         22 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more instructions to the browser enables the browser to transition from the display of the rendered image to the display of the requested content area using Document Object Model (DOM) manipulation. 
     
     
         23 . The computer implemented method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more instructions to the browser enables the browser to transition from the display of the rendered image to the display of the requested content area using a scripting language. 
     
     
         24 . The computer implemented method of  claim 23 , wherein the scripting language is JavaScript.