Method and apparatus for inserting advertisements and the like in a data stream of an internetworked client for display during the void time

摘要

An improved hypertext viewing system provides inserts to a user at a browser client to view while a requested page loads. The inserts can be any material, but one type of material being animated advertisements. With animated ads, the ad can be downloaded in much less time than it takes to show the ad. This is preferred, because it frees the network to be used to download a requested page between the time that the ad finished downloading and finishes playing. Of course, where the network is much faster than the source of the requested page, such a delay is less of an issue.