At the present time, browser technology for accessing content on the web, performing database searches, and completing commercial transactions has become quite prevalent. Specifically, many search engines and web sites provide the capacity to execute relatively detailed boolean content queries from browser users to locate specific content. In one example, certain court systems allow users to provide a boolean query to perform a content search of judicial decisions.
The length of time required to perform such transactions or searches varies widely. The length of time is dependent upon a number of factors. For example, a web server performing such a search may exhibit performance degradation if the web server is executing a number of threads to simultaneously process a number of transactions or searches. Clearly, the length of time to perform such a search is dependent upon the amount of data to be examined. For example, a content query associated with a search engine that requires examination of innumerable cached web sites requires much more processing capacity than a simple search of a small entity web site.
At the present time, communication of the length of time required to perform a transaction is not provided to users. Instead, some time information is provided to users concerning the data transfer rate. A browser may display a data transfer rate of 18 kbps. Alternatively, a browser may display a percentage of information that remains to be downloaded. For example, a web server may communicate that a certain transaction will cause a file of 1.4 megabytes to be downloaded. The browser may provide a small graphical display indicating the amount of the file that has been downloaded at a given time. However, this information solely pertains to communication between threads operating on a user's computer system and a particular web site. The information does not tell a user anything about processing that occurs solely within the web server.