US Patent 8204966 Map tile data pre-fetching based on user activity analysis

Map tile data for displaying graphic elements of a web-based mapping system in a smart phone or other mobile computing device may be pre-fetched to the device based on device activities. For example, a user activity system may receive user activity data from the mobile device. The user activity system may then extract geographic location data from the user activity data and send the geographic location data to a mapping system via a network connection. The mapping system may then match map tile data to the geographic location data extracted from the user activity data and send the matched map tile data to the mobile computing device for cache storage at the mobile computing device. The user activity system may also analyze the user activity data to determine whether the extracted geographic location data is relevant enough to warrant pre-fetching the tile data.