Method and apparatus for communicating information over low bandwidth communications networks

A handheld computer comprising:

• a display;
• a memory to store a set of data for a selected network site;
• a processor configured to:
• execute an application associated with the selected network site, the application accessing the set of data to generate a query form to be signaled across a wireless channel to the network site;
• execute a browser with the application to signal the query form to the network site, and to render a content comprising one or more pages, at least some of the content being derived from a response received from the network site, the one or more pages of the content being linked using data in the set of data.

A method of processing queries from wireless client devices with limited processing power on a proximity server, comprising the steps of:

• receiving a query at the proximity server from one of the wireless client devices generated by an application executed on the wireless client device associated with content located on a web server;
• transmitting the query from the proximity server to a web server;
• receiving a response to the query from the web server;
• transforming the response into a special temporary markup language format with imbedded formatting commands and according to attributes associated with the wireless client device and usable by the wireless client device;
• and
• transmitting the transformed response to the wireless client device.

A system for processing queries from a plurality of wireless client devices for a web server, the system comprising a proxy server communicating with the plurality of wireless client devices and the web server, the proxy server performing the steps:

• receiving a query at the proxy server from one of the wireless client devices, from a wireless client device generated by an application executed on the wireless client device associated with content located on a web server;
• transmitting the query from the proxy server to a web server;
• receiving a response to the query from the web server;
• transforming the response into a special temporary markup language format according to attributes associated with the wireless client device, and usable by the wireless client device;
• and
• transmitting the transformed response to the wireless client device.

A method of communicating data between a wireless computing device and a web server, the method comprising:

• presenting at least one user-selectable option on a wireless computing device to a user using an application executed on the wireless computing device associated with a website operating on a web server;
• receiving user input to the wireless computing device per the at least one user-selectable option;
• transmitting a query to a proxy server via a first transport protocol, the query corresponding to the user input;
• and on a proxy server:
• transmitting the query to a web server using a second transport protocol;
• receiving a response from the web server comprising data encoded in a first markup language;
• transforming the data encoded in the first markup language into a second special temporary markup language based on attributes associated with the wireless computing device;
• and
• transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless computing device, wherein the wireless computing device displays a representation of the response comprising the transformed data.

A method of communicating data between a wireless computing device and a web server, the method comprising:

• presenting at least one user-selectable option on a wireless computing device to a user using an application executed on the wireless computing device associated with a website operating on a web server;
• receiving user input to the wireless computing device per the at least one user-selectable option;
• transmitting a query to a proxy server via a first transport protocol, the query corresponding to the user input;
• transmitting the query to a web server using a second transport protocol;
• receiving a response from the web server comprising data encoded in a first markup language;
• transforming the data encoded in the first markup language into a special temporary second markup language based on attributes associated with a wireless network communication with the wireless computing device;
• and
• transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless computing device, wherein the wireless computing device displays a representation of the response comprising the transformed data.

A proxy server for communicating data between a website and a plurality of wireless client devices, the proxy server comprising:

• means for receiving a query from a wireless client device generated by an application executed on the wireless client device associated with content located on the web server and using a first transport protocol;
• means for transmitting the received query to a web server using a second transport protocol;
• means for receiving a response comprising data from the web server to the received query using a first markup language;
• means for transforming the data in the response from the web server from the first markup language to a special temporary markup language format usable by the wireless client device;
• and
• means for transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless client device for display on the wireless client device,
• wherein:
• the format usable by the wireless client device is a compact markup language with embedded formatting commands and relates to a screen size and/or bit depth of the wireless client device.

A proxy server for communicating data between a website and a plurality of wireless client devices, the proxy server comprising:

• means for receiving a query from a wireless client device generated by an application executed on the wireless client device associated with content located on the web server and using a first transport protocol;
• means for transmitting the received query to a web server using a second transport protocol;
• means for receiving a response comprising data from the web server to the received query using a first markup language;
• means for transforming the data encoded from the first markup language to a special temporary markup language format usable by the wireless client device, the special temporary format relating to attributes of a wireless network communication with the wireless client device;
• and
• means for transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless client device for display on the wireless client device.

A proxy server for communicating data between a website and a plurality of wireless client devices, the proxy server comprising:

• means for receiving a query from a wireless client device generated by an application executed on the wireless client device associated with content located on the web server using a first transport protocol;
• means for transmitting the received query to a web server using a second transport protocol;
• means for receiving a response comprising data from the web server using a first markup language;
• means for transforming the data encoded in the first markup language to a special temporary markup language format usable by the wireless client device according to attributes associated with the respective wireless client device that generated the query;
• and
• means for transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless client device for display on the wireless client device.

A method for operation of a proxy server with wireless client devices that transmits queries to, and receive responses from a web server, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving a query, upon the event of a client providing input to a wireless client device to generate the query using an application that is associated with the content of the web server, and is in a first transfer protocol;
• transmitting the query in the second transfer protocol to the web server;
• receiving a response comprising data from the web server in a hypertext markup language;
• transforming the received data to a special temporary markup language format usable by the wireless client device according to attributes of the wireless client device;
• and
• transmitting the response comprising the transformed data to the wireless client device.