Abstract:
The invention relates to a new reference tag as an extension to mark-up languages, such as the HyperText Mark-up Language. The new reference tag embraces an item, such as a picture or a paragraph, and provides information about the item. The information can for example be the time when the item was updated. The reference tag may be used to download just one item amid several items in a document.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Technical Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to formatting and retrieval of information in documents located in computer networks, particularly the Internet.  
           [0003]    2. Description of Related Art  
           [0004]    The Internet is a well-known phenomenon used by millions of people every day. FIG. 1 shows a simplified block diagram of an exemplary network-browsing environment according to the Prior Art. Only those items needed for explanatory reasons are included in FIG. 1, but it should be understood that a real network is bound to comprise more nodes, connections and the like. A user desiring to access a web page  11  (also known as a document) located on the Internet  20  needs some kind of browser  10  to do so. Such a browser  10  may be a program residing in a device  21  such as for example a computer, a cellular telephone or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).  
           [0005]    In the description hereinafter, “web page  11 ” may, where no risk of confusion exists, be used to describe the page as it is stored on a web site, the information, i.e. the HTML code, the executable files and so on, that make up the information in the page, and the web page as it appears to a user in a browser window. A person skilled in the art will certainly know what the term refers to at different times.  
           [0006]    As well known in the art, the user enters in the browser  10  a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) or the like that identifies the desired web page  11 . The browser  10  sends a request comprising the page identifier towards the network  17  through connection  15  to a modem  14  that in turn is connected to the network  17  through connection  16 . These connections  15  and  16  may for example be electrical, optical or telephone cable connections, but the modem  14  may also be incorporated in the device  21  the browser  10  resides on. The device  21  may also have access to the network  17  through a wireless connection  19  using for example, but not limited to, one or more of the following technologies well known in the art: Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM), Personal Digital Cellular (PDC), Total Access Cellular System (TACS), Code Division Multiple Access One (CDMAOne), Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA2000), and Bluetooth.  
           [0007]    The network  17  then forwards the request to the server  12  that will provide the web page  11 . The connection  18  between the network and the server  12  may be of a kind mentioned hereinbefore. It is to be understood that the web page  11  need not necessarily reside within the server  12 ; it is usually sufficient that the server  12  has access to the web page  11 .  
           [0008]    The server  12  then retrieves and sends the web page information through the network  17  to the device  21  that processes the web page information and presents the web page in the browser  10  so that the user can see, read and interact with it.  
           [0009]    [0009]FIG. 2 shows an exemplary Prior Art web page  11  as a user can see it in the browser  10 . The web page  11  may comprise a commercial banner  22  at the top of the page. Such a banner  22  is usually an advertisement for some company or service and sometimes helps to pay for the upkeep of the web site (not shown) where the web page  11  is located. The left side of the web page  11  is mainly a navigation bar  23 , by which the user can access other web pages, some of which may be external to the web site. To the right of the navigation bar  23  are two text blocks  24  and  25  that contain text information that may be of interest to the user. Finally, to the right are shown two images  26  and  27  that may provide further interesting information in image form to the user.  
           [0010]    If the web page  11  is the front page of a newspaper&#39;s site then the parts of the web page  11  may be as follows:  
           [0011]    The commercial banner  22  may be the header with the name of the newspaper.  
           [0012]    The navigation bar  23  may provide an easy way to access various parts of the newspaper, for example “politics”, “economy”, “sports”, “leisure”, “weather” and “comics”.  
           [0013]    The first text block  24  may be the main news story.  
           [0014]    The second text block  25  may be the main sports story.  
           [0015]    The first image  26  may show how the stock exchange is doing (the smiling face indicating an upward trend).  
           [0016]    The second image  27  may show the weather forecast (sun).  
           [0017]    [0017]FIG. 3 shows exemplary Prior Art HyperText Mark-Up Language (HTML) code  30 . The text that is underlined is the text that will be shown by the browser  10 , while the rest are instructions for the browser  10 .  
           [0018]    At the top are three lines  31  containing formatting instructions that will arrange the following items in a table. The following three lines  32  relate to a single subject. They start out with a tag, &lt;P&gt;, indicating a paragraph break. The following line contains a tag, &lt;B&gt;, indicating that the following text “December 13, 9:30 in the cafeteria” should be displayed with a bold font, which in turn is followed by another tag, &lt;/B&gt;, indicating that the bold font should not be used any longer, and a &lt;BR&gt;tag, indicating a line break. The third and last line contains text to be displayed: “Sankta Lucia: Glögg and Swedish buns will be served.” 
           [0019]    Most HTML tags have an opening tag, e.g. &lt;B&gt;, and a corresponding closing tag, e.g. &lt;/B&gt;, but there are exceptions such as for example &lt;P&gt;and &lt;BR&gt;hereinbefore.  
           [0020]    The first three of the following four lines  33  are analogous to the three lines  32  above. The fourth line however starts and ends with tags relating to bold font. The &lt;A href=. . . &gt;and its corresponding &lt;/A&gt;indicate that what is between them, “Info”, is a so-called hyperlink that will download and display the web page, “/lmc_home/lmcevents/noel — 20001103.doc”, that is indicated between the hyphens after the ‘href’ when the hyperlink is activated.  
           [0021]    The last five lines  34  show the code for yet another subject that is formatted using the tags mentioned hereinbefore. A real web page may contain many more items than the three illustrated in FIG. 3. Presently, when users access a web site to download information the entire web page is downloaded. This way of downloading information wastes resources if the user only desired part of the information located on the web page. There is no efficient way for the user to download only part of a page. One way for the user to avoid the download of too much information is to manually stop the data transfer when the interesting information has been received. This is however cumbersome and requires constant attention from the user, and may still be futile if the desired information is the last to be received.  
           [0022]    Some pages found on the Internet provide the possibility to find and display a certain subject, for instance by the use of Anchor tags in HyperText Mark-up Language (HTML), which is a common language used to format web pages. These Anchor tags require the entire web page to be downloaded, so while they facilitate the search for information for the user, they do not solve the problem of reducing the amount of transferred information.  
           [0023]    Another problem facing the user is that if he on a regular basis wants to access several small pieces of information from several different web pages he has to access each of these pages in succession which is quite time consuming and annoying. There are web sites that let the user choose the information he wants displayed, but only as long as the information is found on the web site itself. There is however currently no easy way for a user to do this if he wants to access particular information from different web sites.  
           [0024]    Yet another problem is that major amounts of data are transmitted across the world as the users access the Internet. Even though the transport capability is increased practically every day, there are still bottlenecks, for example modem connections and wireless connections. This will probably continue to be a problem far into, and possibly beyond, the foreseeable future. One root of this problem is that users sometimes download the same page more than once, since they want to see if some data has been updated. Even though they are only interested in seeing a part of the page (possibly displayed together with the other information on the page), they still have to download all of it, which may be quite wasteful. There is no current solution to this problem.  
           [0025]    The present invention seeks to overcome the problems mentioned hereinbefore in providing a method, a system and a network node that allow users to download a specific part of a web page, to repeatedly access several pieces of information from different web pages in an easy manner, and a way to decrease the amount of transmitted data when users want to download a page more than once.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0026]    The present invention is directed to a method for retrieving information stored in at least one document stored in a server in a network. The at least one document comprises at least one tag identifying at least one item in the document, and the at least one tag comprises item information. The network further has a connection to an application program. The method begins when the application program sends to the server a request comprising an identifier of at least one document and requested item information associated with the document. Upon reception of the request by the server, it extracts from the request the identity of the at least one document that is comprised in the request, and for each extracted document, further extracts the requested item information. The server then retrieves items whose item information matches the requested item information and sends the retrieved items to the application program.  
           [0027]    The present invention is further directed to a system for retrieving information. The system comprises an application program and at least one server having access to the information stored in at least one document. The at least one document comprises at least one tag identifying at least one item in the document, and the at least one tag further comprises item information. The application program comprises a transmission unit for sending to a server a request comprising an identifier of at least one document accessible by the server and requested item information associated with the document, and a reception unit for receiving retrieved items sent from the at least one server. The at least one server comprises a reception unit for receiving the request from the application program, a processing unit for extracting document identifiers from the request, and for each document identifier extracted, further extracting the requested item information, and retrieving the at least one requested item, and a transmission unit for sending retrieved items to the application program.  
           [0028]    The present invention is further directed to a server for retrieving information stored in at least one document accessible by the server. The at least one document comprises at least one tag identifying at least one item in the document, and the at least one tag further comprises item  30  information. The server resides in a network that further has a connection to at least one application program. The server comprises a reception unit for receiving from the application program a request comprising an identifier of at least one document and requested item information associated with the at least one document, and a transmission unit for sending retrieved items to the application program. The server further comprises a processing unit for extracting from the request the document identifier, and for each extracted document, further extracting requested item information associated with the document, and retrieving the at least one requested item.  
           [0029]    The present invention is further directed to a method for continuous update of information to an application program in a network. The network further comprises an intermediate node and at least one server storing documents wherein at least some of the documents comprise at least one tag. Each tag identifies an item in the document and at least one tag comprises information about when the item was updated. The method starts by sending from the application program to the intermediate node a list comprising at least one item and a time associated with each item. The intermediate node then sends to the at least one relevant server at least one request for at least one item, the at least one request comprising the time associated with the item in the list. Upon reception of a request by a server, it retrieves any requested items that were updated after the associated time, and sends the retrieved items to the intermediate node. Upon reception of the retrieved items at the intermediate node, it updates the time for every received item in the list, using the time in the item&#39;s tag, processes received items for transmission to the application program, and sends the received items to the application program.  
           [0030]    The present invention is further directed to a system, comprising an intermediate node and an application program in a network, for continuous update of information to the application program. The network further comprises at least one server storing documents wherein at least some of the documents comprise at least one tag. Each tag identifies an item in the document and at least one tag comprises information about when the item was updated. The application program is for sending to the intermediate node a list comprising at least one item and a time associated with each item, and receiving messages from the intermediate node. The intermediate node is for sending to the at least one relevant server at least one request for at least one item, the at least one request comprising the time associated with the item in the list, and receiving items from the at least one relevant server. Upon reception of an item, the intermediate node updates the time for the received item using the time in the item&#39;s tag, processes received items for transmission to the application program, and sends to the application program a message comprising the received items.  
           [0031]    The present invention is further directed to a method for continuous update of information to an application program in a network. The network further comprises an intermediate node and at least one server storing documents wherein at least some of the documents comprise at least one tag. Each tag identifies an item in the document and at least one tag comprises information about when the item was updated. The method comprises steps of sending from the application program to the intermediate node a list comprising at least one item and a time associated with each item, sending by the intermediate node to the at least one relevant server at least one request for at least one item, the at least one request comprising the time associated with the item in the list and the address of the application program. Upon reception of a request at the relevant server, it retrieves any requested items that were updated after the associated time, sends the retrieved items to the application program, and sends a message comprising the identity of the retrieved items and the time they were last updated to the intermediate node. Upon reception of the message at the intermediate node, it updates the time for every received item in the list.  
           [0032]    The present invention is further directed to a system for continuous update of information to an application program in a network. The system comprises in the network an intermediate node and at least one server storing documents wherein at least some of the documents comprise at least one tag. Each tag identifies an item in the document and at least one tag comprises information about when the item was updated. The intermediate node is for receiving from the application program a list comprising at least one item and a time associated with each item, sending to the at least one relevant server at least one request for at least one item, the at least one request comprising the time associated with the item in the list and the address of the application program, receiving from the at least one relevant server a message comprising the identity of the retrieved items and the time they were last updated, and upon reception of the message, updating in the list the time for every item in the message. The server is for receiving requests from the intermediate node, retrieving any requested items that were updated after the associated time, sending retrieved items to the application program, and sending a message comprising the identity of the retrieved items and the time they were last updated to the intermediate node.  
           [0033]    The present invention is further directed to an intermediate node in a network, the intermediate node being for continuous update of information to an application program. The network further comprises at least one server storing documents wherein at least some of the documents comprise at least one tag. Each tag identifies an item in the document and wherein at least one tag comprises information about when the item was updated. The intermediate node comprises a reception unit for receiving from the application program a list comprising at least one item and a time associated with each item, and receiving from at least one server items sent in response to requests sent by the intermediate node. The intermediate node further comprises a transmission unit for sending requests to relevant servers for the item, the requests comprising the time associated with the item in the list, and sending messages comprising items to the application program. The intermediate node also comprises a processing unit for updating the time for the item in the list stored by the intermediate node upon reception of the item at the intermediate node.  
           [0034]    The present invention is further directed to a method for display of information in a browser application program. The information is stored in at least one document accessible by at least one server accessible by the browser application program in a network. At least one of the documents comprises tags identifying at least one item in the document, and the user has stored in the browser application program a list comprising the identities of at least two documents or items. The method comprises steps of accessing the list by the browser application program, for each entry in the list, sending a request to the corresponding server, and upon reception of a response from a server, displaying the information.  
           [0035]    The present invention is further directed to a browser application program for display of information. The information is stored in at least one document accessible by at least one server accessible by the browser application program in a network. At least one of the documents comprises tags identifying at least one item in the document, and the user has stored in a memory accessible by the browser application program a list comprising the identities of at least two documents or items. The browser application program comprises a processing unit for accessing the list, and displaying information received from the at least one server, a transmission unit for sending a request to the relevant server for each entry in the list, and a reception unit for receiving responses from servers. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0036]    A more complete understanding of the present invention may be had by reference to the following Detailed Description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:  
         [0037]    [0037]FIG. 1 shown hereinbefore depicts a simplified block diagram of an exemplary network-browsing environment according to the Prior Art;  
         [0038]    [0038]FIG. 2 shown hereinbefore depicts an exemplary Prior Art web page;  
         [0039]    [0039]FIG. 3 shown hereinbefore depicts exemplary Prior Art HTML code;  
         [0040]    [0040]FIG. 4 depicts an extension to present mark-up languages;  
         [0041]    [0041]FIG. 5 depicts a signal flow diagram of a preferred embodiment of a method for downloading information from a server according to the invention;  
         [0042]    [0042]FIG. 6 depicts a signal flow diagram of a preferred embodiment of a method for downloading information from more than one server according to the invention;  
         [0043]    [0043]FIG. 7 depicts a flow chart of a preferred embodiment of a method for repeated automatic update of information from a server according to the invention; and  
         [0044]    [0044]FIG. 8 depicts a flow chart of a preferred embodiment of a method for repeated automatic update of information from a server according to the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS  
       [0045]    Reference is now made to the Drawings, where FIG. 4 depicts mark-up tags  41   a  and  41   b  (that may be referred to as  41  when both  41   a  and  41   b  are referred to jointly) that together form an extension to mark-up languages, existing and future. This new mark-up tag  41  is called ITEM and surrounds a subject or item of any kind. These items may for example be the main story of a newspaper, a stock ticker, an organisational chart, or a weather forecast. The new tag  41  may be used to indicate that everything within it is related, which is a main function of the tag.  
         [0046]    The figure shows the start of the opening tag  41   a  “&lt;ITEM” and its corresponding closing tag  41   b  “&lt;/ITEM&gt;”. As mentioned hereinbefore, these two tags  41   a  and  41   b  surround what is considered to be one item, whether that item treats one or more subjects or topics completely, or a selected part of a subject. Encompassed in the opening tag  41   a  are a number of parameters  42 - 44  with information about the item. These parameters  42 - 44  indicate various aspects of the item, such as for example its type, name, and when it was last updated. The parameters that may be encompassed in the opening tag  41   a  are not limited to the three exemplary parameters  42 - 44  mentioned and shown, nor is any parameter mandatory.  
         [0047]    The TYPE parameter  42  indicates the item&#39;s type. Examples of different types are ‘navigation bar’, ‘picture’, ‘applet’, ‘clock’, ‘stock ticker’, and as in the figure ‘main story’, the latter for example indicating that the particular item is the headline news story for the newspaper at the moment.  
         [0048]    The NAME parameter  43  gives a hopefully unique name to the item. This may for example be used to distinguish different items from each other, and to help with the identification of a particular item. In the figure, the item&#39;s name is “New president”.  
         [0049]    The UPDATED parameter  44  shows when the item was last updated. The exemplary item in the figure was updated (or added if the item is new) on Dec. 12, 2000 at 14:03. The level of detail is up to the author of the page, as it may be unnecessary to provide all the information to a user; for web pages that rarely are updated may need only the date, with or without year, while the time may suffice for web pages that are updated often, like for example stock quotes.  
         [0050]    As already mentioned, other parameters may be used instead of or in addition to the parameters mentioned hereinbefore. Examples of such parameters are:  
         [0051]    APPLICATION, that indicates that the item is only for use with the listed application or applications (such as for example certain browsers),  
         [0052]    DELETE, indicating when the item should be removed from a web page,  
         [0053]    CONNECTION, indicating options for the item depending on the kind of connection (e.g. modem, wireless or 56K) that the user accesses the web page with,  
         [0054]    RESTRICTION, indicating the level of sensitivity of the material (e.g. PG, X, R, and Nudity),  
         [0055]    NEXT UPDATE, indicating when the item will be updated the next time, and  
         [0056]    UPDATE INTERVAL, indicating how often the item may be updated, such as every 15 minutes, possibly together with information on when the updates will stop and/or start.  
         [0057]    [0057]FIG. 5 depicts a signal flow diagram of a preferred embodiment of a method for downloading information from a server according to the invention. The Internet  20  is shown as an exemplary network, comprising an application program  110 , a content server  112 , and an interconnecting network  17 . The application program  110  may be any kind of application or server that accesses information according to the method, whether for its own use or to relay to other applications. In the description of some of the embodiments hereinafter, the application program  110  will for exemplary purposes be a browser. The content server  112  has access to a document  111 , comprising two items  59   a  and  59   b  (that may be referred to as  59  when the items are referred to together). For explanatory purposes, only one document is shown, but it should be understood that the server is likely to have access to a great number of documents. The content server  112  comprises a processing unit  51 , a reception unit  52  and a transmission unit  53 , the purposes of which will be explained hereinafter.  
         [0058]    The method starts when a user uses the browser  110  to send a request  54  to the content server  112  through the interconnecting network  17 , although the request could also be sent automatically, such as for example following some programmed rule. The request  54  may comprise at least one identifier to a document  111 , and information about the at least one item  59  in the document  111  that is requested, in other words requested item information. The requested item information may be one or more of the parameters mentioned hereinbefore, each with one or more values where applicable; for example TYPE, requesting all items of a certain type, NAME, requesting items with a certain name, UPDATED, requesting items updated on or after a certain time.  
         [0059]    The request  54  is received by the server&#39;s  112  reception unit  52 , whereupon the request  54  is processed by the processing unit  51 . The processing unit  51  extracts from the request  54  the identities of all the documents in the request  54 , step  55   a,  and further extracts the requested item information for each document  111  extracted in step  55   a,  step  55   b.  The two steps  55   a  and  55   b  need not necessarily be performed in this sequence mentioned, they may also be intermingled, i.e. extract the identity of a first document, extract the requested item information for that document, extract the identity of a second document and so on.  
         [0060]    The content server  112  then retrieves the items  59  that match the request, step  56 . This may be done in various ways: one way is to retrieve directly only the items  59  that match. These items  59  are then delivered to the processing unit  51 . If the document  111  is not located on the content server  112 , then the transmission unit  53  and the reception unit  52  may be involved in the retrieval of the items  59 . Another way to retrieve the relevant items  59  is for the processing unit  51  to request the entire document  111  and extract the items  59  that match a particular request  54 .  
         [0061]    The processing unit  51  may then process the retrieved items in step  57 . This processing may add information comprising suitable labels to each item  59 , in order to give enough information for the browser  110  to understand what the item  59  is, step  57 . The processing may also remove information from the items, such as for example remove some of the parameters found in the opening tag. This step may be skipped if no additional information is needed, such as for example if only one item was requested, and if no information is to be removed. The items  59  are then passed to the transmission unit  53  that sends them in a response  58  to the browser  110  via the interconnecting network  17 .  
         [0062]    As can be induced from the method described in FIG. 4, the method can be used for updating information displayed by a browser  110 , whether this information is from one or more than one document, something that will now be explained explicitly. In this case—still referring to FIG. 5—the browser  110  sends a request  54  to the server  112  via the interconnecting network  17 . The request  54  comprises the identity of at least one document  111 , wherein each document identity may be accompanied by at least one indication of a time. At least one indication of a time should be comprised in the request  54 . Each document identity comprised in the request  54  may also be accompanied by information about requested items (apart from the time mentioned hereinbefore). If no item information is mentioned (apart from the time) it is assumed to be applicable to all items in the document.  
         [0063]    The server  112  then extracts document identity and item information, including any times comprised in the request  54 , steps  55   a  and  55   b.  The server  112  then retrieves the requested items  59 , step  56 , as explained hereinbefore. All the items  59  that are ‘new’to the browser  110 , i.e. the items  59  that were updated on or after the relevant time comprised in the request  54 , may be labelled in step  57  in order for the browser  110  to know the identity or relevance of the items  59 . The items  59  are then sent in a response  58  to the browser  110  through the interconnecting network  17 .  
         [0064]    Many web sites rely on commercials displayed together with a document to provide the necessary revenues to keep the web site up and running. These commercials are often displayed in a predetermined place, such as in a banner at the top of the page, when the document is displayed. If the user of the browser only requests some items in the page it is possible that no such commercials are displayed together with the document, which is potentially disastrous for the provider of the web site. To remedy this problem, in step  57 , extra information, such as for example commercial information, may be added inside the item  59  to be displayed by the browser  110 . Extra information may be added to some or all the items  59  subsequently sent to the browser in step  58 . As users may get annoyed if they receive the same extra information in several items  59  delivered from the same server  112 , the server  112  may be set to add commercial information to only one or a few of the items  59  requested, and/or to add different extra information to some or all of the items  59 . The extra information added in this manner need not necessarily be of commercial nature, although this may be the primary purpose of adding information as described hereinbefore. The information added may comprise any kind of information content providers wish distributed, such as for example security information, news, community information, and trivia. When, in the description hereinbefore, it is written ‘to be displayed by the browser’ et cetera, it is assumed that the information added is somehow to be made aware to the user of the browser, whether by text, video, picture, sound, smell, interactive programs and so on.  
         [0065]    Although not explicitly stated hereinbefore, the request  54  from the browser  110  may comprise information such as APPLICATION, CONNECTION and RESTRICTION. In this case, the server  112  filters the items so that only items matching the value (in case of APPLICATION and CONNECTION) are retrieved in step  56 . As for RESTRICTION, depending on implementation, the server  112  may retrieve the items either matching the RESTRICTION value or the items not matching the restriction value; the first case expressly allowing access, the second case expressly denying access. It is also possible for one parameter value implicitly to imply other parameter values, such as for example PG (Parental Guidance) implying G (General).  
         [0066]    [0066]FIG. 6 depicts a signal flow diagram of a preferred embodiment of a method for downloading of information from more than one web site according to the invention. In FIG. 6 are shown an application program  110  (hereinafter referred to as an exemplary browser), and two content servers  112   a  and  112   b  (with the servers together referred to as  112 ), in a network  20  such as for example the Internet. The application program  110  comprises a processing unit  61 , a reception unit  62 , a transmission unit  63 , and a list  64  comprising the identities of a number of documents accessible by at least two content servers  112 . To simplify the figure, only two content servers  112  are shown in FIG. 6, but it is to be understood that the number of servers that can be accessed using the method may be far greater.  
         [0067]    The method starts when the processing unit  61  accesses the list  64  in step  65 . The list  64  is then used to prepare requests for information (referred to as  67  when referred to together or in general, and as  67   a  and/or  67   b  when referred to separately) that are sent by the transmission unit  63  to the proper information providers, such as for example the content servers  112 . At least one, although preferably just one, request  67  is sent to each of the content servers  112  in the list  64 , and thus one request  67   a  is sent to content server  112   a  and one request  67   b  is sent to content server  112   b.  Upon reception of a request  67 , each of the servers prepares a response  69  (referred to as  69  when referred to together or in general, and as  69   a  and/or  69   b  when referred to specifically) as detailed hereinbefore in FIG. 5; steps  68   a  and  68   b.  The responses  69   a  and  69   b  are then sent to the browser  110  where they are received by the reception unit  62 .  
         [0068]    It is to be understood that the requests  67  may reach the content servers  112  at different times, depending on for example the distance, that the time it takes until the responses to the requests  67  are prepared may be different, and that the times for the responses  69  to reach the browser  110  may be different. For this reason, the responses  69  may reach the browser  110  in a different order than the order shown in FIG. 6.  
         [0069]    Upon the reception of the responses  69  at the browser  110 , the information may need to be treated or processed in order to be displayed in a useful manner, step  70 . The simplest way to do this is to display the information as it reaches the browser  110 , and simply link all the received information, relating to the same list  64  or having a common subject or link, into one long document. It is however probably more useful for the user to have the information displayed in a more logical manner. This can for instance be achieved by displaying the information in the order it was listed in the list  64 .  
         [0070]    There may also be formatting information available for the browser  110 , for example provided in the list  64 . This formatting information gives instructions on how to display the information, such as for example by providing areas within which the display of a certain item is to be displayed. Some items may be larger than the display space allotted to them in the formatting instructions. In this case, there are several different approaches to choose between. The first choice is simply to display as much as possible within the given boundaries, ignoring the fact that part of the item will be unavailable to the user. A second choice is to add scroll bars on the relevant sides of the display area. A third approach is to display a diminished item, that may be shown in its original size, either when the cursor or the like rests over the item, or for instance when user clicks on the item. Yet another approach is to display as much as possible of the item and add an indication that the item was truncated and a link to the fullsize version of the item; e.g. “. . . More&gt;” in the lower right-hand corner.  
         [0071]    [0071]FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of a preferred method for repeated automatic update of information at the browser via an intermediate node according to the invention. Connected to the Internet  20  are an application program  110 , such as an exemplary browser, content servers  112   a  and  112   b  (referred to as  112  when referred to together) and an intermediate node  71  comprising a transmission unit  79   a  and a reception unit  79   b  often co-located in a communication unit  79 . The browser  110  sends a request  81  to the intermediate node  71  indicating the information the browser  110  desires to have updated repeatedly. The request  81  comprises the identity of the web pages and the items that are of interest, the time the items residing in the browser were last updated, and the request  81  may further comprise information on how often new updates are desired and when the browser desires the updates to stop and possibly resume.  
         [0072]    The intermediate node  71  then processes the request  81  in step  72 . This comprises receiving and storing the request  81 , and analysing the request  81  as to when the information should be requested from the content servers  112 . In addition the request  81  may possibly be rearranged to facilitate further handling, such as grouping the information according to content server  112  and/or the time when the information should be requested.  
         [0073]    At the proper time, the intermediate node  71  prepares requests  82 , comprising the identity of the requested information and possibly the time it was last downloaded, to send to the content servers  112 ; step  73 . An exemplary two requests  82   a  and  82   b  are prepared to be sent to the content servers  112   a  and  112   b  respectively, but it is to be understood that the number of requests depends on the content of the original request  81 . This step may, especially for requests after the first request, comprise a period of waiting for the proper time to arrive before preparing the requests or sending the data to the content servers  112 . This waiting period could for example be default in the intermediate node  71 , possibly depending on the connection used by the application program  110 . The waiting period could also be set using information in the received items, such information for example being the parameters NEXT UPDATE or UPDATE INTERVAL.  
         [0074]    The content servers  112  respond to the request as described hereinbefore and send responses  83   a  and  83   b  to the intermediate node  71 . The intermediate node  71  then processes the information received in the responses  83   a  and  83   b;  step  74 . This processing may for instance be formatting of the information, gathering information from several responses into one message, waiting for all the requested information to arrive, adding of commercial information, filtering of nonauthorised information, removal of information, and so on. If the intermediate node  71  waits for all the requested information to arrive, it is usually equipped with a timer function in order to send the information it already received if, for instance, a content server is unavailable. In addition, the intermediate node  71  updates the stored information with the time that the information was last updated.  
         [0075]    The intermediate node  71  then sends a message  84 , comprising the received information, to the browser  110 ; step  75 . The intermediate node then verifies to see if it should stop updating information; step  76 . If so, the intermediate node  71  ends the method for that particular browser, step  77 . If the method should continue, then the intermediate node  71  returns to step  73 , Prepare and Send Requests to Servers. The step of verifying whether the method should be stopped is for explanatory purposes shown as step  76 , although it could be performed anytime during the course of the method. This could for instance be the case if the intermediate node  71  from the browser  110  receives a direct instruction to stop executing the method, if the intermediate node  71  is unable to reach the browser  110 , or if the intermediate node  71  receives notification that the browser  110  no longer is connected to the Internet  20 .  
         [0076]    The method described in FIG. 7 is particularly useful when the browser  110  is connected to the Internet  20  via a low bandwidth connection, such as for example a modem connection or an air interface in a mobile telephone network. If the browser  110  itself were to repetitively request updates, much traffic would go through the low bandwidth connection unnecessarily. According to the method however, the intermediate node  71 , such as for example a Mobile Switching Centre (MSC) in a mobile telecommunication network, requests the updates and sends only the updated information to the browser  110 , leading to a decreased use of the connection.  
         [0077]    [0077]FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of another preferred method for continuous update of information at the browser via an intermediate node according to the invention. Connected to the Internet  20  are an application program  110 , such as an exemplary browser, content servers  112   a  and  112   b,  and an intermediate node  71 .  
         [0078]    As described in FIG. 7, the browser  110  sends a request  81  to the intermediate node  71  that processes the request  81  from the browser  110 ; step  72 . The intermediate node  71  then prepares and sends requests  82   a  and  82   b  to the content servers  12   a  and  12   b.  In this embodiment, the requests  82   a  and  82   b  comprise the address of the browser  110 .  
         [0079]    Upon reception of the requests  82   a  and  82   b,  the content servers  112   a  and  112   b  respectively retrieve the wanted information and send it directly in messages  85   a  and  85   b  to the browser  110 , using the address received from the intermediate node  71 . In addition, the content servers  112  send to the intermediate node  71  notifications  86  of when the transmitted items were updated. The intermediate node  71  then updates its data with the received information in step  74 ′.  
         [0080]    The intermediate node  71  then verifies, as described hereinbefore, whether execution of the method should cease; step  76 .  
         [0081]    As this embodiment of the method requires the content servers  112  to send notifications  86  to the intermediate node  71 , it is likely, although not necessary, that the intermediate node  71  and the content servers  112  belong to the same service provider.  
         [0082]    Although several preferred embodiments of the methods, systems and nodes of the present invention have been illustrated in the accompanying Drawings and described in the foregoing Detailed Description, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the embodiments disclosed, but is capable of numerous rearrangements, modifications and substitutions without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims.