Patent ID: 8275859

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, via a content processing device, a request for a partial update of web content comprising an identifier that identifies at least one web content element associated with the web content, where the identifier identifies a portion of a document object model (DOM) associated with the identified at least one web content element and comprises at least one of a path identifier that references a path to the at least one web content element within the DOM and a content identifier that identifies the at least one web content element within the DOM; requesting, via the content processing device, an update for the identified at least one web content element from a content server in response to receiving the request for the partial update of web content, where requesting the update for the identified at least one web content element from the content server comprises: sending a markup language (ML) formatted request comprising the at least one of the path identifier and the content identifier to the content server: and requesting a periodic update for the identified at least one web content element identifying a user-specified period for the periodic update; and performing the partial update of the web content in response to receipt of the update for the identified at least one web content element from the content server, where performing the partial update of the web content in response to receipt of the update for the identified at least one web content element from the content server comprises at least one of: storing the update for the identified at least one web content element to a cache associated with the web content; sending the update for the identified at least one web content element to a device from which the request for the partial update of the web content was received; and updating a display region associated with the identified at least one web content element with the update for the identified at least one web content element.