Method of providing content to a mobile web browsing device

1. A method of providing content to a mobile web browsing device from any of several different web servers, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving at a remote computer, connected to both the device and each of those web servers over a network, a log of data identifying content that has been viewed by that specific device, the log being generated and sent by the device;

(b) the remote computer identifying automatically without explicit user request any of that viewed content that has been updated and is therefore to be sent to the device;

(c) the remote computer automatically causing only that viewed and updated content stored on any of the web servers to be sent to the device over the network;

(d) causing that viewed and updated content to be automatically stored in device memory.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the log is generated at the device and replicated at the remote computer.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the remote computer views multiple content from the web server and determines if the content has changed.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the remote computer views multiple content from the web server and determines when the content has changed.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the remote computer is notified by the web server if the content on the server has changed.

6. The method of claim 1 in which the remote computer directly sends updated content to the device or causes the updated content to be sent to the device.

7. The method of claim 6 in which the remote computer is connected to both the device and each of the web servers over a wireless network, and wherein the remote computer makes a decision whether or not to send, or cause to be sent, the updated content, by taking into account one or more of the following:

(a) How fast the content on the web server is changing;

(b) How often the user views the content;

(c) What time of day it is;

(d) What day of the week it is;

(e) What an operator of the wireless network wants to promote.

8. The method of claim 7 in which the operator of the wireless network can set thresholds for all of the above conditions.

9. The method of claim 7 in which these thresholds are controlled at the remote computer and so can be updated at any point by the operator if it wants to implement different caching strategies.

10. The method of claim 1 in which the remote computer sends data to the device that automatically causes the device to display a link to new content, the new content being automatically stored on the device.

11. The method of claim 1 in which the device includes a user interface that indicates whether given content is already stored in device memory or not.

12. The method of claim 1 in which the log also records the time that a specific item of content was viewed by the device.

13. The method of claim 1 in which the log identifies whether content that is being viewed is updated content that had earlier been stored in device memory.

14. The method of claim 1 in which the updated content is sent at off-peak periods or to otherwise fill bandwidth troughs.

15. A mobile web browsing device able to download and store content from a web server over a wireless network, wherein the device is programmed to:

(a) create a log of data identifying the content that is being viewed by the device;

(b) send that log to a remote computer automatically without any explicit request to watch for updates of specifically identified content, the remote computer being connected to the web server and the device over the wireless network;

(c) receive from the web server any content that has been identified by the remote computer as having been updated;

(d) automatically store only that viewed and updated content in memory.