System and method for presentation of local and remote message search results

1. A method of presenting message search results at a wireless handheld device, the method comprising:

conducting a search of local messages stored in the wireless handheld device using a search term to obtain ones of the local messages that includes the search term;

initiating a search of remote messages stored in a message server using the search term to identify ones of the remote messages that includes the search term;

determining if any of the ones of the local messages matches any of the ones of the remote messages by comparing a message identifier of the ones of the local messages to a message identifier of the ones of the remote messages;

for each of the ones of the remote messages that matches one of the local messages, comparing a size of the local message to a size of the matching remote message, selecting the local message for presentation at the wireless handheld device in response to determining that the size of the local message is greater than the size of the matching remote message, and selecting the matching remote message for presentation in response to determining that the size of the local message is less than the size of the matching remote message.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising presenting each local message that is selected and each remote message that is selected in a combined list.

3. The method of claim 2 , comprising identifying each remote message in the combined list using a remote message identifier.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising presenting the selected local messages and the selected remote messages in separate lists.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein conducting the search of the local messages and initiating the search of the remote messages occurs concurrently.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising

in response to selecting the remote message for presentation, displaying available content from the local message, retrieving content of the matching remote message from the message server that is unavailable from the local message, and displaying the content of the matching remote message.

7. A wireless handheld device comprising:

a display;

a memory;

a processor connected to the display and the memory for execution of a messaging application to conduct a search of local messages stored in the memory using a search term to obtain ones of the local messages that contains the search term, to initiate a search of remote messages stored in a message server to obtain ones of the remote message that include the search term and retrieve each remote message that contains the at least one search term from the message server, determine if any ones of the remote messages matches any of the ones of the local messages by comparing a message identifier of the ones of the local messages to a message identifier of the ones of the remote messages; and for each of the ones of the remote messages that matches one of the local messages, compare a size of the local message to a size of the matching remote message, select the local message for presentation at the wireless handheld device in response to the size of the local message being greater than the size of the matching remote message, and select the matching remote message for presentation at the wireless handheld device in response to the size of the local message being less than the size of the matching remote message.

8. The wireless handheld device of claim 7 , wherein the messaging application is adapted to present each local message that is selected and each remote message that is selected on the display in a combined list.

9. The wireless handheld device of claim 8 , wherein the messaging application is adapted to identify each remote message in the combined list using a remote message identifier.

10. The wireless handheld device of claim 7 , wherein messaging application is adapted to present each local message that is selected and each remote message that is selected in separate lists.

11. The wireless handheld device of claim 7 , wherein the messaging application is adapted to conduct the search of the local messages and to initiate the search of remote messages concurrently.

12. The wireless handheld device of claim 7 , wherein, if the remote message is selected for presentation, the content from the local message is displayed, the content of the remote message from the message server that is unavailable from the local message is retrieved, and the content of the remote message is displayed.

13. A data processor readable medium storing data processor code that when loaded into a wireless handheld device adapts the device to present message search results, the data processor readable medium comprising:

code configured to conduct a search of local messages stored in the wireless handheld device using a search term to obtain ones of local messages that include the search term;

code configured to initiate a search of remove messages stored in a message server using the search term;

code configured to determine if any ones of the remove messages matches any ones of the local messages by comparing a message identifier of the local message to a message identifier of the remote message;

for each of the ones of the remote messages that matches one of the local messages, compare a size of the local message to a size of the matching remote message, select the local message for presentation at the wireless handheld device in response to determining that the size of the local message is greater than the size of the matching remote message, and select the matching remote message for presentation at the wireless handheld device in response to determining that the size of the local message is less than the size of the matching remote message;

wherein the data processor readable medium is non-transitory.

14. The data processor readable medium of claim 13 , comprising code configured to present each local message that is selected and each remote message that is selected in a combined list.

15. The data processor readable medium of claim 14 , comprising code configured to identify each remote message in the combined list using a remote message identifier.

16. The data processor readable medium of claim 13 , comprising code configured to present the selected local message and the selected remote message in separate lists.

17. The data processor readable medium of claim 13 , comprising code configured to conduct the search of the local message and initiate the search of remote searches concurrently.