Yet another Google Phone patent has emerged today, this time detailing a method for a cell phone to retrieve and display data from the internet without using a mobile browser.
The patent is complex so you may wish to read Bill Slawski’s excellent summary rather than the actual patent document.
Essentially the patent discusses a software application that allows users to search via a mobile phone and receive search results without using a conventional mobile browser. The software will have predictive search technology (see picture below) and automatically reformat web pages for viewing on the screen. Google also mentions why they want to do this – opening up a browser is slow and for search to be accepted as an integral feature of the phone it has to be quick and easy. Think of this application as a search box on your PC desktop rather than the search box in your web browser.
Handheld mobile devices, such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), are becoming increasingly powerful both in terms of processing power and the ability to provide access to data. The usefulness of these enhancements is often limited, however, by an inability of mobile devices to display data effectively due to the small size of the display and the limited memory resources relative to laptop and desktop computers.
[0004] Systems and techniques are provided for retrieving and displaying information on a mobile device by integrating markup language rendering functions into a specialized data retrieval client application.
[0005] In one general aspect, information is retrieved to a mobile device using a data retrieval application installed on the mobile device. The data retrieval application includes instructions for presenting a structured data display on the mobile device, defining a structure of the structured data display, requesting selected hyperlinks included in the structured data display, and rendering markup language information received in response to the selected hyperlinks. A user request to retrieve data is received through the data retrieval application. Data is retrieved in response to the received user request. The retrieved data is displayed according to the structure of the structured data display, and a user is able to select a hyperlink in the displayed data to retrieve and render markup language information using the data retrieval application.
[0006] Implementations can include one or more of the following features. The data retrieval application is a search application or an electronic mail client application. A search user interface having a structure defined by the search application installed on the mobile device is displayed. The search user interface includes a predefined field for a user entry of a search query, and the user request to retrieve data includes a submission of a search query. The structured data display defines a structure of a search results user interface for presenting data responsive to the search query. The data responsive to the search query includes a hyperlink. A user selection of the hyperlink is received using the search results user interface, and a request for additional data based on information included in the hyperlink is sent. The additional data is received in a markup language format, and the markup-language-formatted data is rendered by the data retrieval application for display on a user interface of the mobile device.
[0007] A display of data on the mobile device is automatically adjusted by the search application based on one or more characteristics of the mobile device. The structured data display includes one or more user-selectable features defined by the search application installed on the mobile device. The one or more user-selectable features are operable to perform operations defined by the search application. When a user selection of a hyperlink in the displayed data is received, markup language information is retrieved and rendered without accessing a browser application.
[0008] In another general aspect, a data retrieval user interface is displayed on a mobile device. The data retrieval user interface includes a structure defined by predetermined data stored on the mobile device. User-defined information is received through the data retrieval user interface. A data retrieval request including the user-defined information is sent to a predetermined remote location. A response to the data retrieval request is received, and the response includes retrieved data. A retrieved data user interface is displayed on the mobile device. The retrieved data user interface displays the retrieved data in accordance with a structure defined by predetermined data stored on the mobile device, and the retrieved data includes one or more hyperlinks. Markup-language-formatted data associated with a hyperlink selected by a user is retrieved, and the markup-language-formatted data is rendered on the mobile device without accessing a separate browser application.
