1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to methods and systems for accessing information over wireless links.
2. Description of Related Art
Wireless devices, such as cellular phones, are now commonplace consumer commodities. As the size of the cellular market expands, cellular competitors have attempted to increase the variety of functions in cellular phones in order to attract a greater share of the cellular market. One popular addition to the cellular market is the addition of Internet Web browsers to wireless phones.
Unfortunately, cellular phones do not make the best Internet browsing tools as they suffer from a number of limitations, such as their relatively small display size and the paucity of available control buttons. Such limitations both restrict the ease of Internet browsing and vastly limit the display capacity for time-critical or specialized messages, such as sales or pricing information directed to specific merchandise. Thus, new technology that can accommodate Internet browsing and messaging on cellular phones is desirable.
In various exemplary embodiments, methods and systems for accessing various sources of information are provided using a wireless server and wireless device, such as an Internet-ready cellular phone. As a consumer navigates about a menu displayed at the wireless device, i.e., issues various navigation commands, the wireless server can retrieve extrinsic information based on received instructions, such as information relating to commercial advertisements and display various messages at the wireless device based on the extrinsic information.
In other embodiments, the received instructions can activate a script directed to performing one or more operations. The operations can include making various queries, displaying special messages and performing various tasks, such as accessing external web sites and placing phone calls. Other features and advantages of the present invention are described below and are apparent from the accompanying drawings and from the detailed description which follows.