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Was this Opera Mini? I remember installing that on my Nokia many years ago. It used compression as well. https://www.coderanch.com/t/229735/Opera-Mini-browser

Was this Opera Mini? I remember installing that on my Nokia many years ago. It used compression as well. https://www.coderanch.com/t/229735/Opera-Mini-browser https://www.coderanch.com/t/229735/Opera-Mini-browser

dbtablesorrows 2y ago
IIRC, other browsers (the chinese UC browser and Nokia's OVI browser) had compression too. But opera was most popular (and perhaps most mature as well).
- dfox 2y ago
  Compression is inherent feture of WAP and some WAP browsers could use the WAP infrastructure to transfer not only WML, but also well-formed XHTML.
  - lxgr 2y ago
    Opera Mini went way beyond just compression. It effectively rendered the website server-side and then sent optimized markup to the client (so it's much closer to "print site to SVG" on the server than "Content-encoding: gzip").
71bw 2y ago
It still does! Ancient versions still work absolutely fine on old phones.
throwaway04324 2y ago
I think Opera Mini did much more than compression. I seem to remember them actually rewriting (rendering?) the web page server side, and then sending an optimized mobile friendly version to make it more readable for pages that were originally designed for desktop. It worked great on my phone and I even used it when the phones were more cabable, because web pages looked better and it saved a lot of bandwidth.
- lxgr 2y ago
  They rendered the site server-side (including JavaScript execution for a couple of seconds and all) and then sent the rendered page in some binary markup language to the client, with images heavily compressed. I actually still sometimes use it on iOS! The app is no longer available in most (all?) App Store regions, but I still have it on my account and can redownload it. The servers seem to still be there!
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
usr1106 2y ago
No, it was another company, I don't think a well-known name. Opera Mini still works today on S60 phones from 2006ish. I regularly see web server log entries from a relative on my private server. But I believe it's a native Symbian app (.sis) not a Midlet. (I have working phones, but I don't have Opera Mini, so I cannot verify)
- lysace 2y ago
  Perhaps Reqwireless? Acquihired by Google to work on the WAP dead-end iirc, when then they were figuring out how to deal with mobile.
  - usr1106 2y ago
    Reqwireless I have certainly heard. Don't remember in which context. If you tell me they had this "browser frontend" midlet, it's probably the one I used. 2002ish I would guess.

dbtablesorrows 2y ago

IIRC, other browsers (the chinese UC browser and Nokia's OVI browser) had compression too. But opera was most popular (and perhaps most mature as well).

dfox 2y ago
Compression is inherent feture of WAP and some WAP browsers could use the WAP infrastructure to transfer not only WML, but also well-formed XHTML.
- lxgr 2y ago
  Opera Mini went way beyond just compression. It effectively rendered the website server-side and then sent optimized markup to the client (so it's much closer to "print site to SVG" on the server than "Content-encoding: gzip").

71bw 2y ago

It still does! Ancient versions still work absolutely fine on old phones.

throwaway04324 2y ago

I think Opera Mini did much more than compression. I seem to remember them actually rewriting (rendering?) the web page server side, and then sending an optimized mobile friendly version to make it more readable for pages that were originally designed for desktop. It worked great on my phone and I even used it when the phones were more cabable, because web pages looked better and it saved a lot of bandwidth.

lxgr 2y ago
They rendered the site server-side (including JavaScript execution for a couple of seconds and all) and then sent the rendered page in some binary markup language to the client, with images heavily compressed. I actually still sometimes use it on iOS! The app is no longer available in most (all?) App Store regions, but I still have it on my account and can redownload it. The servers seem to still be there!
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

usr1106 2y ago

No, it was another company, I don't think a well-known name. Opera Mini still works today on S60 phones from 2006ish. I regularly see web server log entries from a relative on my private server. But I believe it's a native Symbian app (.sis) not a Midlet. (I have working phones, but I don't have Opera Mini, so I cannot verify)

lysace 2y ago
Perhaps Reqwireless? Acquihired by Google to work on the WAP dead-end iirc, when then they were figuring out how to deal with mobile.
- usr1106 2y ago
  Reqwireless I have certainly heard. Don't remember in which context. If you tell me they had this "browser frontend" midlet, it's probably the one I used. 2002ish I would guess.