A method and a system allow presentation of web pages to an internet appliance (e.g., a hand-held computer, a mobile telephone, or a digital personal assistant) according to user preferences. The user preferences are captured by a management server, which provides a web page customization service in conjunction with a document manager, which parses the web pages to identify information units. The customized web pages are stored in a database using a standardized hypertext document representation device, such as XML. The customized web pages are accessible from a portal adapted for accessing by the internet appliance. In one implementation, the user is also offered pre-configured resources for frequently used services when accessing the portal using the internet device.