Selectively updating objects of webpage without requiring that the entire
web page be refreshed, without Java applets and without requiring user
intervention. A webpage is defined to contain a frame and at least one
updateable object that is external to the frame. The frame attributes of
height and width may each be set to a value of zero, rendering it
invisible on the displayed webpage. The frame is configured to
periodically request updated data from a server in response to a timer
reaching a threshold value. The updated data may comprise a Script or
other instruction set for causing the frame to update at least one
updateable object. The Script or other instruction set may be executable
by the frame without user interaction. The Script may instruct the frame
to interact with, for example, an external Script running within the
webpage external to the frame. The external Script may interact with and
modify the updateable object, which may be an HTML element, without
refreshing the web page.