Hidden Mobile Gems
Hot Mobile News
Visa is making a strategic investment in mFormation and has forged a strategic alliance with the mobile device management (MDM) solutions provider. The companies plan to work together to advance over-the-air (OTA) solutions for mobile payments.
Toshiba has announced its new Toshiba IPT2010-SDC IP Desk Telephone, which includes an Analog CO line interface for local dialing, including emergency calls. It is compatible with Toshiba’s Strata CIX family of IP business communication systems for small- to medium-sized enterprises, national accounts and government users.
The Workshop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries was held on 5-6 December in Bangalore, India. Jataayu Software hosted. Participants discussed mobile Web access within developing countries in terms of needs, blocking factors and potential uses.
Wap Review has an interesting piece on MSNBC?s Hidden Mobile Gems. MSNBC is the cable TV news channel operated by Microsoft and NBC and it has a rather good mobile web site. It’s a multi section news portal somewhat like the CNN and the BBC mobile sites. It does not have in house reporters but draws on the wire services or other publishers like Business Week, Forbes and the National Geographic.
The mobile website would seem to be far from the One-Web principle that the W3C organization is promoting. There is apparently no dedicated URL for the mobile site but if you’re using almost any mobile browser, the site’s browser detection kicks in to serve you mobile pages. Although the front page lists only nine sections (Business, Sports, U.S.News, World News, Politics, Tech & Science, Entertainment, Health, Travel, there are actually a number of additional mobile sections which are more or less hidden. These are the mobile gems that the author talks about. Overall the total viewing experience is most satisfactory and follows many of the recommendations of the Mobile Web Initiative.
In other words, the MSNBC team has decided to create separate web pages for mobile devices rather than making the desktop PC web pages offer a satisfactory user experience on Mobile devices. This seems the practical solution that many website owners will offer. The One-Web principle is just not for them.
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BPWrap
December 18th, 2006 at 10:37 am
“One Web” isn’t about using the same content for every device at all — content adaptation server-side is often very important.
The web is about a space of URIs. One Web means I can use the same URI bookmarked on one machine (say my desktop) and looked up on another (say my phone). It means getting the best experience posisble from each platform. There are a number of techniques to do this. Separation of form and content, good use of style sheet, media-specific style, and content adaptation are among them.
So the test of the web site is that — can I bookmark something on one device and usefully look it up on another?
December 18th, 2006 at 10:48 am
I really do appreciate you taking the time to comment here, Tim. I am watching with interest the work of the Mobile Web Initiative on Adaptation and Device Detection. It really would be great if a single URI could work like that.
However in very human societies with all the technical challenges, I believe many entities will take the easy route as Microsoft seems to have done.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:22 am
I think MSNBC’s mobile browser is great. I use it all the time.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Thanks for post. It is great that the MSNBC team has decided to create separate web pages for mobile devices rather than making the desktop PC web pages offer a satisfactory user experience on Mobile devices.
September 26th, 2008 at 6:44 am
WOW.
Great post.
Where can i find some more information about it?
Thanks
Holly
September 26th, 2008 at 6:47 am
Try Googling whatever you’re looking for.