Let your feet do the walking
Perhaps the title reminds you of that encouragement from Google to go Walking, Talking, Searching, Finding on the Mobile Web. However Jacqui Cheng has spotted a different way of using your feet. Apparently HP has now come out with a control device for computers that can be activated [...]
Will Canada lose out on Google phones too?
The big news today is that Google will not have a Gphone but hopes to provide open-source software that will power cell phones around the world. That’s very exciting but apparently Canada is not included.
Google will offer free software to anyone who wants it under [...]
Until now mobile Web growth has been slow
Although cell phones are ubiquitous, only limited numbers of individuals use them to surf the mobile Web. The telecom companies have not helped mobile Web growth by often charging excessive broadband transmission costs. In addition the cell phone has limitations with a small display screen and [...]
Sound ads support mobile Web content
Most websites need financial support if they are to provide services to website visitors. That is particularly tough for cell phones, which access the mobile web, since small screens do not leave much room for advertising. If you feel that a major slice of mobile Web activity will [...]
Advertising will clearly play a major role in the growth of the mobile web, both in terms of consumer demand and in terms of who are the competitive suppliers. Some are very bullish about the likely growth. For example in an upbeat article in the Bangkok Post, Jeff Teh, a senior research analyst [...]
There are many who are touting the huge potential of the mobile web and there are many others who are pointing out the considerable hurdles the mobile web must overcome.
The mobile web seems to be developing with difficulty for a number of reasons:
cell phones have small screens
keypads are difficult to use
websites are rarely [...]
Will Canada ever have a Mobile Web?
if you’re concerned about the lack of a Mobile Web in Canada, two items in the Montréal Gazette may well deepen your gloom.
Pierre Karl Péladeau, chief executive of Quebecor Inc., in a speech to a business group in Toronto, said new technology like Apple Inc.’s iPhone is [...]
Gphone, a voice- controlled mobile device?
We have previously suggested that eventually we would all be Talking Our Way Around The Mobile Web. Doing any serious navigation on a cell phone keyboard is unpleasant. Cell phones are designed to work with sound. Of course there are challenges in understanding voices against a noisy [...]
Users should define the mobile experience
Will the Mobile Web happen and if so what will it look like? Three recent articles address this question and come to different conclusions. That is because they look at the question from different viewpoints. There is always a dichotomy. You can examine a situation from [...]
Apple versus PC brings to mind a whole series of TV ads that brilliantly compare the advantages and disadvantages of two different computers and operating systems. If you missed them, here are a few samples:
Does this explain the slow take-up of the new Microsoft Vista operating system? It no doubt was instrumental in [...]
The iPhone makes the Mobile Web a reality.
Even if the iPhone had not been brought to market, the Mobile Web would have seen an explosive growth much faster than was seen with the regular Internet. That is true despite the technological difficulties. After all surfing the Mobile Web on a PDA is not [...]
Barcodes For Mobile Web Surfing
Clearly one of the difficulties in accessing the Mobile Web from your cell phone is how to input the URL (Link). You could of course painstakingly type it in on the keyboard. That is prone to error so the technologists are seeking other solutions.
A cell phone is designed to [...]
So the iPhone has landed and the initial buzz has quietened a little. Many are enamoured by its sleek design and well-thought-out functionality. Others like Benjamin J. Higginbotham see many things they would like the iPhone to do or do better.
Whether or not you are a potential iPhone user, it will undoubtedly have [...]
The MWI Helps Bridge The Digital Divide
The MWI Team blog should be required reading for anyone interested in how the mobile web is evolving. As Philipp Hoschka, Team Leader, wrote:
Mobile Web: The Promise
Unlike the traditional “wired” Web, the mobile Web will go where users go. No longer will users have to remember to do [...]
Bango this week published statistics that confirm that the United States is at the forefront of a mobile web growth with a three-fold increase in usage over the last year. This rapid rise, taking the US to second position behind the UK, is being fuelled by the increasing popularity of mobile search as a way [...]
Although many have cell phones and other mobile devices that would permit mobile surfing, few do. Part of this is explained by the poor appearance of many websites as seen through a mobile device
Given the push to have more mobile-friendly websites, hopefully this will change. The dotMobi community is providing resources and we now have a dotMobi Mobile Web Developers Guide. Unfortunately one of the biggest barriers is the awkward, tiny, multi-purpose keys that most mobile devices have. Even using a stylus is very little better as a user-experience.
It might be thought the obvious solution is a no-brainer. Keyboards are almost a vestigial reminder of the original 10 positions to be found on rotary telephones in the museums. We are dealing with a device with high technology components to receive, handle and transmit sounds with great fidelity. Yet the major controls, the keys, are mechanical and ill-suited for manipulation by human fingers. Why not exercise the major controls th
Zec points to an interesting item by Information Week on Google’s Mobile User Experience Strategy, which was the subject at a meeting of the New York City chapter of the Usability Professionals Association.
Google user experience designer Leland Rechis said, bluntly, that the mobile Web is Balkanized, “The Pangaea of the Web is gone.” And don’t expect this to change anytime soon, either. Thanks to carrier portals and off portal applications, there is no one mobile standard to develop for.
In the mobile world developers have to be prepared to optimize for different devices, browsers, languages, carriers, countries and cultures.
Mobile Web!It Won’t Go Back Together Again
For those who haven’t heard about Pangaea, that’s the view that all Earth’s continents were originally connected and have separated through tectonic plate action. Perhaps that resonates with the other Google PhDs but for most of us I think Humpty Dumpty provides a bette
Both Vint Cerf and Bill Gates have described the Internet as a tidal wave, however as mentioned in a previous post it may give a clearer picture if we think of the Internet or the World Wide Web as a river. In this picture, we are not just thinking of the electronic infrastructure that connects all Internet participants, but rather the totality of what can be found in cyberspace including all those websites and the software and the devices that are used to participate. That indeed is a very turbulent river.
This picture came to mind in thinking about a post by Ross Dunn on the Mobile Search Site Creation and Optimization session at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in New York. He describes sessions by Cindy Krum of Blue Moon Works and Rachel Pasqua, Director of Mobile Marketing at iCrossing. The two took diametrically different approaches to designing mobile websites.
Cindy Krum felt strongly that an existing website should pull double-duty as both the wired and the
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