On 10 July, 2006 the mobile-specific TLD (Top Level Domain) sunrise registration period was extended to September 22, one month later that originally planned. This affords trademark owning companies greater time to ensure their names are registered under the new TLD before the general public has the opportunity to register sites on September 26.
The idea behind the trademark sunrise initiative is to provide businesses with a summer buffer period to register their .mobi domain names (though not necesserily develop a mobile web presence) before general release and offers an opportunity for conflict resolution over contested trademarks (and inhibits potential abuse from cybersquatters keen to exploit the new TLD).
However, there are both constraints and safeguards in place which means many sunrise-registered domain may not go live until the end of 2006.
DotMobil names registered during this period will be locked immediately upon registration and remain so until year end. Registrants not providing immediate name server details must then wait until expiry of the locking period. And it makes one wonder just how many companies will forget to do so…
Post Gazette reported that mobile giants Verizon and AT&T are making deals with smaller cellular companies to top enter the mobile advertising market.
Large phone companies, including Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., never really profited from the explosion of search and advertising on the Internet. Now wireless operators like Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless, which are partly owned by those same phone giants, don’t want to make the same mistake.
Both Google and Yahoo believe that start-ups can’t handle large amounts of user requests. Steve Boom, senior vice president of Yahoo said that “It’s going to be very difficult for a small player to build a brand-new advertising network,”
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Related Reading:
Cellular carriers work to outdo Google, Yahoo - Post Gazette
Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 - 5.3.2
The Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) states that:
The balance between pagination and scrolling is partly a matter of taste and partly a matter of necessity. Devices with severe memory restrictions can only have small pages delivered to them. Equally some devices offer a poor scrolling experience and a better page retrieval experience.
Because of screen size and bandwidth consideration page load should be kept to a minimum. As I mentioned in Content Considerations for Mobile Web Sites >> that:
Currently, there is a financial concern for users of the mobile web, each minute cost a user via the network they use.
By keeping page load to a minimum it will allow a user to browse a mobile website faster without hindrance. The page copy should be kept short with limited use of graphics, with any images optimised for small devices. The MWI suggest that 10 kb is the Default Delivery Context with the maximum mobile web page at 20kb.
The MWI also suggest that authors should strive to not contribute to page weight by introducing unnecessary white space and ensure that white space is stripped when serving a page.
Mobile Page Tips
Titles should be kept short
Pages should weight at between 10 and 20kb
White space should be kept to a minimum
Graphic images optimised for load times with the accepted standard as JPEG and GIF
The minimum page should be able to render at 120 pixel wide screen.
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References:
Mobile Web best Practices 1.0 – 5.3.1 Page Content
Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 - 5.3.1
The Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) states that:
Users in a mobile context are often looking for specific pieces of information, rather than browsing. Content providers should consider the likely context of use of information and, while providing the option to access all information, should offer appropriate information first.
A user traversing the mobile web will be generally looking for immediate information rather than casually browsing. It is important to display a sites most important content first. The content for mobile web sites should be short, well written and tell a user immediately about the sites services or information.
Continue reading ‘Content Considerations for Mobile Web Sites’
Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 - 5.2.6
The Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) states that:
It is important to identify where a link leads so users can make an assessment of whether following it will be of interest to them.
Use clear, concise, descriptive link text to help users decide whether to follow a link. Identify the implications of following a link if the target is notably large and the user might not anticipate this from the context.
Because of time issues and the size of a mobile device, a user generally will want to spend less time reaching the content of another page. A user will also want to make an immediate decision whether to follow a link away from the originating website or to another page on the same website. Because of these issues the MWI suggest in it’s guidelines that clear descriptive link text be given to each link. For example:
Continue reading ‘Mobile Web Descriptive Link Identification’
The W3C has published a set of guidelines through its Mobile Web Initiative (MWI). The Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 lays the groundwork with its guidelines for developing and designing websites to work on small handheld devices such as mobile phones.
Similar to the once accessibility debates the document suggest that the idea is to create a single Web, not a separate one designed specifically for mobile devices.
Years ago developers would build a separate text only website for partially sigted viewers with time the guidelines called for a single site that met accessibility guidelines. With the mobile web initiative it is calling for a similar presence of one site developed to be mobile friendly.
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References:
Mobile Web Initiative - W3C
Reuters reported that Internet media company and search engine Yahoo and cell phone maker Motorola have a reached a deal to load Yahoo services on tens of millions of new mobile devices.
Motorola will preload Yahoo’s e-mail, search, address book and local search features onto handsets beginning in the first half of 2007 in markets in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Looks like the war to imlement mobile services is heating up - Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are all pushing to have their services integrated into current mobile device builds.
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References:
Motorola and Yahoo expand mobile Web deal
About a year ago when we started project planning Search and Go we decided to create a mobile web version. This was not going to be implemented until the very end of the main web build.
As we now approach the end of Phase 2 of Search and Go we are starting to put the first mobile web ready plans together and are looking for best ways forward.
I have several ideas in regards to this:
We already have a web directory at Search and Go and I want to offer submitters the option that when they do submit we will scan their site to see if it mobile web ready and if it, submit their site for free to a mobile version of the directory. I think this is a good idea. It’s also a small incentive for site owners to maybe consider another market on the mobile web. We would like visitors to come to the mobile-directory and find services.
Continue reading ‘Building Mobile Version of Search and Go’
IEEE Internet Distributed Systems released a paper by Mustafa Adacal and Ayse B. Bener that proposes to integrate web services to the mobile platform utlising mobile agents. The paper goes onto outline a framework that is designed to adapt Web services to mobile environments that enable the development of high-performance Web service applications.
Our test results show that eliminating XML processing on mobile clients and SOAP-message transfer over wireless links improves performance in terms of response time and data load.
Bener & Adacal propose a ‘Workflow Engine’ that can communicate with web service providers and invoke related services.
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Reference:
Mobile Web Services: A New Agent-Based Framework
ZDNet released an article on it’s site giving best way forward and a few tips on developing mobile web applications. The article gives a really good overview for designers wanting to either create from scratch or redesign websites for the mobile web.
The article titled: Tips for Developing Mobile Web Applications starts with mentioning five interesting points which I’ll expand on a little here:
Limit graphics: they are an excellent way to spice up a Web site, but their use is questionable when working with small screens.
Continue reading ‘Mobile Web Application Tips’
Last year I was using a Sony P900i before I lost it and then purchased a Nokia N90. One of the nice things about using a P900 is the amount of applications that were being developed for it ranging from financial software, travel and enhanced integration of office functions. What I did find was a small from Antony Pranata that took screenshots while surfing the mobile web. Nice app and it gave me a chance to see some of our sites how they looked on a mobile application. I find the app handy as one of our core services at SoNet is SEO and we have been making strides to start optimising sites for the mobile web. The screenshots I took gave us a starting point to analyzing a site and creating the first basis of a plan.I decided to download Screenshot for Symbian OS 2.00 from Antony’s site and install it on the Nokia N90. The installation from my PC to mobile phone via Bluetooth was easy and I soon had the control panel open and configuring the application. I went online via the Opera mobile browser and wanted to take a screenshot of a project we are working on. This is where it all went wrong. Try bringing up the keys on a N90! It’s difficult enough as it is to navigate quickly around the phone, but finding the edit button which is what is needed and followed by the ‘OK’ button is a fast task. I had to give up as I could not for the damned of me work this out. I tried everything and went through all buttons and combinations. Reinstalled and still nothing. This I find is a major problem with the N90 it’s not user-friendly at all and navigation in a hurry is a touchy subject with the Nokia.
It may be that Antony could keep this in mind for the latest Beta version of Screenshot for Symbian. If more options for configuring buttons were added it would work better on the N90. I am looking forward to the next generation of what Nokia has to offer in the way of multi-function phones and hoping they keep in mind ‘ease-of-use’ for mobile web users.
At some point I will start putting together a list of resources that will include tutorials for small device design and development. I started building a list a couple of years agio and going through it this evening realized a lot of it was out of date or URL’s had simply expired. Checking through a few resources I found that Opera has a few tutorials on small device rendering and the following: Making Small Devices Look Great there are quite a few interesting tutorials there coming from the Opera Software development team which I’ll cover in more details in the near future.
Newsweek published a story titled: Gadgets: The Mobile Web which briefly covered the launch of the upcoming domain .mobi.
…high-tech firms are trying to promote a standardized domain name for mobile devices—similar to dot-com for Web sites—that would give users a reliable way of receiving and displaying data on their mobile devices. In June, Microsoft, Google, Nokia, Vodafone and other firms announced dot-mobi—a domain-name suffix for mobile users—that is supposed to create a standardized, recognizable way for companies to launch mobile-friendly sites to mirror their existing sites.
Newsweek goes on to mention that ‘the most useful thing about dot-mobi it will allow people to guess website names such as the more recognizable branded sites.
Yes, agreed that people using a mobile device to surf the web will find sites easier via name, it also allows for businesses that have websites to create mobile ready versions. This will hold especially true for larger portals that can’t possibly have their sites surfed via mobile device. It will give a chance for mobile ready versions to be developed with condensed information and easier navigation to their services.
This is a test of the public address system - do not be alarmed - know your rights!
TEST
