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In the sea of internet space, the mobile web has carved out its own niche in a short span of time. The penetration and portability of mobile devices have taken internet to a set of whole new audiences who didn’t exist earlier. In fact, mobile as a digital social media device is growing in popularity at such a breathtaking pace that it might soon leave PCs behind. Through this post I have tried to explore various facets of – The Mobile Web .

MODES OF ACCESS

• Mobile Web Applications
• Mobile Browsers

MOBILE WEB APPLICATIONS

Quite a few websites and mobile software vendors offer web based applications custom made for a variety of mobile platforms. Fortunately most of these applications are free to download and use. However you may still get charged by your operator depending upon your data plan. (Typically mobile application file sizes don’t exceed 200kb-300kb, which means it will cost you at max Rs. 2 – Rs. 3 say if you are a vodafone user – GPRS @10ps/10kb.) Also most of these applications are optimised for minimum data usage, which means they are swifter to load and cheaper to use than a mobile website.

I have compiled a list of some good mobile web applications.

*Support for Yahoo Go! will be discontinued from 12-Jan-10.

All these apps run on most mobile phones (low as well as high end, as most of them are java based) and are free to use. Though I have listed just a handful of apps (which I have personally used and liked), the number and variety of mobile apps residing in the webspace is nothing less than exorbitant.

Check out these websites to get apps (web as well as offline) for your mobile:

GENERAL MOBILE APP PROVIDERS

• GetJar
• Mobango
• YouPark
• Mobile9

DEDICATED APP STORES

• Blackberry
• Windows Mobile
• Android
• Iphone
• Nokia
• Sony Erricsson
• Samsung Mobile
• LG Mobile

MOBILE BROWSERS

All GPRS/EDGE enabled mobile phones come with a default mobile browser for surfing net. Check this list of some good default browsers:

• Nokia Series 40 and 60 Browsers
• Safari for IPhone (By Apple)
• Android Browser (By Google)
• Blackberry Browser (By RIM)
• Internet Explorer Mobile – Windows Mobile (By Microsoft)
• Playstation Portable Web Browser (By Sony)

However certain independent vendors like opera and mozilla are really pushing the limits of mobi-browsers to make them as friendly and functional as the desktop browsers

Opera Mini

• Extremely versatile (You’ll get a version for almost any net enabled cell phone)
• Saves data charges (Compacts size of web pages by upto 70%)
• Mobile view option for a better mobile browsing experience.
• Features akin to web browsers viz. tabbed browsing, speed dialing, bookmarking, retaining session history and even has a small mouse to foster better page navigation.Opera Mobile

• Full featured mobile web browser for smart phones.
• Optimised for both touchscreen and keypad based mobiles.
• Saving Pictures, html pages and more directly from the web page.
• Plus all features of Opera Mini

• As of now Firefox Mobile (built on maemo platform) is available just for Nokia 900 and Nokia 810
• Like the web version already 40 add-ons are available for this browser.
• It comes loaded with all standard features of a web browser like tabbed browsing, bookmaring, autofill supported URL bar etc.

MOBI-SITES

These days most good websites have a specialized and dedicated mobile friendly version. Typically a mobisite (mobile website) would have a domain name like m.website.com, wap.website.com, website.mobi or website.com/xhtml. However as a good practise even the regular web domains are designed to get redirected to a mobi-friendly version when opened on a mobile phone (Try opening www.google.com or microreviews.org on your mobile).

Some good mobisites:

• SEARCH ENGINES – m.google.com, m.yahoo.com
• STOCK MARKET – m.moneycontrol.com
• TRAVEL – wap.yatra.com
• SOCIAL NETWORKING – m.orkut.com, m.facebook.com, m.twitter.com, m.youtube.com, foursquare.com
• APP STORES – wap.getjar.com
• EMAIL – m.gmail.com, m.yahoo.com/p/mail

HOW TO GO MOBILE?

Option 1: Design a separate mobile friendly version of your website and host it as a separate mobisite (like m.abc.com). Also update your HTML code so that your webpage gets automatically redirected to your mobisite when opened from your mobile phone.

Option 2: Use Mobile Theme Plugins

It’s not really necessary to be a designer to get your mobisite up and running. Some great mobile theme plugins are available to do the job for you.

WordPress – WordPress Mobile Pack, WPTouch (Customised for IPhones), MobilePress (we are using it currently), WordPress Mobile edition. More Themes…

Drupal – Mobile Plugin for Drupal, OSMOBI

Joomla – OSMOBI

You can check the mobile readiness of your site here

WHY GO MOBILE?

• Complete your digital presence – If you don’t have a mobile presence you loose out on one of the most important emerging digital platforms
• Enhance traffic to your parent site – Just within days of mobilising our website we have started to get ~12% traffic from mobile users
• Reach newer audience – Quite a big chunk of netsurfers just use mobile, infact many even don’t possess a pc.
• Mobile Virals -
• Mobile Marketing -

FUTURE OUTLOOK

The future of mobile web particularly in India looks highly promising. Here’s the reason why -

• Already 50 crore subscribers in India, 100 crore expected by 2015
• 3g/WiMax auction soon
• PC penetration still low – Netreach Still not as widespread
• Certain websites/applications are much more convenient, safe and swift to use from the mobile web – twitter, booking tickets, banking, bill payments
• Convergence of digital media – mobile, pdas, computers, netbooks

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P.S  15% of the traffic on microreviews.org is from mobile clients.

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1. Now Yahoo Eyes Real Time Search Domain
2. Microsoft vs Google – 2009 – Part 2 – Search, Email and IM
3. The real business behind URL shortening- Goo.gl,Bit.ly and FB.me