GetMo - Google's new scheme aims to get more UK businesses mobile

Google has launched GetMo, a campaign to help British businesses create mobile-friendly versions of their websites.

GetMo offers a free tool to test any website’s mobile compatibility, a report with suggestions on how to improve it, and information on mobile consumer trends.

The Google campaign offers a “GetMoMeter” tool for companies to see how their current website looks on a mobile phone. It also analyses the site, providing a free report with personalised recommendations tailored to how a business can build a more mobile-friendly experience.

The GetMo site also contains several guides and a list of 10 important considerations for a successful mobile website.

Adobe Shadow

Adobe Shadow is a cross-platform app for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS-powered devices that lets front-end developers remotely test, debug and inspect their web projects on various screen sizes and OSes.

The method involves installing Adobe Shadow desktop application and Chrome extension on PC, and the mobile client on your smartphone/tablet. Provided all the devices are sharing the same Wi-Fi connection, all you need to do is pair them to the computer using a unique passcode. Form thereon, you can remotely browse and sync your projects across various devices. Any changes made to the original code of the website are immediately reflected on each connected device.

If your Webpage look great on the PC, but horrible on iphone or android devices, you can use the Chrome browser's built-in debugging tools to tweak your code until you have achieved cross-platform perfection.

The Shadow app requires atleast iOS 4.2 (iPhone 3 or greater) or Android 2.2. Shadow app for windows and blackberry are not available as of now.

Opera's new mobile statistics report

Mobile Web - Best Practices

Standards

* Use XHTML Basic 1.0.

Images

* Minimize the use of images. If you must use them, make them relevant and supply meaningful ALT text so that mobile devices can use the text descriptions.

* Make images smaller than 100 pixels. Specify the image height and width in the source code.

* Don't use background images on your mobile pages.

User Interface

* Set margins and padding to 0. Widths and margins are detrimental to good handheld display.

* Use one column layouts and avoid floats. Horizontal overflow can be a problem on handhelds, so make sure wide elements fit the narrow screen.

* Add skip anchors. 'Skip to content' and 'Back to top' anchor links are vital when using a mobile device.

* Be consistent. Use similar alignment, color, and layout on pages.

* Align content to the left.

* Place non-essential links and other marginal content at the bottom of the page.


* Take advantage of ordered lists of links and accesskeys.

CSS

* Use external style sheets to control presentation.

* Ensure that contents are readable without style sheets.

* Use the link element to link to an external style sheet. Some handhelds don't recognize @import or @media.

Some of the Top Mobile Sites in South Africa

1. SuperSport Mobi
2. News24 Mobi
3. M.iol.co.za
4. The Grid Mobile
5. Soccer Laduma Mobile
6. Junk Mail Mobile
7. DStv Mobile
8. JobMail Mobile
9. Webmail Mobi
10. Zoopy Mobile

India Ranks 3rd in surfing mobile web thru Opera Mini

Opera has released its State of the Mobile Web, August 2010 report, which shows India has 3rd most Opera Mini users in the world. Since the month of August 2009, pages-per-view of opera mobile users in India has grown by 397 percent, while unique-users have grown by 339 percent. The State of the Mobile Web, August 2010 report also states that the page-views per user in India has grown to 405 and the average data transferred per user is 7MB.

"Growth of the mobile Web worldwide accelerated dramatically in August. These numbers are not limited to smartphones alone. The mobile Web was, and remains, a global phenomenon for people all over the world, on a variety of devices and screen sizes," said Jon von Tetzchner, Co-founder, Opera Software.

The State of the Mobile Web, August 2010 also reports many global trends. In August 2010, Opera Mini had more than 66.5 million users. As compared to July 2010, it has increased by 6.8 percent, and if you compared it from August 2009, then the number of unique users have increased 108.3 percent. In terms of number of pages viewed, Opera Mini users viewed more than 33.9 billion pages in August 2010, an increase of 14.3 percent since July 2010, and 143.2 percent since August 2009.

Mobile Website makes travel easier

Commuters will find it easier to access public transport information on the go through Australia's most comprehensive mobile public transport website.

Transport Minister Rachel Nolan unveiled two new mobile phone compatible websites from TransLink and QR in response to customer feedback.

Ms Nolan said more than 100,000 people accessed TransLink's main website for public transport information every month via their mobile phone.

"Both mobile websites have been designed for commuters who have web-enabled mobile phones and want easy-to-read public transport information at their fingertips," Ms Nolan said.

"Both sites are free and easy to use so commuters on the go have all the information they need to travel on trains, buses and river services."

Ms Nolan said the TransLink mobile website included an improved mobile journey planner, timetables, service updates and disruptions, fares, information on go card top up locations, favourite links and a feedback section.

"One of the best features is that you can save regular journeys, timetables or even service changes - so you don't have to retype your home and work address each time you travel," Ms Nolan said.

"The new website is very easy to navigate, minimising clicks and allowing commuters to connect with TransLink via Twitter, under the contact us section."

Ms Nolan said both the new TransLink and Queensland Rail mobile website worked on most web enabled mobile phones made in the last five years.

"The Queensland Rail mobile-friendly website is being trialled and includes links to the TransLink journey planner as well as news, events and lost property," she said.

"Mapping and positioning technology will be incorporated into future upgrades of the TransLink mobile site.

"We believe a new group of go card users joining the network in coming weeks from the big go card giveaway will benefit from this new service for customers, showing where to top up their go card."

Ms Nolan said TransLink had also made its main website more accessible for multicultural communities by translating important travel information.

"Comprehensive travel information is now available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Serbian, Spanish and Vietnamese at the bottom of each web page of the TransLink site," she said.

"Information about go card will also be available soon. This is all part of our community service obligations in making travel easy for all people in the community."

Access the mobile TransLink website at: mobile.translink.com.au or visit translink.com.au

Mobile Shopping by Tesco

Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, is aiming to take the mobile commerce sector into the mainstream by launching its first transactional mobile app.

It has scheduled to launch the app on Nokia’s Ovi Store next week. It lets Tesco.com members browse a full store and update their shopping lists.

The retailer, which generated £136m in profit from online sales last year, is looking to lead the fledgling mobile commerce sector, which is seeing investment from rivals Asda, Ocado and Waitrose, while Amazon has also launched an online grocery service.

Kony study: Companies give high priority for offering mobile web

Kony Solutions, did a survey in 119 large corporations and it inferred that 61% of the respondents planned to incorporate sales and commerce capabilities into mobile offerings.

The companies also helped in giving an insight apart from the sales and commerce functions.

Informational resources were 75% of the whole, brand awareness was 61%, and customer service and support was 56%-were components of their mobile strategy.

There were also clear cut strategies that were demonstrated by various segments. For example, retail companies clearly were the respondents who chose mobile commerce capabilities, and was at the higher end at 82%, travel and hospitality businesses came in second with 58%.

The study also highlighted that companies consider offering a mobile website to be the highest priority. Around 73% of the respondents agreed to this. Downloadble mobile applications came a close second and messaging as a VAS was another close contender.

Raj Koneru, founder and CEO of Kony Solutions says, "It's clear that the mobile landscape has created a unique, complicated and costly problem for consumer-centric organizations; however, it also offers lucrative opportunities."

He also adds, "Companies are unclear as to how best to balance the cost of developing and deploying mobile offerings across multiple devices with the need to reach the widest range of consumers. Consumers facing businesses need to implement mobile solutions in the near term or risk disengagement. Additionally, the potential revenue stream and brand awareness from mobile offerings is too great to be ignored."

Mobile web users in China

According to eMarketer there will be more mobile Internet users in China than the entire population of the US by the end of this year.

For your reference, the 2010 estimate of the size of the United States population stands at roughly 310 million people according to Wikipedia, so that’s a whole lot of people browsing the Web from their phones right there.

The report, which you can purchase here, also says the number of mobile Internet users in China will grow fast to reach a staggering 957 million, and that the country will count approximately 1.3 billion mobile subscribers by 2014.

eMarketer points out that those mobile Internet users do not currently monetize as well as smaller mobile audiences in, say, the States, which means that mobile advertising spending levels in China are still low relative to the size of the mobile Web user base. Also, the company highlights another key trend in China, which is that mobile subscriber growth is actually slowing while mobile Internet user growth is accelerating.

U.S. Open Golf Site Draws 500 Percent Increase In Mobile Site Visitors

Mobile Web usage continues to grow by leaps and bounds as smartphones with large touch screens become the new normal. One quick data point comes from the United States Golf Association and IBM, which runs its Websites. During the 2010 U.S. Open golf tournament last week, 1.7 million people visited the U.S. Open’s mobile site, a 518 percent increase from last year. In contrast, the regular site saw only 4.2 million visitors, during the week, up 8 percent.

In other words, nearly 30 percent of traffic to the U.S. Open site was from mobile devices. The fact that golf fans didn’t need to fire up their laptops or turn on their TVs to find the latest scores and keep up with the play was enough to make the mobile site take off. And the mobile site was pretty stripped down—there was an all-text news feed, scores, tee times, and some video.

Really, that is all you need. Mobile sites should still be built for delivering quick bursts of information. When you are on the go, you probably don’t have time to wait for a busy page to load with graphics you can barely see anyway. But before touch-screen phones, the mobile Web was too difficult to navigate. Remove the friction of getting on the Web, and people will come in droves.

Mobile Web usage in smartphones

Net Applications’ latest mobile web usage report contradicts an earlier survey claiming that the Android platform overtook the iPhone in terms of market share, at least in the US. According to their May web metrics released Monday, Google’s Android is indeed rapidly gaining usage share, but the iPhone still maintains quite a lead.

The survey, distilled in the included pie chart, is based on aggregated traffic data obtained from partner websites representing a total of 160 million visitors a month, the slice they claim is a representative sample of the web at large. However, note that these figures only indicate active smartphone platform use across those partner sites rather than the actual number of devices sold. According to Net Applications:

Both have been overshadowed,by Java ME – found mostly on low-end and older smartphones – which remains the leading mobile browsing platform with a 40.04 percent usage share.

The Symbian platform, found on most Nokia smartphones, was ahead of Android and behind the iPhone with a 13.98 percent usage share. BlackBerry and Windows Mobile came in fifth and sixth with a 3.59 percent and 2.97 percent usage share, respectively

The iPhone actually gained more global share than Android in May, going from 30.3 percent to 32.8 percent. In the same timeframe, Android went from 5.3 percent to 6.2 percent. Java ME (which stands for micro-edition) still maintains the number spot as the most popular platform for mobile browsing. This platform is in use on a large variety of devices and is rapidly losing share to both Android and the iPhone.

The survey revealed that the iPhone gained more market share in May than Android, although Google’s mobile operating system grew at a faster pace. More precisely, Android increased its May usage share over the previous month by 17 percent versus an 8.25 percent increase for the iPhone. This shouldn’t surprise you because a tinier user base like Android grows faster in percentage terms than a nearly 100 million-strong installed base of iPhone OS devices

Mobile phones to overtake PCs for web surfing by 2013

By 2013, more people will be accessing the web from mobile phones than from PCs, according to analyst firm Gartner's latest set of predictions.

The company says that there will be 1.78 billion PCs in use that year, outstripped by the 1.82 billion install base of smartphones and browser-equipped feature phones.

"Websites not optimized for the smaller-screen formats will become a market barrier for their owners," claims Gartner. "Much content and many sites will need to be reformatted/rebuilt."

The analyst's new report also predicts that context - including location, presence and social interactions - will become as important to mobile services as search engines are to the web.

"The most powerful position in the context business model will be a context provider," says Gartner.

Expanding Mobile Web

Taptu, the search and discovery engine that indexes touch screen content, reveals in its second quarterly report that the Mobile Touch Web has grown 35 percent since last quarter, which represents a 232 percent annual growth rate. This puts its growth rate ahead of the App Store, currently showing an annual growth of 144 percent, but behind the Android Market growing at an annual rate of 403 percent, albeit from a smaller base.

The report, which covers January 2010-April 2010, also shows Mobile Touch Web sites rose to 440,100 from 326,600 in January. At this current run rate, the report predicts that the Mobile Touch Web will increase to 1.1 million sites by the end of the year, nearly twice Taptu’s original forecast, and nearly a full year ahead of our January prediction, fueled in part by the continued consumer love affair with touch screen phones, and even more importantly the rising sales of mid-range touch-enabled devices.

Key Findings From Taptu’s Quarterly Report Analyzing the Growth of the Mobile Touch Web:

1. The number of touch friendly websites is dramatically higher than just 4 months ago. At the end of 2010, we found 326,600 touch friendly websites. In April 2010, that number has increased to 440,100 sites. This represents a 35 percent increase in the quarter and an annual growth rate of 232 percent.

2. App Store numbers are up too, showing a comparative annual growth rate of 144 percent up to 185,000 apps. The largest growth has been in the Android Market, now showing 35,947 apps and an annual growth rate of 403 percent.
The iPhone is a strong platform, but it only accounts for 10 percent of the worldwide market of touch screen devices. If a company simply employs an iPhone application as their sole mobile strategy, they are only pursuing 10 percent of the market.

3. mCommerce/ Shopping & Services continue to dominate the Mobile Touch Web representing over 22 per cent of the 440,100 sites compared to the App Store where equivalent services represent fewer than 4 per cent.

Mobile Library Website

The mobile website at the University of Minnesota Libraries was optimized for iPhone users.Oregon State University Library created two versions of its mobile site, one optimized for smartphones and one for web-enabled cell phones, which have smaller screens. It’s easy to create an algorithm that will detect from what type of device a user is accessing a website and redirect the patron to the appropriate version for that device.

Other libraries have created mobile applications that allow users to search the catalog and selected databases, place holds, contact the library, check hours and more from their smartphone.The District of Columbia Public Library and the University of Houston both have created impressive library iPhone apps. DCPL has even made its source code available for others to modify.

In addition to creating a mobile website or application, there are many other resources and services libraries can mobilize for their users, including reference services, instructional content, and the catalog.With the mainstreaming of mobile devices, libraries can no longer ignore this important trend. By mobilizing our library resources and services, we make ourselves accessible to patrons wherever they are, from a device that fits in their pocket.

Reasons for having a mobile website

In 2009, $1.6 billion was obtained from purchases in mobile devices

93% of Americans own their mobile phones.

5% of the top 500 online retailers possess a mobile site/ iPhone app

Budgets for mobile marketing is expected to cross $6.5 billion in 2012

Internet users are using it on an average of 13 hours a week, which was just 7 in 2002

There are more than 2 billion mobile phones estimated worldwide

Google owns a separate mobile site index

Nearly 1/5 of Americans access mobile web daily

Mobile web is expected to surpass desktop web in just five years

Mobile Web Browsers

Opera Mobile

Opera Mini

Skyfire

Safari

Google Android

Microsoft IE for Mobile

Firefox Mobile

Bolt

Teashark

Blazer

Mozilla's Minimo

Bitstream's Thunderhawk

S60 Web Browser.

Mobile web usage

Bango – the mobile payments and analytics specialist – reports a 600% growth in traffic to mobile websites. The company analyzed traffic to a range of mobile sites over the last 12 months. Data was gathered by sampling across 50 million phone users worldwide who have accessed third party mobile sites through its platform.
The key findings from Bango’s annual mobile usage study record 6 times the number of visits to mobile websites, comparing December 2009 with the same month a year earlier. The average time on site is measured as 3 minutes, 21 seconds, averaged across user visits to all sites, compared with just over one and half minutes the previous year. The analysis also measured the average number of pages viewed per visit at 5 pages, up from just over 2 pages per visit twelve months before.

Over the last twelve months, these site-level figures have increased by an average of 230% compared to a year ago, with consumers visiting sites more frequently from their phones and browsing more pages over longer periods of time. The key categories for mobile browsing are news, sports and general media sites (including newspapers), mobile content downloads, social networking and retail sites.


Another key finding is that smartphones are driving the highest usage of the mobile web, with BlackBerry accounting for over 17% of the mobile devices recorded across sites.The number of visits by BlackBerry users also exceeds any other device.

According to Gartner, the top three devices for worldwide smartphone sales in 2009, in order, were Nokia, BlackBerry then the iPhone. Factoring in the relative sales growth across the different smartphone brands the data suggests that iPhone browsing has, if anything, slightly declined per user measured, which could be a result of consumers being directed towards apps instead of websites.

Bango’s analysis also reveals significant usage of Wi-Fi connections by phone users. Wi-Fi connections average at 23% of all connections measured by Bango, with some rich media sites averaging one-third of all connections through Wi-Fi. This suggests that consumers are increasingly aware of Wi-Fi on mobile handsets and will connect via Wi-Fi where available, motivated by speed and perceived cost benefits. Sites that attract high percentages of Wi-Fi connected users include those that broadcast video, music and other streamed content.

Handcase Search engine for Mobile - Gune

Handcase has launched its mobile search engine, named Gune. The Gune solution is a system of meta-search. Handcase is a Brazilian software company.

Gune searches other websites and generates a single page of results. Search results are optimized for small screen phones and smartphones. Gune consults other search engines such as Google (News - Alert) and Bing to deliver the search results. Unlike traditional meta-search websites on the Internet that use the same principle, Gune displays 10 results each from Google and Bing simultaneously on the same page. Moreover, Gune offers the search box both at the top and at the end of each page.

Another factor that differentiates Gune from traditional meta-search websites that are based on the same principles is the fact that the search results provided are only from mobile search. According to Ricardo Garay, CEO Handcase, the goal was to optimize the time of the user. Gune aims to provide a superior experience with search. At present, Gune is available only in English. Handcase is working on Gune’s versions in Portuguese and Spanish.

The Gune offers a catalog of mobile websites. That is, users will be able to submit their mobile websites in Gune’s mobile website directory. It is not necessary to own a mobile website to submit it. If a user knows any mobile websites, he can go ahead and submit it. Garay added that since Gune is designed for everyone to contribute to the directory, whoever has, or knows a website mobile should just visit the website for the PC and give his tip. As soon as the website is checked and approved, it will be added to the directory.

Mobile Usability Guidelines

Meet user's needs quickly
Design mobile friendly pages
Don't repeat the navigation on all the pages
Distinguish clearly selected items
Make user input as simple as possible
Show only essential information in the mobile