Figuring out the Mobile Web
I rediscovered a blog posting from Cameron Moll about the development of the Mobile web. Its from 2005, but it still makes sense. As a few people mentioned, the U.S. is far behind in the mobile web development from. So this blog posting will likely be ironically timely for us in the U.S. BTW, he just wrote a book on mobile web development.I’d like to start my contribution by listing my top 5 best mobile sites. The list contains the sites that give me the best experience on my Palm Treo 700p. The links in this list point to the mobile sites and should be viewed on your PDA
- Fandango – a movie listing site
- The Weather channel – Provides local weather (and so much more) information based on your zipcode.
- ABC news – A major US television network
- GMail – Mobile version of Google’s Mail client.
- The Onion – A satirical news site.
As part of my education for mobile development, I’ve added a mobile style sheet to my personal website. Mobile development is more than just adding a style sheet. It’s also about using the markup effectively. One idea that was very useful was the Leahy/Landridge image replacement technique. This allowed me to use the heading tags so all clients can access that markup. I then applied the technique in my css file for desktop users, and used simple styling for the mobile users. This way, the mobile user still gets a nice experience without the extra download.
I’m interested in what techniques have worked for you. So if you have one you’d like to share, let me know.