| IS YOUR SITE MOBILE FRIENDLY? |
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Welcome to
www.BCVC.net/mobile/howto.htm |
| Optimized for PocketPC & Palm based PDAs |
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| HOW (AND WHY) TO MAKE YOUR WEBSITE "MOBILE FRIENDLY" |
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WHY?
As more 'net savvy recreational and business
travellers begin to tap
in to the wireless
capabilities of the new
generation of cellphones
and wi-fi enabled PDA devices,
there becomes
an increased need for you
to be able to serve
those on-the-go customers
using a "mobile"
interface. The increased
availability of
wi-fi, Bluetooth and GPRS
connections, through
both free and subscription
services has caused
a boom in wireless Internet
use. Whether
it be wi-fi enabled cafes,
restaurants, waiting
rooms, airports and hotels
or Bluetooth cellular
phones and so-called "Smartphones"..
the power-user and common
recreational traveller
alike are seeking an easy-to-view
interface
to search out restaurants,
hotels, transportation,
entertainment and many
other services.
WHEN?
If you don't currently have a "mobile
friendly" site and
your competition
does, you are already behind
the curve..
if you are first to roll
out a PDA friendly
mobile interface, you will
build immediate
customer loyalty and you
will be "setting
the bar" ..an enviable
position to say
the least. Now is the time
to either set
yourself apart from your
competitors or begin
to take back your market
share! As this technology
begins to evolve and become
more relevant,
those that make early inroads
will not only
have the biggest impact,
but will reap the
biggest benefits!
HOW?
You shouldn't need to recreate or overhaul
your entire website, if
you simply make your
initial interface into
a small; maximum 150
pixel (for Palm) or 240
pixel (for PocketPC)
screen size and set your
search results from
that particular interface
to come out in
a frameless, text-based,
low-bandwidth format.
If you look at the examples
below, you will
see what I mean.
If your current main page has frames, text
boxes, complex style sheets
and stacked graphics,
it is clearly going to
be "overly formatted"
for mobile users (even
if you use "alt"
tags everywhere!) ..as
slick, awesome and
sophisticated as it may
look on a standard
PC or laptop.. it is probably
awful (at best)
and/or completely unusable
on the small screen
of a web enabled PDA or
Smartphone! There
was a time when all webpages
were built to
a 800 x 600 standard..
"power-users"
had 1280 x 1024 monitors.
Well, now your
"power users"
are commonly using
anything from 150 x 150
(Palm) and 240 x
320 (PocketPC) to 1024
x 768 (10" tablet
PC). Things have come full
circle and wireless
has brought the "low
bandwidth approach"
to website design back
into vogue.
WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS?
There are actually several options, the easiest
and best solutions is to
add some simple
code to your main page
that detects a mobile
operating system, such
as Windows CE and/or
Palm OS, and have it redirect
to a basic
low-bandwidth page. Many
top sites (particularly
those that are geared toward
business travellers,
sophisticated mobile users
and new web-enabled
wireless clients) have
their pages set to
auto-detect and redirect
mobile users, whether
they be PocketPC or Palm
based users.
The following basic Java code will work to
seamlessly screen and redirect PocketPC users
from any standard web page to a specially
formatted mobile page, if placed in the HTML
code of your standard page's header (between
the <head> and </head> codes
at the top.. below your meta tags).. Oh,
and replace "mymobile.htm" with
whatever you decide to name your mobile friendly
page..
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE = "JavaScript">
var isCE = navigator.appVersion.indexOf("Windows
CE")>0;
if (isCE)
{
window.location.href="mymobile.htm";
}
</script>
NOW WHAT?
For your "mobile"
page, you probably
want to consider a reduced
interface (like
the examples from Yahoo,
Google and Amazon,
below) or it may be a text
only version with
minimal graphics, no frames
or extra formatting,
like this page as well as the examples from Frommers, Fodors,
US News and MSNBC, below.
EXAMPLES:
Take a look at the following
"mini"
pages for reference on
what you can do for
yours..
Yahoo!
http://wap.oa.yahoo.com/
Google
www.google.com/palm
Amazon
www.amazon.com/pocketpc
US News
www.usnews.com/usnews/textmenu.htm
MSNBC
www.msnbc.com/avantgo/mmc.asp
Fox Sports
www.foxsports.com/palm/
Here is a list of some other great mobile
sites:
www.pocketpcmag.com/mobile.htm
If you have a PDA friendly site, please send
the URL to me and I'll see about posting
it here!
EvilSwede@bcvc.net
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For more information, read
these informative
articles and posts..
About.com Articles on PDA friendly pages
[CLICK HERE]
Post on the topic at PocketPC
Thoughts [CLICK HERE]
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