If there is one technology that has been disruptive, ubiquitous and pervasive, it is the mobile phone technology. I’m amazed by the fact that a little over 50% of the world’s population (3.3 billion, by November 2007) are mobile subscribers. The technology has improved to a great extent and we are already in the verge of adopting the fourth generation (also known as 4G or beyond 3G) mobile services.
The latest models of mobile phones flaunt wide-screens and powerful browsers backed by high-speed data connectivity. People have started using their mobile phones to get news updates, cricket scores, live weather, and also for services like blogs, Gmail and Twitter! So, most bloggers and website owners now want to reach out to those audiences who access the internet via their mobile phones. Having said that, not all mobile subscribers have internet-enabled phones, and even if they do it is hardly put into use. I’m an optimist; if I consider 40% (conservative figure) of the mobile subscribers accessing the internet via their phones, I may reach out to quite a few of the whopping 1.3 billion people on the move!!
So, how do I make my site mobile-friendly?
If you’ve a Wordpress blog, you just got lucky! Use MobilePress!!
Usually, I wouldn’t recommend a plugin without using it on my website. The same applies to MobilePress too. Initially, I was a bit skeptical about the usage of this plugin for my blog. There are quite a few services (like Blog4Mobile, WireNode, etc) that convert your blog into a mobile-friendly version, but there are just too many such services, and you will never know which one is the best. Or, it may even turn out to be like, you sign up for one service, and after some time you feel that another one’s better.
Why MobilePress?
My requirements were simple! Firstly, the installation must be simple. Secondly, whenever someone opens www.ubiquitense.com on his/her mobile, it must automatically render only the mobile version of my site, and not the entire one wasting bandwidth and his/her time. MobilePress just does this, and it is good!! You can see the pictures that shows how my site shows up on the Opera Mini™ browser on my Motorola Rokr E6 mobile phone.
This plugin also has options that would enable your site display properly on iPhone and Windows Smartphone browsers. What more? if you follow the installation instructions, it takes just about 7 minutes to have the mobile version of your blog up and running!!
For non-Wordpress blog users..
I’m not sure if a similar plugin like MobilePress exists for Blogger and TypePad platforms. However, you may want to try Koollage. According to them, it is the first portable, multimedia authoring and communications platform. Right now, their services are iPhone/iPod ready; probably they may extend it to other devices in the near future. They are still in beta, but I heard from one of my twitter friends that it is showing up really good on his iPhone!
I will be glad to know how my site shows up on your Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Windows mobile phones, or any other mobile phone that you may have. Please share your feedback over here!
Tags: iphone, ipod, koollage, mobile blog, mobile phones, mobilepress, mobilize, plugin, subscribers, wordpress
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This is good information. Thanks, I use wordpress too. I think I will explore this
Great! hope to see your blog on my mobile
By and by, what phone do you have?
wow! 'm commenting via my mobile. the site loads pretty fast. looks cool too!
Haha this is a great article, though right now I'm more worried about making my blog web-browser-friendly (not to mention just people-friendly). Still working on the whole “HTML” stuff, I'm not exactly computer-savvy.
Well, if you're using Wordpress, you need not sweat on the HTML stuff. You can contact me if you want any help on Wordpress, and I'll be glad to help you out. Good luck!!
That's a great blog post – it's just a matter of time before online blogs – from the laptop/desktop computer are going to be – archaic.
Thanks for the updates.
You're right! Most people now look for mobile phones that have bigger screens, for videos and browsing the Internet. The day is not far when people will start active blogging/commenting via their phones. It is always a good practice to prepare for the future
Надеюсь, остальные записи окажутся такими же интересными
Что поделаешь, бывает и такое иногда
Прикольная статья, но хотелось бы поподробнее узнать о некоторых моментах… Как можно с Вами связаться?
Действительно интересный сайт, добавил в избранное, буду заходить почаще
Use Easymobilizer, and when your current URL (website) is accessed from any mobile device, we display your site contents in a mobile friendly format. A feature that should be on every website anyway. Easymobilizer script Features:
* Simple copy & paste a line of code into index file – and its ready!
* Mobile version built ‘on the fly’ – so always current content!
* No expensive development costs designing & upkeeping a mobile version.
* No marketing costs rebranding a new .mobi domain for your business.
* A QR code is provided for marketing your mobile version.
* Option to have a ‘Click to talk to us’ feature displayed – the user is probably using their mobile phone anyway.
* Enjoy the free trial period for testing
Hi – I’ve just checked out your site on my blackberry and whilst it gives you a mobile version, it looks nothing like your website – you’ve completed lost your brand identity!
The good news is that I’ve created a new plugin for wordpress called the Wapple Architect Mobile Plugin for Wordpress written in WAPL. It makes your blog work perfectly on every mobile phone in the world, keeps the same URL structure and allows you to retain your brand identity by carrying across styles and allowing you to upload mobile logos.
Version 1.5 has been released and there are a ton of features (more than any other mobile plugin) giving you real control over how your mobile site looks and functions. You can make your blog look absolutely amazing on mobile!
The homepage can be found here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/ and here are a few screenshots of it in action: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wapple-architect/screenshots/
If you fancy giving it a go, let me know and I’ll do my best to help out!