IS YOUR SITE MOBILE FRIENDLY? Welcome to www.240px.com/howto.htm Optimized for PocketPC & Palm based PDAs HOW (AND WHY) TO MAKE YOUR WEBSITE "MOBILE FRIENDLY" 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 is an increased need 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. The average demographic of a web-enabled mobile user is evolving quickly as a new generation of affordable SmartPhones and "convergence devices" (PDAs that have cellular and/or wi-fi Internet capabilities) proliforate through the introduction of new wireless plans and products. The percentage of web-enabled mobile users is growing rapidly. Your average mobile Internet user is annually "investing" $1000 to $5000 in discretionary funds to maintain their wireless Internet services. These people are ready and willing to spend their money on things that appeal to them and they are looking for sites they can view and interact with easily while on the run. WHEN? If you don't currently have a "mobile friendly" site (or alternative "mobile" 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 an alternative initial interface into a small; maximum 150 pixel (for Palm) or 240 pixel (for PocketPC) screen size and set your page to auto-detect the operating system (OS) of your customers, then redirect your mobile users to 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.. Those that came to be known as "power-users" bumped up to 1280 x 1024 monitors. Well, guess what? Now your "power users" are commonly using anything from 150 x 150 (Palm) and 240 x 320 and 240 x 240 (PocketPC) to 1024 x 768 (10" tablet PC) interfaces. 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 solution 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 (like this page.. simple, clean and with minimal formatting, max 30k per page with minimal graphics). 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 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 Fodors www.fodors.com/ptp/ptpalm /ptp.cgi 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 many other great "mobile friendly" 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 in our index at www.240px.com! Mark@240px.com 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] This website is not maintained for profit. Copyright © 2004-2006 Websmitty.com, All rights reserved.