Kamis, 05 Mei 2011

Facebook goes into m.facebook.com

Why are so few sites? Well, even if tolerated browsing on a smartphone, is still far from something you would really enjoy doing that. If a big screen PC available, I prefer to use it thank you very much. Browsing on a smartphone is really limited to situations where there are no longer available - such as when killing time on buses or trains, for example.

As a result, I tend to focus this short period of time browsing the site is relatively small. In order of time spent, this is the site along with screenshots of each that I use most: (apologies to international readers to some local sites are totally useless for everyone except those who live in Helsinki)

NY Times on http://mobile.nytimes.com - highlighted earlier, this is my favorite site of mobile-optimized. Stories are interesting and useful, well presented with an appropriate amount of photos. Given the ability of the phone, I really could not ask for much more.

Of course, there is little interference with one ad at the top of the page, but that falls into the category-received.


Helsingin Sanomat in http://m.hs.fi/ Finland best for local news, this new site works pretty well, although the ad along with the title and navigation bar takes too much space on the home page (see screenshot). Still works pretty well and including the occasional picture.

I also liked the URL. If only all the mobile site is fast and comfortable is named. The "m" prefix must be the de facto standard if you ask me;. Mobi is a bad idea but everyone who has their domain should have no problem in making a mobile-version of the prefix "m" (and has a mobile-prefix as an alias as well)


To be in http://m.facebook.com.

Site up mobile which is optimized version of a very flawed, but still useful for quick status updates and checks. A good mobile interface is very important for things like up - otherwise, the status of someone is always going to be something boring like "at home" or "at work" as you see from time to time .. (Name deleted from the screenshot here to protect the innocent.)



Australia in http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/wireless is another version of good newspaper mobile mostly done, although the long URLs. Downsides is that there are practically no pictures and can use the category links on every page - but it also shows that making a relatively functioning mobile site does not need aa primary responsibility. This is the kind of sites that one should be able to get out of every CMS half decent with not much trouble at all.


YTV Journey Planner at http://aikataulut.ytv.fi/reittiopas-pda/fi/ is one of the most useful mobile site ever, despite the horrible URLs are a pain to type before bookmarking it. Travel Planner basically tells you what to take public transportation to get from Points A to Point B, along with schedules and route maps.



Google Reader in http://www.google.com/reader/m/view is a nice interface to access your Google Reader bloglist move. Not fancy but it works pretty well, unfortunately, at least on Nokia phones, can not remember your login information for a long time (not days or weeks), so you have to log in sometimes re-which is a little sore.



Rain radar in http://testbed.fmi.fi/

This is an exception in the sense that they're not moving-optimized. However, it is simple enough to be used on telephone and offered services (Doppler radar rain + temperature metropolitan area) is very useful that deserves to be on the list.