Resolve to Mobilfy Your Blog

Bet on this. In 2006 the mobile Web is going to be far more mainstream than it was last year, especially as EVDO (definition) access prices come down. I recently decided to retire my bulky Treo 650 in favor of a wafer thin Motorola RAZR V3C phone from Verizon that is enabled with VCAST for high-speed access. So far, I am loving it.

Scoble is starting the year by calling out all sites that don't have a mobile version. For bloggers, there are a few solutions. WINKsite is one. Here's a mobile version of my blog I created using WINKsite. Another alternative is Phonifier. It mobilizes any site or RSS feed, even if the publisher hasn't done so. However, I can't get it to work on the Openwave browser that came with my phone. One last option is RSS2WAP.

Technorati Tags: Phonifier, RAZR, V3C, VCAST, Verizon Wireless, WAP, WINKsite

Comments

[Stephen Davies]

Ever since I bought my SPV C550 Windows Smartphone I've been loving it. I check my Gmail and feeds every morning as soon as I wake up. I can watch breaking Sky news from my phone also.

I have all my Outlook contacts synched with my phone so if either the phone or lap top breaks/gets stolen I have a back up.

I've tested both Phonifier and Wink site, but I'm not sure if the latter has any use? I use your blog (along with many others) for its content and having a mobile RSS aggregator enables me to read it while away from my computer. Why would I need to go to your mobile site when it's RSS enabled any way?

Good thing about Phonifier is it allows you to make comments on other people's blogs from your phone. Pretty cool!

If the browser you got with your phone is no good, why don't you download the Opera Mini? That has small screen rendering which works like Phonifier.

Give Shozu a try too. It lets you tag and post your cameraphone pictures straight to Flickr.

[Stephen Davies]

Check out this article too:
http://tinyurl.com/9o9h8

[Zoli Erdos]

Steve, I'd love to give up the bulk, but just can't get used to typing on a regular phone. Do you send emails or SMS a lot, and don't you miss the Qwerty keyboard?

[David Harper]

Stephen you're missing the point of what WINKsite allow you to do. While many bloggers choose to "mobilize" their feed that's only really scratching the surface.

On your blog today you posted an article "The music industry is beginning to use Web 2.0" (http://www.prblogger.com/?p=282)

Well let's look at an example of the benefit of using RSS to distribute content to a shared mobile space...

Warner understands the future of reaching the youth audience. They get it. You see, the definition of Mass Media is changing from Media Made FOR an Audience - to - Media Made BY the Audience. This media is social in nature and the under 24 crowd are hungry for it.

Warner Launches Mobile Portal For The Veronicas - Mash-Up Of Branded Content With Social Media
(http://winksite.com/site/help_bl_view.cfm?blog_id=5690)

RSS & Syndication is now being used to bring content to the mobile phones of people who have until now had zero or little access to a desktop computer - combined with mobile forums, chat etc.- the technology shortchanged are able to engage in mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-PC communities.

The blogging world is now is overflowing with wonderful Web 2.0 services to send information - text, photos, video, geographical data - from a mobile device to a conventional Weblog or Web Site. But, what has been blatantly missing and quite critical are community-based solutions that provide spaces where individuals can meet, share and interact with content from mobile device to mobile device - “closing the loop.”

My belief is that the availability of simple and flexible tools for the publishing, discovery, personalization and distribution of user-generated content is essential to empowering the masses.”

As the Web showed, things really take off when users build out their own real estate (whatever they are called) rather than relying on vendors to supply accommodations. The success of the Web was due not to mass production and economies of scale, but rather to distributed development of local content and economies driven by individual passion.

The leave behind…

By providing a greater number of people with knowledge, you provide an even greater number with the potential to become involved. As I see, it is more than just publishing content to a mobile environment. It is about the individuals it engages, the people it connects, the dialogue that develops, the community that forms and the collective action that can result.

..it's really not about just reading "feeds."

[David Harper]

...keep in mind the majority of the 2 billion mobile phone users worldwide aren't using a Treo or Windows Smartphone.

[Easton Ellsworth]

Thanks for the pointers and links. I agree that mobilfying (Steve, you are a veritable cornucopia of portmanteaus and assorted neologisms galore) will be important this year. Already I'm getting anxious to experience more of the Web in my hand instead of just on my lap or at my desk! I appreciate the way this post got my mental juices flowing.

[quaisi]

Entering http://www.drunkmenworkhere.org/150.php?url=http://YOURURLHERE will give you a text only version of your site which may be useful to some.

[David Harper]

The mobile address for Micro Persuasion is actually:

http//winksite.com/steverubel/mp

[James Egan]

I've looked at both Phonifier and Winksite and they are worlds apart in terms of function and effect.

I'm not trying to dis Phonifier but it's little more than a 'screen scraper' "and that's OK," as Stuart Smalley would say. In a way, it does the work that many web developers don't, serving a purpose.

Winksite on the other hand is a powerful publishing and community building platform. Not only can someone (or company) quickly build a fully functioning mobile site (or stream in an existing web site) they can also connect that site to thousands of others that share the same interests...or not...globally, regardless of device or carrier. Now that's cool.

From my experience Winksite is not about stripping away the eye candy only to deliver a hodgepodge of text over mobile devices. It is about recognizing that mobile is a unique environment with unique oppportunities thereby adding all sorts of features that most web site don't even have...again acknowledging that mobile provides unique possibilities.

I think Dave is right when he says that the companies that get this shift (which goes beyound mobile phones) will have a huge advantage in years to come.

Cheers!

[akr3p]

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