Apr

28

About six months ago I had a discussion with someone at CNET about ways they could better advertise that they had a mobile version of their site. We were defining mobile version as one that is formatted for mobile devices. I don’t know the complexities of the CNET mobile site (i.e. how many kinds of devices it supports, etc…) but regardless of the method of delivery and the technology behind it, I am wondering if the industry couldn’t learn from recent other successes like RSS and create a recognizable icon that site owners could use to advertise that a mobile version is available?

I’ve had a mobile version of my site available for users for over three years now. It started after I did a project for Qualcomm and Verizon Wireless and developed a backend CMS and frontend detection system. Mine is based on user-agents. Apparently, this article, leads me to believe that Google is now crawling looking for mobile versions of other sites based on user-agent detection as well. I’ve been waiting for Google to provide a mobile index for sometime.

So without an index currently from a search engine, site owners are left to advertise their mobile offerings. I’ve always just provided a link to the mobile version of my site in my site footer. It’s not very front and center, and it needs something else that makes it stand out more and fit in with the rest of the world that offers mobile versions.

So my question is, should site owners start using a “standard” icon if they have a mobile version of their site available? If so, we need to decide on one and start to make it consistent so users start to recognize it and understand what it means just like RSS has done over the past year. Once we have an icon, let’s figure out a strategy for announcing to the search engines that we support mobile devices. Thoughts on that in another post.

Apr

21

I’ve been collecting thoughts on whether AJAX works for mobile or not. I’m not the only one apparently. I recently found this (http://ajaxian.com/archives/ajax-to-make-mobile-web-20-a-reality) in my aggregator. It is an interesting approach to the topic. But as one person, in the comments, mentions, AJAX is a complimentary technology to markup (i.e. XHTML). So in order for AJAX to be used on the mobile platform a couple of things come into play. One, a browser. Two, the browser’s support of markup (preferably XHTML) and a JavaScript engine.

I think the big one there is a browser. Is it a good user experience to have all of the data apps on your phone accessed by launching a browser, going to a bookmark or typing a URL? This may sound trivial to desktop users that have never used a browser in a mobile phone, but believe me, it’s not the same experience. I think a good way of improving this, is taking the bookmarks out of the browser and integrate them into the OS and UI. Don’t bury them in the browser. I would like to see a UI designer enable the user to add a bookmark right to the main menu of the phone OS.

Second, is the markup language support and the JavaScript engine support. Opera has already tackled this (http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/platform/). I am researching the platform and plan to release a couple of apps for the platform as a test. As I research, I’ll be posting my notes. I’ve been thinking lately that XML as a transfer protocol might work since mobile bandwidth is getting faster, but for slow data connections, XML/RSS has bloat and could be done in a different fashion that would save bytes, which could mean a good deal of money for the consumer.

The consumer experience is going to make all the difference. If someone can bookmark an app, and access it directly from the main phone menu (just like an installed app – using .SIS on Symbian platform or .CAB on Windows Mobile) then I think AJAX makes a strong case. Of course distributing over the network has its benefits for mobile, but that is an entirely separate discussion.

Of course, one part of the equation is the monetization aspect. How can a developer/content distributor make money off of a network distributed AJAX application? I suppose subscription model and advertising models come to mind, but I’m not sure that is going to get you on the carrier deck. Carriers may be interested in purchasing the app as an added content benefit to their users? This will have to take some more time and thought, perhaps some creativity.

I’ll continue to put some of my thoughts out there regarding AJAX and mobile. Feel free to comment, this is meant to be a discussion.

Also, this is my first test at using Ecto (http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/) to publish from the desktop. I’m liking it so far.

Apr

12

Two weeks ago, we launched Mickeys.com for Miller Brewing Company. In a post announcing the project I said I would deconstruct it a bit as well. Reason being, I have been speaking with someone at Adobe trying to get a better sense for Flex and how I could relate it to the mickeys development. In the end I am not sure Flex would have made sense. I look at Flex more as a framework for Flash projects similar to Drupal for PHP projects. Mickeys has an all custom UI. I think it would have taken quite a bit of work to tweak Flex widgets, etc… to our custom design. I don’t think that is the goal of Flex, so here is what we did.

Our designer, Rob, is extremely valuable. He did the designs, and started building the animations in Flash. While designing, he is always think about the movement. It’s amazing when you see his work go from flat Photoshop comps to actually movement on the screen. Meanwhile, I started on the backend, implementing databases and PHP code. Miller Beer has a few Web Services for central/reusable methods. I implemented their Web Services using PHP5’s SOAP Extension. I didn’t need PEAR:SOAP. Once all the backend logic was complete and HTML and client-side forms were complete with Rob’s design, we started connecting the Flash client pieces to the backend logic. It worked out really well. We’re using XML in parts, and PHP via LoadVars in other parts.

I’m planning on keeping the discussion going regarding Flex, and am wondering how other agencies are using it. For now though, I think we are going to stick with PHP/Java/Rails and custom Flash/AJAX interfaces.

If any Flex enthusiasts read this, take a look at Mickeys.com and let me know if I am on base regarding this project and the use of Flex. I would appreciate the discussion.

P.S. Look for some mobile elements to Mickeys as well in the future.

Apr

6

So I woke up to the news about Verizon Wireless licensing Flash Lite. Cool! But then as I got to reading the press release and the development center page on the Macromedia site, I began to have questions.

First, and most importantly, is this the BREW port? It looks like it is according to the DevNet page (http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/devices/verizon.html). I hope this is not the case, otherwise many developers will be left out in the cold because of the price of entry for BREW.

Second, what is a mobile ecosystem? And how do I, as an independent content creator, get my content onto the system. Would be nice if I could monetize my content as well somehow?

Third, is this Flash Lite 1.1 or 2.0?

I would like to get excited about this since it is the first carrier in the US to license Flash Mobile, however the details are yet explained and without them, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to even participate. Hopefully someone from Adobe/Macromedia reads this and can comment. I understand if the answer is, “just wait, we are ironing out the details.”

I really hope this is a standalone version of the player being distributed and not the BREW port. This would really rock if most VZW handsets came with the Flash Lite runtime installed on them out of the box. EVDO and Flash Lite would combine for a perfect mobile platform. I could really build some useful enterprise apps with those two technologies combined.

Funny quote I saw relating to the announcement: From Reuters: “Steve Lidberg estimated that the move into mobile phone animation could double the number of software programmers using Flash from its current base of 1 million developers.” I find that hard to believe, but what do I know.

Apr

3

Recently, I moved to a new agency, Barefoot Advertising, and have rejoined some previous fellow employees, including Rob Sloan, whom was the designer on many of the projects I worked on while at hyperQUAKE. He and I were put together again to work on a project for Miller Beer, specifically their Mickeys brand. Late last week we launched the site, click here to view. It has already been noticed and was mentioned on Adrants.com.

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