Make the most of the mobile web [BT broadband office]

Make the most of the mobile web

Posted 5 June 2008 at 8:27AM by Ian Betteridge in Doing business online

One of the key selling points of smart phones like the iPhone, BlackBerry or Office Anywhere is the ability to use the web, and, research suggests, the proportion of web browsing which takes place on mobile devices is growing dramatically as a result.

But according to BusinessWeek, what and where people browse on their mobiles is quite different from their online behaviour on computers. The majority of traffic happens at the weekend, rather than during the week, and a different set of sites rule the traffic roost - with Yahoo and Craiglist being big winners.

So how can you make your site more attractive to mobile web browsers? There are three points to consider.

First, ensure that your site looks good on a wide range of mobile phones. When redesigning, test it on an iPhone, a BlackBerry, and a range of Nokia phones at the very least. If you have to produce a special mobile version, do it - it will be worth the extra expense in the long term.

Secondly, consider the different needs of mobile users. They are much less likely to read through longer forms of content, but much more likely to want to search and quickly get answers. Small mobile browser screens are not good for reading large amounts of text.

Finally, if you are producing new content, don't forget the amount of mobile browsing that happens at the weekend - so experiment with a 24/7 schedule for deploying new pages.

Tags: blackberry, bt, bt broadbandoffice, iphone, mobile, mobile web

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Comments

1. At June 5, 2008 11:26 AM, newbiesunion wrote:

It's nice to know that those small mobile phone browser screens are not ideal for reading large amounts of texts. So that means people like me who blog regularly and are constantly in search of traffic for our blogs should forget about targeting mobile phone users.

2. At June 5, 2008 2:15 PM, J G Dawson wrote:

I read today that we're all becoming slaves to technology. Seduced into putting in an extra three hours a day because technology has made us more contactable with some folk even sleeping with their BlackBerry or mobile phone for fear of missing something. Almost eight out of 10 office staff put in at least 11 hours a day and an earlier survey suggested that six out of ten business people are working an extra 20 days a year - effectively giving back their holiday allowance...

3. At June 6, 2008 11:11 AM, Old Wolf wrote:

I didn't use my mobile for the web until I got my N95, and damn what a revelation that was. The browser on it is almost (but not quite) as good as IE or Firefox, but it meant a whole new way of looking at web pages. No more having to wait till I get home to check something online.

The latest phones now come with very good browsers, either proprietary (in the case of Nokia) or with Opera 4, and it makes a huge difference.

In the next year web browsing on phones will become even easier as the phone companies get their act together and make the tech better. The N96 (my next phone) will have the latest version of Flash, which means that a whole lot more of the web will be accessible straight off the page, and Mozilla will be releasing a mobile version of Firefox at some point. Add to that flat rate Internet access packages as well and you're surfing with the best of the desktops.

Who needs to mess with your company's security policy on web access now? Just go for a break and take your phone with you.

BT broadband office