Quicklinks: Mobile Web, Acid 3, iGoogle Themes
Posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008
No time to write a full post today! A few things interested me over the last couple of days though, not just the Macworld conference (which has overwhelmed the blogosphere and crashed Twitter). Here are a couple of links you might be interested in.
If you’re feeling creative and want to make your mark on potentially millions of people’s home pages, Google have opened the iGoogle themes API. Now anyone with skills in HTML, CSS and a little experience with XML can create a theme for the iGoogle home page. If I was feeling creative, I might just have a go…
Now that Internet Explorer 8 has passed the Acid 2 test, along with Firefox 3, Safari 3 and Opera 9, those browser manufacturers need a new challenge. Ian Hickson has been putting together the Acid 3 test, which will test the dynamic abilities of the browsers. There will be 100 tests, and each latest browser is guaranteed to fail at least one of them (it’s part of the criteria for the test). You can even have a go at writing a test as Ian needs 16 more tests to complete the suite. This will be something to watch as browser manufacturers stop feeling the heat over HTML and CSS!
I couldn’t completely leave Apple out of this set of links. I read recently that Google saw a surge in traffic from iPhone users at Christmas. While this isn’t really a surprise, the first thing I did when I saw a friend’s iPhone was go online, the following days showed quite an interesting result. While the iPhone surpassed all other types of phone for visiting Google at Christmas, in the days following it dropped to second place behind Symbian based phones. Consider with this that Symbian phones account for 63% of the market for smart phones and the iPhone only has 2% share. Newer and better mobile interfaces like the iPhone are causing more and more people to use the web from their mobile. If you make websites, you need to consider the small screen!
That’s all for now, hope you are having a good week!
If you enjoyed this post, why not subscribe to Unintentionally Blank
1May 18th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
fly Says:by the way most of mobile web users use opera mini. and the main problem is not a site optimization, main is a traffic optimization, i think if not opera mini symbian woulkd have had a much higher web rank.
by the way, would this tests be made for mobile browsers?
2June 1st, 2008 at 6:43 am
StuffAccess Says:The Iphone is definitly the next generation of smart phone. Once it catches on all over lots of sites will need to be redesigned to fit the smaller screen.
3June 29th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Fergus Mayhew Says:Because I’m not a big cell phone user (I make calls, I get calls … that’s about it) I’ve not paid much attention to the whole “Web on your phone” question. But talking to my teenager, it’s clear that he’s already using those features, and thinks I’m a Luddite because I don’t.
He’s planning to line up for the new iPhone when it comes up (thank goodness he’s been working part-time, ‘cos I’m not willing to pay for it). Those of you who are phone experts … is the new updated iPhone worth it?
4June 30th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Judy Online Says:One of my grandsons has been saving up for an iPhone for months. He was very excited to hear the news about the price drop for the new models.
5July 1st, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Jacob Angel Says:Fergus - yes, from what I can see the new iPhone is going to be absolutely stellar. The downside obviously is having to commit to a 24 month plan with ATT, but the phone itself looks great.
6July 1st, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Phil Says:Fly: You are right, people visit sites from their mobiles for different reasons to why they do from desktops, so optimising your site for those users is important for mobile sites.
StuffAccess: the iPhone does a great job of resizing your sites and has intuitive zooming mechanisms, so sites shouldn’t have to be redesigned. However, as I say above, the reason someone may visit your site on a mobile is different to a desktop so you may have to change things to optimise that experience.
Fergus: I’ll be getting the new iPhone when it comes out (not long now!) I definitely think it’s worth it if you use the mobile web, plus the App Store will bring a whole new set of uses to the phone too.
Judy: I’m excited too!
Jacob: 24 months is such a long time! Thankfully here in the UK we only have to commit to 18months with O2, plus it’s nice to see that iPhone version 1 owners have been allowed to upgrade before the end of their contracts too, so as long as you stick with the iPhone (and why would you go back to any other phone) you should be ok.
7July 13th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Sherri Adams Says:So Phil, did you pick up an IPhone this weekend? (Is it available in the UK yet? … I know it went on sale here in the US on Friday.)
Some unhappiness about unblocking it here in the US, so I understand.
8July 13th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Phil Says:Hi Sherri,
I’m actually playing with my iPhone as I type this! Just managed to sync all my contacts, so I’m really happy with it! All I’ve got to do now is get my old phone number working with it!
Did you get one?
9July 20th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Sherri Adams Says:No, I tend to be a pretty late adopter for most gadgets … but my husband is chomping at the bit for one!
Have you got your phone number working on it yet?
10July 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 pm
Phil Says:My phone is working perfectly now thanks Sherri and I’d recommend it to anyone!
11July 15th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Moby1 Says:apparently the youtube saw an increase in uploads of 400% when it was released. Hard to believe that one handset could make that much difference, but that is the power of Apple these days
12November 4th, 2009 at 11:57 am
clavier arabe Says:by the way most of mobile web users use opera mini. and the main problem is not a site optimization, main is a traffic optimization, i think if not opera mini symbian woulkd have had a much higher web rank.
by the way, would this tests be made for mobile browsers?
.
13November 3rd, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Kevin Witchger Says:Wow how quickly things change, especially since the android OS for mobile phones has been on the market for just over a year or so. Still can’t compete with Apple yet but I think in a couple years smart phones with the Android OS will be well ahead of Apple.