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Mobile browsing hit the mainstream a few years ago with the introduction of Blackberrys and what were called smart phones. With the addition of the Apple iPhone and iTouch mobile browsing is set to finally gain the type of use that’s been projected for a while.
With that comes a whole new set of issues for web site owners. While mobile browsers are built to recognize the fact that they are showing content on a really small screen, (iPhone users get to blow it all up with that nifty outward pinching motion) the typical web site and blog is not very mobile friendly. And, scrolling all over while your screen refreshes is too much work for the mobile reader.
In a perfect world you could create two web sites - one for standard browsers and one just to cater to the growing army of mobile readers.
Or, you can check out a new service I was recently introduced to called MoFuse.
Mofuse takes blog feeds and turns them into mobile versions of your blog. There are other services that do this, in fact, I have written about and used a service called WinkSite for about two years, but MoFuse has some very cool functionality.
- Mofuse lets you easily format the look and feel of your mobile pages including adding your own header art.
- Mofuse allows you to use some DNS masking magic to create your mobile site on your domain. My mobile site url is http://m.ducttapemarketing.com - you can have a look by clicking on the link to get an idea of what mobile browsers will see. (It’s not much to look at here but on a mobile browser it’s stunning!)
- The service makes it pretty easy to add mobile pages for your products or contact info through an online WYSIWYG HTML interface.
- They have created a script that will detect mobile browsers to your WordPress, TypePad or Blogger blog and automatically show the mobile pages when a mobile browser visits your blog pages.
Comments
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at Nov 01, 07 | 7:38 am and is filed under Blogging, Tools I Use. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
This is excellent information. I have heard too many older marketing and C-level execs rest on their laurels with their “good web site”. If you mention things such as usability for the mobile crowd, you sometimes get a less than progressive response - mumblings that imply these users are just kids who stumbled across the web site in between texting their friends and downloading rap songs. As one proverb says, “Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
Mobile friendly blogs the easy way
Mobile browsing hit the mainstream a few years ago with the introduction of Blackberrys and what were called smart phones.
[...] Hat-tip [...]
This information comes at just the right time. I was looking for information about “Going Mobile” with my blog.
I agree with John’s comment. Too many people are not preparing for this very big segment.
Thanks,
Fred
“Mobile Friendly Blogs the Easy Way”
Posted by John Jantsch: “Mobile browsing hit the mainstream a few years ago with the introduction of Blackberrys and what
I just signed up and explored it.
And actually, the auto-redirect script doesn’t work for Blogger blogs. Just wanted to point that out.
Thanks for your post. I agree, more people/bloggers/website owners really need to focus on the mobile market. With Sidekicks, tablets, Blackberrys and the iPhone, more and more people are surfing on the go (I know I have been for the past 4 years). Going mobile was one of the first upgrades I made to my blog http://www.bionic-beauty.com