Recently in mobile web Category

Mitchel Baker in the Mozilla weblog, suggests that Mozilla plans in the next few years for mobile he wrote:

Mobile

• and have an effective product in the mobile market
• demonstrate that "mobile" is part of one, unified, open web.

Verizon Wireless sis launching m.vcast.com, a new site that brings  V CAST Video content to the mobile web.  With m.vcast.com, customers can sample what V CAST Video has to offer by watching clips of the latest content added to the site.

Leveraging the streaming video capability of the HTML Web browser on select handsets and the growing popularity of mobile video, m.vcast.com allows customers to browse content by category, channel or show, then watch and share that video with their friends and other wireless users.  Customers can create a username and account, which gives them the ability to access and share other content and Web sites, including the social networking site Twitter. 

Petfinder Mobile, Petfinder.com's new high-tech initiative enables people to search for adoptable animals from their cell phones, BlackBerrys, iPhones and other wireless devices.

Petfinder.com is the largest online database of adoptable pets with more than 290,000 listed from over 11,700 animal welfare organizations across the country 

Features of Petfinder Mobile include:

Click to Call - If you See a pet you like. Use the "Click to Call" button to contact the rescue group - you don't even have to type the number. 

Mobile web data release by Bango today confirms that mobile web usage not only is gaining traction in the United States but soon will surpass the United Kingdom, where consumers have accessed the Internet from phones for years.

 According to Bango data, the top five countries accessing the mobile web via Bango in July 2008 are the UK at 19.35%, the US at 18.88%, India at 10.82%, South Africa at 8.82% and Indonesia at 4.08%. Bango identifies users by country and network of origin. The ranking is produced by measuring the number of user visits to mobile websites from each country.

"The USA share of the browsing market has grown as an increasing number of phones come with bigger screens and service contracts that include unlimited internet access," said Adam Kerr, VP of Bango North America at Bango. "We fully expect the US will overtake the UK in this ranking as early as this month."

Intuit is now offering iPhone and BlackBerry integration with QuickBooks Online, the web-based small business accounting software, allowing business to manage their money anywhere, anytime - with or without a computer.

These early version web-based mobile applications are part of Intuit's Connected Services strategy to help entrepreneurs connect to their data when and where they need it.

Available on IntuitLabs.com, an early concept release site, these iPhone and BlackBerry applications help

• QuickBooks Online users get an up-to-date view of their finances by:
  
• Checking current bank and credit card balances.
• Tracking who owes them money and who they owe.
• Finding vendor and customer contact info with addresses via Google Maps. 
• Running balance sheet and profit and loss reports.

These iPhone and BlackBerry features are  free additions to QuickBooks Online, which starts at $9.95 per month.

iLoop Mobile  announced today the launch of a mobile Internet presence for the Barack Obama presidential campaign with M.BarackObama.com (http://m.barackobama.com). The mobile Internet site will enable supporters, the media, and the general voting public to receive the latest news, campaign developments and Obama multimedia content anytime, anywhere, through their mobile phone.

 (Text SITE To 62262 or Go to http://m.barackobama.com on Your Mobile Phone)

Microsoft's MSN Mobile group will use dotMobi's DeviceAtlas mobile device database to help develop and deliver mobile-aware content to its customers.

DeviceAtlas contains attribute information for more than 5,500 devices around the world, including leading-edge mobile devices like the Apple iPhone, RIM Blackberry, Nintendo DS Lite and Amazon Kindle. Because of dotMobi's unique industry position, it offers DeviceAtlas for free to mobile web content developers worldwide, with extremely low-cost versions available for enterprise use.

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium ) today announced new standards that will make it easier for people to browse the web on mobile devices. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, published as a W3C Recommendation. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 helps content authors face those challenges and develop content that works on a wide array of mobile devices. Authors and other content producers will find practical advice for managing user experience challenges such as data input and page scrolling.

Until today, content developers faced an additional challenge: a variety of mobile markup languages to choose from. With the publication of the XHTML Basic 1.1 Recommendation today, the preferred format specification of the Best Practices, there is now a full convergence in mobile markup languages, including those developed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).

The W3C mobileOK checker (beta), when used with the familiar W3C validator, helps developers test mobile-friendly Web content.

W3C is also developing resources to help authors understand how to create content that is both mobile-friendly and accessible to people with disabilities. A draft of Relationship between Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is jointly published by the The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group and WAI's Education & Outreach Working Group (EOWG).

Sprint launches new version of Sprint Web today, with an adaptive home page that delivers content based on the customer’s previous usage, along with direct access to search from Google .This enhancement is automatic for Sprint customers who currently access the mobile Web on these phones and requires no additional action on their part.

The new Sprint Web home page uses technology by ChangingWorlds, to provide each customer with dynamic, relevant content and information as a result of their past usage. This makes each customer’s Sprint Web home page unique, depending on their interests.

Sprint Web also gives customers direct access from the home page to Google search, so users can get relevant open Internet results quickly and easily, in a format they’re used to seeing on their computer screens.

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The latest version of Omniture SiteCatalyst has been released. Omniture's mobile analytics provides business insight to optimize mobile site design, content, marketing campaigns and user experience for the mobile Internet visitor based on attributes such as their device type, location, video and audio formats. As a result, mobile marketers can provide a better experience -- driving loyalty, brand and conversion.

For more information about mobile analytics from Omniture, please visit the company Web site at: http://www.omniture.com/en/products/web_analytics/sitecatalyst.

Bango unveiled new technology designed to help website owners measure the value of mobile sites by accurately counting unique visitors browsing their site. This new site analysis capability in the latest release of Bango Analytics, v3.0, complements existing campaign analysis functionality and features enhanced image tag technology to identify unique users.

With site analysis added to its mobile analytics service, Bango now provides the two metrics most sought after by website owners: the number of unique visitors and conversion rates from mobile marketing campaigns.

Results of a recent survey of more than 550 mobile website owners, commissioned by Bango, showed that the “most important” data point for them is unique visitor count. Respondents gave the following answers to the question: “Which of the following mobile web metrics are important to you?”

The daily/weekly/monthly number of unique visitors to your mobile website - 80% Conversion rates/effectiveness of mobile marketing - 71% New/repeat visitors - 58% Information about the handsets your visitors use - 54% Location - 50% The mobile networks used by visitors to your mobile website - 41%

Zumobi launched a new version of its tile widget for BlackBerry devices. 

Zumobi offers a library of widgets (Zumobi calls them “Tiles”)  to entice users of Windows Mobile and BlackBerry with news, sports, weather, entertainment, games and more, Zumobi now offers even more new Tiles for users including NPR, AP Olympics report, Major League Baseball as well as social media sites Facebook and Twitter.  Users can also create their own Zumobi mobile widgets from just about any Web content with the new Tile Creation Wizard now available on Zumobi’s website.
 

Opera Software released  the first public version of Opera Mobile 9.5 beta. Opera has changed the face of its mobile browser in this beta release. Opera Mobile 9.5 beta now defaults to page overview mode, allowing the user to view the entire Web page and instantly recognize the Web site. With panning and zooming options, the user is able to focus on specific page content. Opera also introduced new user interface for easier navigation.

New Features

Faster - Opera Mobile 9.5 has improved performance over Opera Mobile 8.65.

Pan and zoom - Opera Mobile 9.5 beta defaults to full webpage viewing and allows users to pan and zoom into their desired content easily.

Improved user interface - The new UI is designed for quick and easy navigation.

Opera Dragonfly - Use your Opera desktop browser to debug sites on your mobile phone through the Opera Mobile 9.5 debug menu.

Improved standards support - Opera Mobile 9.5 is the most standards compliant browser available.

Save pages and/or images - With a click, simply save pages to your phone.

IBM researchers developed a mobile extension of Firefox that allows mobile users to create a slimmed-down version of web pages which they can view on mobile phones.

The software program,  'Highlight', was built at the Almaden Research Center allows users to record the required steps in performing simple tasks.. The software will also allow web surfers to create their own website versions

'Highlight' takes its code from CoScripter, another project from IBM, which gives users a facility to record web tasks that are repetitive and share them among other users. Because it requires a proxy server, it may not be liked by website developers who will loose control and screen space.

A leading group of mobile operators today unveiled a new initiative to create a blueprint and roadmap for opening up mobile functionality to encourage the development of exciting mobile applications without compromising customer security. The new initiative will be known as BONDI.

Supported by the OMTP members including 3 Group, AT&T, T-Mobile, Telenor, Telefónica, Telecom Italia and Vodafone, BONDI will provide a consistent and secure web services interface that can be used by all web developers across multiple device platforms. This will provide the opportunity for web developers to address a mass market of consumers and to drive the use of data services on mobile.

BONDI will harmonize the various open and proprietary ongoing initiatives and this cooperative work will minimise the potential for technology fragmentation in this exciting area. BONDI, under the OMTP umbrella, will contribute towards ongoing standardisation work to help create a new rich web experience for mobile while also ensuring an appropriate degree of protection that will maintain the current high level of trust by mobile phone users.

BONDI will expose key handset features to web developers to help them develop more function-rich, user friendly and relevant applications. The new handset software will be engineered in such a way as to prevent fraudulent and malicious activity through unauthorised access to functions or sensitive personal information.