Big Players Unite to Forge Mobile Web Rules
June 27, 2006
A group of leading global online and wireless companies say they have thrashed out a common set of guidelines for website developers aimed at making it easier to surf the Internet from mobile handsets. The group believes that such action is needed to encourage Web-browsing from mobile handsets. According to many analysts, while the majority of wireless phones now come equipped with web browsers, only a minority of users in most countries use their terminals for anything other than voice calls and text messaging.
However, the W3C Group (Worldwide Web Consortium) which is backed by such industry luminaries as Nokia, Vodafone and Google, says it is in the midst of creating a set of 60 guidelines for website developers in order that they can better address the mobile market.
The vast majority of Web sites simply do not work well on handset-size screens. Clearly the giants of the wireless and Internet worlds believe that better designed sites will automatically lead to more mobile traffic to the Web. According to reports the advice issued is far from ground-breaking, with developers being warned not to use large graphic images of pop-up ads that could block up hone screens.
Some analysts believe that the mobile internet is in a "Catch-22" situation: users will not browse the Web as the experience is poor, but site designers will not bother to take the needs of a potential mobile audience into account as the number of wireless browsers is still limited. The W3C Group hopes that its new clarified design code will help break this circle.
With Google in particular aiming to make a big splash in the mobile content world, such developments are seen as crucial to the success of the mobile Internet. Last month the California-based search engine giant announced a new mobile deal with KDDI in Japan and revealed that it was also in talks with China Mobile regarding online partnership deals.
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