A Welsh View Mobile

AWV has gone mobile before (using Winksite) but the service offered by that site is nothing compared to the new 'Mippin Maker' from Mippin.com. If you haven't heard of Mippin.com before, it's a mobile directory of websites that have been optimised for the mobile phone. The service takes the content and compresses images (and rotates them if they are too big) and converts some videos (e.g. YouTube) so that they can be viewed on your phone.

The new service that they have launched requires only a valid RSS or Atom feed to work and you can be up and running in minutes. To view AWV Mobile type http://www.welshview.mobi into your mobile browser. Alternatively, you can use a barcode reader (get one here) to scan the code on the right sidebar.

Comments

[David Harper]

Hi Rob.

Re: "AWV has gone mobile before (using Winksite) but the service offered by that site is nothing compared to the new 'Mippin Maker' from Mippin.com."

Please provide more details on the "nothing compared" part. We have offered RSS-to-Mobile site building for several years. Mippin's new service comes to the party several years late and without our personalization features or mobile-tuned community options like chat, forums and surveys, etc.

Winksite also mobilizes your feed with 100% dotMobi compliance in regards to XHTML Mobile Profile & Valid Markup. Mippin fails those tests and others. OK we don't place graphic on the menu (that slows page load) but next week we're going beta with web-to-mobile video transcoding.

If you have suggestions as to how to improve our service to regain your favor please let me know.

[David B.]

I agree with David Harper's comment about images on menu slowing page load and with their pages failing dotMobi compliance. These are two issues you should definitely give more consideration to.

And I don't know if you know about MoFuse, but we're a publisher oriented mobile site builder that might suit your needs and we'd love to have you try out our service!

[Robert Gale]

@David (Winksite) - When comparing Winksite to Mippit I was basing it on the look and feel. I'm only interested in making the content of the AWV available to mobile users and am not interested in additional services such as chat, forums and polls.

With many mobiles operating at 3G speeds and beyond (in the UK) and unlimited data becoming more ubiquitous, having more images on pages is becoming less of an issue.

My site is heavily image/video based so I think it's important to have thumbnails associated with each post. Without them I think visitors could waste time clicking on a title and not having much content to read.

I've been using Mippin for a couple of months prior to mobilising AWV and I think they've been doing a great job. Their use of thumbnails has allowed me to skim over websites much in the same way as I browse through my RSS feeds.

@David (MoFuse) - Thanks for highlighting your service - I hadn't heard of it before. I did try to check out some of the site you had listed on the front page but they I couldn't view them (not sure if it was a problem my end).

[David Harper]

OK fair enough -- you have defined "look and feel" as they have images on the menu and we don't.

...and you are choosing to ignore the standards compliance factors that will stop many audience members cold without you ever knowing. (Something Mippin should fix.)

I'm still of the opinion that "nothing compared" is a bit of an unfair/dramatic exaggeration.

That being said -- I like the Mippin guys -- Mofuse as well -- we're all doing our best to improve the mobile experience albeit from different focuses -- and help people like yourself -- i just wanted to comment my perspective and I thank you for allowing me the space to do so.

...so you mentioned video. Up to beta testing the web-to-mobile video features about to be released?

[Robert Gale]

Point taken about the 'nothing compared' comment. I should have added some more substance to it.

I think Mippin (and possibly Mofuse - I haven't been able to access their sites) are pushing the boundaries of mobile websites and future mobile websites will be more media rich.

Regarding standards, you are right that they are important in order to reach more users but given the choice of a mobile version of AWV with images and links to mobile-optimised videos or a text-only site then I'd choose the former (this was the decision I made when I signed up with Mippin). I just don't think a text only version of AWV would have been of much use to my readers.

It's great to see that you will be introducing web-to-mobile video shortly - having access to video on my mobile is a big plus.

[David Harper]

I certainly agree with,"future mobile websites will be more media rich." :)

[David Harper]

Could you explain this, "I think Mippin (and possibly Mofuse - I haven't been able to access their sites) are pushing the boundaries of mobile websites."

What boundaries in particular are they pushing?

Oh, and tomorrow mornng I'll send you a sample link/API for the last video you posted,"Man Gets Stabbed With a Sword But Doesn't Bleed" for you to check out from your phone.

[Scott]

Just to point out that where we do not comply with the .mobi guidelines it is deliberate. We do talk to .mobi to help them evolve their standards further. Their intent is to ensure that the mobile experience is a good one and for a number of developers the guidelines will be invaluable. However it is our belief that to squeeze the most out of the user experience the rules need to be bent slightly. We are not trying to be controversial and, as I say, are active whenever relevant in raising these issues directly with .mobi (an organisation we pre-date in this space by a number of years).

[David Harper]

@Scott.

Although your "not trying to be controversial" it does strike me as a bit of pretentious.

What does this:

"Just to point out that where we do not comply with the .mobi guidelines it is deliberate. We do talk to .mobi to help them evolve their standards further."

and bending rules to squeeze the most out of the user experience have to do with using valid markup (as defined by .mobi, W3C mobileOK Basic, or common best practices)?

Surely you can "fix" some of that.

I expect better even from that of a copy cat service...

...from your recent press releases re: Mippin Maker, "The days of a publisher having to pay for the development of a mobile site, or develop an entirely new feed for mobile are gone."

Winksite, Mofuse, FeedM8, Wirenode, Kaywa, and others have provided free services with RSS-to-Mobile site creation, personalization, Datamatrix, QR Codes, advertising, etc. way, way prior to Mippin. The days of a publisher having to pay for the development of a mobile site, or develop an entirely new feed for mobile has been gone for several years.

[David Berube]

Few things,

@Robert: You were able to access the MoFuse sites, right?

And secondly, I would say that "The days of a publisher having to pay for the development of a mobile site, or develop an entirely new feed for mobile are gone." is a stretch to say the least...

[Robert Gale]

@David Berube: Still no luck accessing the sites. After doing a bit of testing it appears that it may be something to do with my operator (3). When I access m.liveside.net using my 3G connection on my Nokia N95 8GB I get a 'Web: No gateway reply' error but when I use the Wi-Fi connection I can access the site. As far as I'm aware 3 doesn't intentionally block any websites and I'm always able to access websites.

[David Berube]

We recently (over a week ago) changes our mobile-hosting server which resulted in new IP's which may be causing the problem. Your carrier should have updated its DNS cache by now, weird.

[David Harper]

Mippin, Mofuse, FeedM8, Wirenode, Kaywa - and anyone else...

...care to all join together for a MobileMonday NY event and discuss mobile site creation space in from of an live audience?

If interested, you know where to find me.

[James Whatley]

Hey Robert,

Great write up! I'm yet to use the new 'Mippin Maker' myself but I am a big fan of Mippin as a service full stop, (have been using it for a while now).

Think I might have to try and 'mipp' my own blog! :)

Cheers!

PS - I might mention that I'd never tried Winksite et al - but I fear I might get flamed! ;)

[David Harper]

@ James.

gee. it hasn't been that rough. has it?

most of us here know each other.

...and the Mippin guys do a wonderful job - it's OK that we don't agree here and there.

btw james - what route do you drive to work everyday. :)