Link The Real World: QR Code

Saturday, June 12, 2010 by Annette Tonti


QR Code hung in large format over Madison Square Garden, June 2010.  Finally the "Code" is getting some traction here in the US.

Linking  the physical world with digital information is a fundamentally exciting aspect of being mobile.  Within a few short years augmented reality will become main stream as businesses begin to push new applications using a mobile device to overlay the physical world with digital information such as names of places, store info, and real-time information.  Meanwhile there is an easy link between physical and mobile and it doesn't cost anything to use it!

One very early connector of the mobile web and the physical world is the QR code.  QR stands for “quick response”.  It was developed by Japanese corporation Densu-Wave in 1994.  QR codes are very popular in Japan and by now you’ve  likely seen this square box with the black and white blocks inside, as they are used more frequently every day.  The picture at the top of this post shows a QR code prominently draped over Madison Square Garden in New York.  UPS and Fedex use them as do many manufacturers.  They simply carry much more information than an 'old time' bar code.

                              

Old Time Bar Code                            Very Smart QR Code
Not Much Information                       Contains lots of information



Basically QR codes work like this –  The phone must have QR reading software installed (takes less than a minute to install and is free).  Using the camera of the mobile device, the phone software will translate the QR code and deliver back to the user whatever you want–a mobile website, video, pricing information or actually even kick off an application like charging for a product.  

The cell phone needs a QR code reader to work, and in Japan phones come with this software already installed.  Google's mobile Android operatingsystem supports the use of QR codes by natively including the barcode scanner (ZXing) on some models.

Today MoFuse has many clients who use QR codes in interesting ways.  One publisher adds them to magazine articles to drive people from the physical pages of a publication to their mobile phone web page that carries a special offer.  Another publishes QR codes on the jackets of books and when translated, brings people to a mobile web page with more information about the author and book.

Marketers take note, when you use QR in advertising you can find out a lot about your mobile web audience.  People who translate a QR code are delivered to your mobile site - which  is fired up when the QR code is read.  Your mobile web analytics will then give you insight into who is interacting with your brand via the QR code.

If you want to try them out you can go to qrcode.mofuse.com to create your code.  Just fill in the URL that you want your customers to go to when the QR is read.  We’ll give you the 2D bar code to copy and publish anywhere.  You can also select from many sizes of QR code depending on the use.  Place the QR code on physical locations to connect people to your mobile URL.   QR is just one of many exciting mobile web tools that will help you integrate physical and mobile.
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Smart Getting Smarter

Monday, May 17, 2010 by Annette Tonti



What makes a smart phone so smart?

By now you know that a ‘smart phone’ really is a computer that fits in your hand. It allows you to make phone calls but at this point, phone calls are somewhat of a side show.  Smart phones give us the ability to use applications that take advantage of our physical location and that is a major sea change for computing for years to come.  From ‘augmented reality’ to a digital compass, from restarant locators to favorite bar recipes – we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what these small computers will do to enhance our lives.

Phase 1: Populating the Planet with Smart Phones

As I was planning this post (for about a month now), I was going to predict that 2010 would be the year of the first ‘free’ give-away smartphone.  Meaning – the cost of manufacturing these devices continues to decrease while and their popularity increases.   Their ubiquity is hastened by the give-away.  Before I could post – it has actually already happened.
Verizon Wireless recently expanded its buy-one-get-one offer to include all of its smartphones.  The situation is as follows:  all phones are very quickly, trending towards “smart”.  

What will that mean?  

Assume that eventually everyone will have a “smart” phone – this has wide implications about how people will consume media.  The data shows people with touchscreen mobile phones are more likely to download video, interact with apps and use the mobile web.  This means you can no longer lay back and let your mobile website experience be driven by the more than 30 (and growing) different mobile web browsers.    On the contrary, Smartphones give people much higher expectations of what they should be able to experience from your brand.

Your desktop website was designed for a 10 – 15 inch experience and on a device (a PC or Mac) that can handle complex technologies like Flash or  Java.  Not so on the mobile web. Cell phone websites cannot deal with complex, 'heavy' technologies such as Flash.  Further you need to design the media experience for someone who is in a ‘mobile mode’ – far different that sitting behind a desk and browsing your site in detail.  Even if it loads, people do not like to poke, zoom, pinch their way around your site! You need to make your website mobile friendly.

A growing number of smartphone users really does bode well for the Mobile Web!
More smartphones helps to redefine how we consume media – and it moves people into new habits of access and producing media.    A recent study in the UK found that 65% of smartphone users access the mobile web regularly.  Accessing mobile websites is
fast becoming a part of our daily lives.

Android handsets have been shipping 65,000 smartphones each day and with the recent TapTu report the number of mobile-friendly websites is increasing faster than expected. The growth of the mobile web is happening before our eyes.  Smartphones are driving mobile web traffic and usage. It is time to get in front of the global smartphone "user-sphere" and develop a mobile website that will work especially for the smartphone user where ever they are.

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eReader, iPad, PDA – Oh My

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 by Annette Tonti



Repurpose Or Die

For a long time we’ve talked about how digital frameworks will change the nature of how we get and consume media.  Mobile has the potential to distribute content to many new, more personal frameworks.   Mobile Platforms such as the eReader are deemed ‘single purpose’.  As they redefine what constitutes a “book”, anyone producing content should take note of the potential  that various mobile devices deliver  for readers .  If you produce content, it is time to experiment and repurpose your publication for the many formats of mobile to come. Mobile web readers will expect it!

Zagat’s Got It

In 1979 Tim and Nina Zagat had a great idea – why should people looking for restaurant reviews be limited to get only the opinions of a very few paid, and frankly, unreliable restaurant reviewers that were available through limited newspaper sources.   Instead let 100’s of amateur critics tell the world their opinions about restaurants – publish and distribute this information far and wide.  The ratings were more reliable and the information was easier to access.  Today Zagat publishes in over 100 countries.  

At the core of their success is their relentless pursuit to repurpose their content for many new devices.   Zagat To Go is one of the top downloaded iPhone apps in the world today.   You can also expect them to be at the head of the line when the Apple iPad launches early in April.   Repurposing for the eReader is also a key part of Zagat’smobile strategy.  In January, Amazon announced a software development platform, a mobile web tool for their popular Kindle eReader.   Zagat is one of the first to sign up for this program to produce “active content” for the Kindle reader. 

eReaders and other mobile devices are changing the way publishers think about content and certainly the way readers think about interacting with books. Zagat gets it – Be out there in these new mobile frontiers, experiment with your content,  engage customers, gather results- tweak and evolve. 

What It Means To Be A Book

Books have been about ink on paper.   Today many of us have experienced text and images on an eReader platform. One person I know read a book using both her eReader and her IPhone in combination.  The mobile phone website of the book presented her with options to complete her book, anytime.  In April the iPad will become available and define even a newer generation of what we will one day consider ‘book’.  Mobile web readers will come in many forms, it will be important to develop sites for mobile devices. 

Recently Wired Magazine revealed their new eReader – which will be available on the iPad.  The experience is reported to be fundamentally “next generation publishing” in both the look and feel of the digital magazine  as well as the level of interactive and dynamic content including video and 3D visuals.

Reality Check For Today

Today there are 6,000,000 eReaders sold worldwide and the prediction is that there will be 10 million units sold by end of 2010.  Amazon Kindle own about 60% share of this market today.   This post is prior to the launch of the iPad, but remember - the hype may not match the numbers.  Most important - be aware of the growth of the mobile web and all of the options you have to delight your customers with your content - anywhere, anytime and anyplace.  Today you must have a mobile web site that is optimized for the 4.2 billion handsets out there.  MoFuse can help you get this done today!


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What I Learned From The MO-lympics

Thursday, February 25, 2010 by Annette Tonti



The best is yet to come for mobile.   This year’s winter Olympics have highlighted some of the most important aspects of why mobile media is different.

As someone who may be building or managing sites for mobile devices, you will want to learn the latest techniques for engaging your mobile web audience. 

Key points here are mobile combined with real time and social

While the real estate is small; the compact nature of the mobile machine makes it easy to keep in our pocket all day. The cousin to our wallets,  mobile is truly the really personal computer that no one leaves home without!

Mobile is now our extended personal broadcasting device and the best way to receive real time information about anything, anywhere. Nowhere has this been more apparent but then during this year’s winter Olympics.

The Games Gone Mobile

This is the first winter games where virtually every athlete has a twitter account and people are accessing those feeds very often on their mobile phones.  For sure athletes and reporters alike, are posting to Twitter and Facebook in real time.

Google modified search just to make sure if you are on mobile, you will get results in real time.  All you need to do is enter your favorite sport into the search bar and back will come the latest results on your mobile device

People are searching for everything and anything related to the winter games – on their mobile devices.  Searches on Yahoo mobile for "ice skating rinks" were up 607 percent last week – especially among teens. Searches for “red Olympic mittens,” were up 182 percent last week.  As you might guess, Lindsey Vonn and Shaun White are hot topics.  Her searches were up 1,446 percent this week and mobile searches for “Shaun White snowboarding” were up 1,921 percent.

According to Web analytics firm Omniture, the mobile version of NBC's Winter Olympics Web site  has reached a  58.2 million page views, a growth of over two-thirds compared to the same statistic for 2008's Beijing games.  Before the opening ceremony even began on February 12, more than one million hits had already been recorded. That one-day total alone eclipsed the number of mobile Web site  views during the entire 2006 games.

Another interesting statistic is the growth in mobile video. More than 1.4 million Olympic videos have been streamed from NBC's mobile site. That's a 400%+ growth over the 2008 games NBC's mobile Olympics site, mobile.nbcolympics.com, provides a simple and instant view at the live medal counts and all the latest news headlines.

MoFuse joined Olympics coverage by hosting the Vancouver Observer site m.vancouverobserver.com.  We are excited to be a small part of such an important global event.

Take aways:  make your website mobile, add real time feeds from social platforms such as twitter to keep people up to date.  If you are hosting an event, make sure you engage 'reporters' to your event by supplying mobile web tools to keep audiences up to date and engaged.

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Mobile Commerce, What Every Retailer Needs To Know

Tuesday, February 16, 2010 by Annette Tonti



The mobile phone has become so important to our everyday existence that we feel lost without it!  

It is truly a personal digital tool that has transcended it’s “phone-i-ness”.  The killer app started simply as the “voice phone” – imagine you could connect live with any person – from anywhere and any time of day.  Next, and building this past year, it has been about connecting this device to the Internet – The Mobile Web.

By connecting the mobile device to the Internet, the “phone” has become a personal web enabled information machine.  You can get to a portable website, and handle any web based application – anywhere you are. Suddenly it is in fashion to make your website mobile friendly.

Today we are standing at the forefront of the next evolutionary chapter – and retailers need to listen up!

That ‘oh-so-indispensible’ device is about to give your wallet a run for its money. 

By linking our personal mobile device to everyday transactions, enter the next “can’t do without”  – mobile commerce.   Purchase anything, anywhere – and use the device to move currency! 

There are 3 formats most often used for mobile commerce today:

1. Text message donations  – recent earthquake relief put this format squarely on the map for moving currency very seamlessly – for good!  The Red Cross received well  over $22 million in text based donations in January 2009 for Earthquake relief in Haiti.

2. Mobile web page checkout – through Google Check out or others such as Paypal and even Amazon, retailers have many options now to create a mobile website and get a shopping cart front and center for mobile buyers

3. Near Field Communication  - NFC is a short-range, high-frequency, wireless communications technology that enables the exchange of data between devices over  four inches apart.  The 2010 Mobile World Congress is underway this week in Spain where a key topic is ‘contactless mobile payments’.  It is being tested in many areas around the world now.

With all of this focus on new mobile payment formats,   every retailer needs to have mobile commerce on their radar now.  Mobile web readers will soon become mobile web buyers.

How will mobile payments help to ease transactions between buyers and sellers?  What do you need to do now to prepare for this inevitable future?

We present the top 10 things every retailer should know now about mobile commerce:

1. Mobile Internet usage continues to grow – US mobile web usage alone grew over 110% in 2009.  Retailers that do not have a mobile commerce site will be behind the curve in 2010 as more people conduct transactions on mobile.

2. Mobile Drives In- Store Commerce – Mobile search for a retail locations will become among the number one uses for the device.  Store locators on mobile sites are a quick way to assure that the mobile consumer will find you when they are out and about. 

3. Shopping All The Time – Further breaking the ‘bricks & mortar’ boundaries, mobile retail allows customers to make transactions even when they aren’t in front of the computer.

4. Powering the Impulse  – The mobile Internet is great for impulse shopping. Mobile couponing and in store discounts really help to create excitement for buying.

5. Comparison shopping  – Mobile sites help customers to comparison-shop while they are out and about – further in store comparison shopping will be huge! 

6. Inventory management– Consumers can check in-store availability via a retailer’s mobile site the ultimate great experience for your customers.

7. Marketing  – Retailers can ask consumers to opt-in to receive coupons, special offers and ongoing mobile “just in time” specials. 

8. Check order status wherever, whenever – A mobile site also serves as a 24/7 customer service representative. Consumers can check their order status right from the retailer’s mobile site.

9. Location-based services – Retailers can use mobile to target consumers who have opted-in and are close to their retail locations. Special promotions by geography will be  welcomed by those who choose to receive them.

10. True Multichannel and Brand Alignment – Be there or be square - that's right- your teenagers will get it immediately.  The mobile channel needs to be a part of any retail brands offering.


The Top 10 adapted  from information provided byGiselle Tsirulnik, Article from The Mobile Marketer


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Mobile Web Traffic, Hitting the Accelerator to Your Site

Sunday, January 24, 2010 by Annette Tonti



If you could compare how many people visited your desktop website using a mobile phone last January versus this January, you would likely be very shocked. 

How do you find that out?  You’ll need to interpret the log files from your website or use a site analytics package like Google Analytics.  Seeing the mobile traffic that is already trying to access your site is an enlightening experience.  It will give you instant insight into the shifting habits of your site visitors. 

Why should you care? 
If you don't have a site specifically created for mobile, then their experience is likely very poor. If your current site has Flash, Java or other popular site technologies - the mobile experience will be bad.  It is about your brand experience!

Traffic from mobile devices has taken a dramatic jump over the past year.  Smartphones, better data plan pricing and available bandwidth are contributing factors to the increased activity.  Just take a look at the newest statistics regarding mobile web traffic from Quantcast. 

Web traffic from mobile devices increased 110% in North America over the past year and 148% globally, according to a new study by Quantcast.  Putting it in to perspective, this is only a small fraction of overall Web traffic (1.3% of all North American page views in December 2009). Last August Admob reported that traffic doubled within that month from iPhone users alone!




The nature of that mobile traffic is changing too – hold on – iPhone is no longer the only platform you  need to consider. The Quantcast study shows that the dominance of the iPhone is being eroded by emerging competitors like Android.  Recently page views from the Droid in North America overtook RIM’s Blackberry.  Gee, that was fast!  Apparently Droid had over 12% of the North American page views helping Google's Android operating system surpass the BlackBerry OS.

In 2010, Quantcast expects growth of the mobile web's share of page views in North America to increase a full percentage point to 2.3%. Globally, mobile's share will increase from 0.95% to over 1.8%. A host of new devices from manufacturers Motorola, HTC and BlackBerry will fuel that growth this year.

So what does this mean for your business?  You should  be prepared for mobile visitors now.  You need to build a mobile website - like the largest media companies have had for years now (for example: m.cnn.com, m.weather.com or m.espn.com).  Developing a mobile website is easy and inexpensive with mobile platforms like MoFuse.  You can do it yourself or have someone build it for you in no time.


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Mobile Cambrian Era – Here We Come

Thursday, December 10, 2009 by Annette Tonti




If we had to pick our favorite geological era - it would be the Cambrian when there was a profound radical change of life on earth. The very rapid explosion of new animal and plant life on earth is a bit like what we are about to experience in the mobile era.  Diversification of a great number of organisms occurred over a very short period of time.  As we enter 2010 we are experiencing the launch of a huge number of new mobile devices.  Some centered around a phone while others are more functionally focused on reading or gaming. 

Every one of these devices will have the ability to connect to the Internet.
Get ready for your Internet based content to be seen on any of 1000’s of mobile platforms.
Hint: you’ll want to have a mobile site built and managed just so these devices can take advantage of your content.

Smart Phones on the Rise

This recent IDC Press release tells the story: Nokia, Research In Motion, Apple and Android based "converged" devices continue to rise quickly.

According to Wikipedia there is no industry standard about what exactly constitutes a smart phone.    We know one when we see one.  Truth is “Phone” will only be a slice of what this device will come to mean to the human race.  Why not a “Smart Camera” or a “superintelligent music player”?   A smart phone can do a lot and they are built very differently than the more single focused ‘feature phone’, which was really built to make phone calls on the go.   One thing we know for sure, the Smart Phone penetration is on the rise globally. 

The combination of readily available big bandwidth (3G and above) and these ‘smart’ devices make a compelling reason for people to move to the full featured device. The smart phone market will climb to 37 percent of global handset sales in 2014 with emerging markets as the key growth engine, according to a new report from Pyramid Research. Cambridge-based Pyramid estimates that smart phones will account for a 16-percent share of total handset sales in 2009.  Also everyone expects that 2010 will be the year China takes top spot for Smart Phone sales – as iPhone will enter that market.  Also from Pyramid, they forecast that Brazil, Turkey, India and Nigeria will be the fastest growing market for smart phones over the next 5 years.

But something else is going on- as smart phones rise in the market – so do a number of other  functionally focused mobile devices.  For example, this holiday season we've kicked the launch of a number of ebooks into high gear.  Like game consoles, these are single purpose mobile devices and the early success of Kindle proves we are more than willing to own a few mobile devices to do everyday things.  Nooks, Kindles, the Sony eBook or any mobile web readers all have a chance to own a piece of this rapidly advancing market.

Growth of the mobile web has reached a Cambrian-like level of diversification of devices. You’ll want to think about the state of your business content as it will most certainly be accessed by these mobile organisms.  If you develop a mobile website you will be in the best position to capture the market that are already accessing the Internet anywhere they can!  Today MoFuse optimizes your mobile content on nearly 5,000 different mobile devices worldwide including Sony Playstations, Kindle and any smart or feature phone.   We can help you win in this new era.

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Beware The Mobile Frankensite

Friday, November 6, 2009 by Annette Tonti




Are people afraid to visit your website on a mobile phone browser?

Right now your mobile web readers are trying to get to your desktop site on a mobile phone only to find:

  • It doesn’t load at all and they get an "http" error
  • Load time from hell - Your site loads extremely slow and if they don’t absolutely love you, they are gone
  • They can’t find what they are looking for, and if they do, links don’t work, the text is a mess!



With very little time and effort, you can put a site together that will knock their socks off!
MoFuse can tell you how to build a mobile website that isn't a horror show!

When designing sites for mobile devices you will need to think differently than you do for the desktop web.


Consider there are 3 essential driving forces for mobile design:

  • Your viewers have limited and hugely variable display capabilities
  • They have awkward and difficult input mechanisms (keys are not good, scrolling, pinching etc)
  • The mode or context of the User when they are mobile, is completely different

 

MoFuse is here to help- we’ve developed some quick and easy principles to consider when building your mobile site.

The Guiding Principles for Mobile Design:

 
Design for “Getting to the Point”: 
Mobile people have little time to find information.  They will be impatient if you put many slow loading pictures or graphics or if they can’t figure out where to find information on your site- in an instance. You don’t want too much downloading  before they can get to your information.

Design for Efficiency:  
Mobile viewers are often going for something specific, a function or bit of information from you. Rarely are they meandering or surfing the way someone might on the desktop web.  As you think about the most likely items that they will want to access from you in a mobile context, you should consider putting those functions at the top of the site.


Design for Easy: 
Mobile devices have difficult input (tiny keys, small touch screen for example), don’t make your visitors struggle.  If you can give them 1 click to call you- do it.   Avoid convoluted paths to get to essential information (don’t nest pages of information unnecessarily).  If you can manage it, don’t make them scroll down more than 3 times, this is a good rule of thumb when designing mobile.

Design for Widest Reach: 
Although Smart Phone usage is on the rise and eventually will dominate the market, you really want to make sure even the smallest mobile devices can use your mobile site and have a great experience.

Don’t Annoy: 
Mobile devices have limited navigation.  For example consider most phones only have up and down scrolling,not side to side.  Because you are dealing with such small real estate, you’ll want to get to the point, being concise is extremely important.  Don’t make people “weed” through a lot of unnecessary text.

 

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Mobile Advertising 101

Friday, October 16, 2009 by Annette Tonti


The mobile version of your website is an additional source of revenue for your company!

It's early in the mobile ad game, but not too early to be testing out how to make a return on your mobile media.

When you have a mobile site and it is a good experience, you will build a mobile audience and get people to repeat visit.   You can make money on those eyeballs just like the desktop web.   A mobile phone website will help you to  build a viable audience with a strong demographic base in a new channel.   Mobile web traffic will deliver both new customers who are looking for your site ‘on the go’ (maybe using a search engine) as well as mobile viewers who enter your desktop URL (autodetection will send them to the mobile site). 

Every view of your mobile site is an opportunity to monetize your new media.

What is Mobile Advertising? 

It is similar to online advertising but the reach potential is far greater.  Start with the opportunity to reach 4 billion people (compare to 1 billion on your desktop computer).

How can you get a ROI for mobile advertising or marketing when using the MoFuse platform?

Here are the most direct ways today to get started:

1.    Sell a sponsorship to a local advertiser in your area or a company partner-  for a flat fee that would have a specific duration.  For example, perhaps you get a partner to sponsor all of your mobile views for 6 months for a fee of $3000.00.  You will be surprised to find how many of your partners will want to advertise on mobile - if you can deliver the valuable mobile eyeballs!

2.    Use one of the standard mobile ad networks to put ads on your site.  You can easily do this through the MoFuse interface “Monetize” button.  You can also use MoFuse Ad Network where we optimize about 6 mobile networks to provide the best ad for your site.

Every view of your mobile site is an opportunity to monetize your new media.

The forms of mobile advertising have been emerging for a number of years and are as follows:

Mobile banner ads – small graphical ads that are very similar in nature to desktop website banner ads.  They present a call to action (albeit smaller), placed top or bottom of the mobile web page.  When clicked, they take you to a mobile landing page (easily built on the MoFuse platform by the way).

Text links – similar to banner ads, except they are a text call to action link, when clicked take you to a landing page.

SMS - Text messaging – more like email marketing than advertising -  this is where you get to use the texting ability available on 100% of mobile phones worldwide.  That is some reach potential!  Like email,  a person must  opt-in to receive messages from you.   They will give you their mobile phone number and select perhaps some message category that you will send them (ie, sports scores, weather alerts, coupons or specials).   You may send short text messages to them of 160 characters.  Virtually every mobile phone in the world supports SMS so it is ubiquitous in its reach.

MMS -  multimedia messaging – is just like SMS but you get to send very fancy messages!   MMS is a rich messaging capability that allows for sending messages that include video, audio, photos and text.  MMS is not yet universally supported throughout the world via carriers.  But it is something you should know about and watch as it becomes more
prevalent throughout the coming years.  MMS is a significant advertising opportunity in the future!

Mobile TV advertising – OK just like TV advertising but done on the tiny screen.  The mobile ad will be a still or video ad place before, during or after a streaming mobile video.

Mobile applications – You can actually display ads inside of mobile apps.  Generally these are banners or ‘interstitials’ that show up between app actions.

For a comprehensive view  of mobile advertising guidelines you will want to check out the Mobile Marketing Association's (MMA)  guide
 
Every view of your mobile site is an opportunity to monetize your new media!

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The Need For Speed

Sunday, September 27, 2009 by Annette Tonti
MoFuse Rocket


Do You Need A Separate Mobile Website? – Revisited

Yes - because people don't want to wait for your heavy desktop site to load on their mobile phone.  That is if that big ol' desktop site loads at all!

InsightExpress released a study in September about the levels of engagement among
various smart phone users.  They also compared ‘feature phones’ (basic non-smart phones) and desktop sites. 

When mobile Internet users were asked to identify the top three elements that most influence their decision to return to a mobile Internet site, they reported:

1. The speed at which the site loads
2. The ease of navigation on the site
3. The quality of the content on the site itself

What is very remarkable is that when a mobile site was available and well designed, smart phone users felt “positively engaged” almost at the very same level as desktop website users: 68% smart phone to 70% desktop site.   That means when you develop a mobile website for your mobile audience, you will have satisfied repeat visitors. 

On another note, those who access the mobile web on a feature phone (think: basic mobile phone) were only 48% positive about the experience. This isn't shocking really.  Most desktop sites simply won't load at all - but if you develop using a platform like MoFuse the site give the feature phone user an optimal experience.

So we know that your audience will be truly engaged with your cell phone website, the study proves that.  It's up to you to take the stress out the experience by building a new mobile site that will load in about 1/10th of the time.

When you build a mobile site – you assure:  Very fast load time  (compare 36 seconds typical of a desktop website loading on a mobile device vs. 3 seconds for the majority of MoFuse mobile sites).

You design good, easy navigation into the site by making relevant content easily available – up front – without a lot of scrolling.

You get to select the content ensuring that is relevant to the mobile audience which means it will be high quality.   To read more about the study check out Mobile Marketing Magazine.


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Yes That Is You They Are Looking For: Mobile Search

Thursday, August 13, 2009 by Annette Tonti



A lot of people think that the mobile web is just a “mini” version of the desktop web. That iPhone made it possible to simply miniaturize your desktop site so it works just the same on a mobile device.

That’s just not the case today nor will it be the case in the future.  You need to have a mobile friendly site, one that is designed with the mobile web readers front and center.

Why? 

The first reason is real estate- that's a no brainer.  Smaller screen, you need to be more effective at getting the essential messages out there.

Second is – well – how will the mobile web audience find you?  Search of course!
You've probably already been to Google and other search engines on the mobile web.
When you put a term in that search engine on a mobile device, do you think they use the same search algorithms and rankings as on the desktop web?

No, actually they use very different rankings when they know that a search is being done from a mobile device!

About a year ago  Google was awarded a patent for mobile search.  Their mobile search patent explains that…

"The mobile search result quality scores and the generic search result quality scores were generated according to different scoring formulas. Based on one or more terms in the search query, the search query is classified as a mobile query. As a consequence, one or more search result quality scores are modified to improve the sorting of search results that include both mobile and generic search results."   You can read up more on this patent here at SEO Principle.com.

In March of this year Google announced that their mobile traffic had quintupled since 2007.  It’s no secret that iPhone also has helped mobile search grow exponentially. It got more people interested in using the mobile web - and when we went there, we hurried right to our old habits: Search.

And the types of searches we do on mobile are different.  According to Google Mobile ad sales director Diana Pouliot, Local search on the mobile device indexes higher than the desktop by about two to three times.  So what does that mean?  It means as people are getting very comfortable using the mobile internet – they are doing what you might expect- searching for things, companies, entertainment, restaurant and more. 

No surprise, Google dominates mobile search  but there are a lot of mobile search engines out there.



So will a mobile search engine really be different?

Yes. 

First it will recognize the searcher is mobile and therefore the ranking algorithm will be different.   It is looking for a mobile version of your website.  Also Mobile search engines will offer relevant information based on location (and that is one reason why local mobile search will be important).

So once again you need a mobile web site built for the mobile web.  If you use a provider like MoFuse we enable your mobile site to automatically be entered into all of the mobile search engines.  You will be ready for SEO the minute you use our mobile web tools.

You need to add a mobile sitemap. Search engines such as Google discover information about your site by employing software known as "spiders" to crawl the web. Once the spiders find a site, they follow links within the site to gather information about all the pages. The spiders periodically revisit sites to find new or changed content. Google Mobile Web Search crawls and indexes sites that have been specifically designed for mobile phones and devices. By using Mobile Sitemaps to inform and direct their crawlers, they continuously expand their coverage of the mobile web and speed up the discovery and addition of pages to their mobile indexes.

The first step is realizing people will be searching for you on the mobile web - but most important you need to be ready with a mobile web enabled site- set up for Search!
 

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Take The Test...

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 by Annette Tonti
We get asked all of the time: Do I really need a mobile site? Or won’t the mobile phone browser just show my desktop website? Do I really need to develop a Mobile Website? (see answers below)

The best way to understand what happens when someone accesses the desktop version of your website on a mobile phone is to try it. Also try it on several different devices. You will quickly see that your desktop site probably looks unusable on every phone. The exception may be the iPhone, but consider people do not like to point, pinch and squeeze their way to your information!

Here is an example of a website for the Common Angels and what it looks like on a Blackberry. The left is their desktop URL typed into the mobile browser, the right is a MoFuse built site.

CA-desktop URL        

No Mobile site                MoFuse Site

Try this yourself, input their desktop based URL www.commonangels.com. On the right we built a site on the MoFuse for Business platform, a very simple site that took us less than 20 minutes. The MoFuse site is very basic but we made the website mobile friendly. Look at http://commonangels.bxs.mobi on your cellphone, it will help you to understand what we mean.

There will be no magic bullets to automate sites for mobile devices. You simply cannot automatically push (or 'scrape') the information from your desktop website to create a mobile friendly version, without some human design. Sites for mobile devices take rethinking, they also require mobile web tools that help manage your mobile website for all devices.

Answers from above:

No
A mobile handset browser will never perform magic with your desktop site. It cannot figure out what to place on that tiny screen with priority. Therefore I’m afraid you will need to build a mobile website. To create a mobile website it will take some rethinking of your mobile audience and what they need. The message and design should to follow the form… therefore consider what it will take to make your website mobile.

Yes
You need a mobile website. Juniper predicts 1.7 Billion people will be accessing the web with a mobile device by 2013. You need to be there so they can find you! The time is now to create your mobile customers to your brand.
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Stand Up and Be Mobi Counted

Sunday, June 28, 2009 by Annette Tonti
The first mobile phone to have Internet connectivity was the Nokia 9000 Communicator, launched in Finland in 1996 (source Wikipedia).  NTT DoCoMo in Japan launched the first mobile Internet service, i-Mode in 1999 and this is considered the birth of the mobile phone based Internet. 

That was 10 years ago!

In 2008 the cross-over happened, when more Internet access devices were mobile phones than personal computers. In many parts of the developing world, the ratio is as much as 10 mobile phone users to one PC user on the Internet (Wikipedia).  Is there more of a compelling reason to consider making you website mobile friendly?

Earlier this year in Las Vegas the latest numbers were in:  the mobile web had seen a sevenfold increase in mobile-friendly Web sites since last year.   This reported by dotMobi, the company behind “.mobi” mobile web site naming convention.  New mobile sites are on the rise.

When dotMobi first performed this study a year ago, 150,000 mobile Web sites were available. dotMobi now counts approximately 1.1 million mobile site addresses in the world, based on a scan of the largest Top Level Domains (TLDs) in use. The 1.1 million number means that approximately 0.8 percent of all domains are likely to have mobile-friendly content….  In perspective 99.2% of all web sites do not have a mobile friendly site!

As a comparison, Verisign estimates there are approximately 77.4 million “live” PC based websites (with ‘.com’ or ‘.net’ extensions).

Why should you care?

People are looking for your mobile site.  In May comScore released a study that showed mobile users (in the US) are accessing the Mobile web 35.3% of the time, compared to 37% for voice and 27.7% for SMS.  The demand is growing very fast.    If you aren't sure how to get started, check out a mobile website builder like MoFuse who can get your started immediately and at a low cost.  You need to be counted on the mobile web!
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Mobile App or Mobile Website? (Hint: You Need One Of These For Sure!)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 by Annette Tonti

If you believe that mobile is a strong medium to reach your customers – you need to be thinking about how your brand will evolve on the mobile web.  Today you have a few interesting options and they are not mutually exclusive.

As consumers wake up to the idea that they can actually reach the internet on their phone, we are about to see an explosion of new mobile devices;  ITouch, Kindle, “netbooks” and even Sony Playstation Portable already are rapidly changing the ‘connection’ landscape.

What is a marketer to do? 

First and foremost, every marketing executive should do a quick experiment and look at how their current “desktop” website looks on various mobile devices.  Not great?  We thought so.  Though iPhone may deliver a version of your current desktop site – it is likely not an optimal experience either (too much pinch & zoom is not good) and certainly won’t cover most of the mobile internet user base.

Next question: Do you really need a separate mobile site? 

Yes you need a mobile site…  Why?  One of the fastest growing activities people are doing on the mobile web today is search.  The growth of mobile search is soaring!  Further Google’s mobile traffic has quintupled since 2007 that growth will continue as smart phone penetration rises around the globe!  They are looking for you and it will be important to be there with a great mobile site experience for your mobile viewers.

The good news is that it is easy to make your website mobile friendly.  There are a few ways to do this, some require custom work others leverage mobile web tools.    At MoFuse we aim to help speed your way to a mobile site.  We also take the pain out of managing and editing that site over time.  Check us out at:  www.mofusepremium.com .

Well then, what about Apps?

The iPhone changed the game for the downloadable application or “App”.  Apple got the storefront right and helped to ignite the mobile app as a standard in the mobile ecosystem.  Today over 1 billion apps have been downloaded from the Apple iPhone app store alone!  Everyone else has followed- so consumers can also buy downloadable apps from carriers like Verizon or newer storefronts just for phones such as Google’s Android or Nokia’s new Ovi.  Apps are cool, often fun, and useful  - those are the key elements you will want to architect into your app if you go that way.   Today about 25 million people tap into apps, Cnet reports that the number of users who will tap into the App store will be at 100 million by 2013!

While having a mobile site is ‘table stakes’, deciding to go with an app requires another level of consideration.  The growing number of mobile app options is staggering.  Today Apple offers over 40,000 apps in their store.  Nokia is about to release their app store, Ovi with over 20,000 apps.  The Android store is built to grow apps even more quickly as they offer an ‘open’ environment for programmers.  Don’t forget the Blackberry app store… Wheeew!  So the first question is where do you fit in?  Should you build an app for each individual device (store)? Just for iPhone or Blackberry?

Second consider how will people find your app?  Finding a brand’s mobile app will continue to be a challenge as apps multiply quickly.  Standing out in the app crowd is a key issue for marketers.

Third, what should your app do?  You’ll want to consider how to get the most brand engagement as the data shows that apps with practical use work best at long term, continued usage.

That said – is an app right for every brand?  The answer is no-  not every brand or storefront needs an app.  Today they are the “new” thing but longer term the mobile ecosystem will evolve.

We believe the pattern of usage of the mobile web today makes it imperative to have a user-friendly mobile site that works on every phone (like you can build at MoFuse).  Depending on your business objectives you should consider apps carefully and of course SMS messaging.

Check out mobile web tools that can help you get a new mobile site in a hurry.
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What Should My Mobile Site Do?

Monday, June 15, 2009 by Annette Tonti

As phones get smarter and mobile browsers get better at rendering your desktop site, many ask the question: “Why do I need a mobile site at all?”   The mobile experience is not about shrinking your site to fit on a tiny screen, rather it is about communicating with your customers when they are in an entirely new context.  No matter the certainty of new devices, faster browsers and higher bandwidth in the future, the mobile experience merits its own design!  Let's get started to make your website mobile friendly.

It all starts with the user- they are in a different ‘mode’ or context when they are using a handheld to access your site.  The point being, your user is mobile and their needs at that moment will be quite different from that of a desktop viewer.   Your full website on a mobile screen would be overwhelming at best and a major annoyance at worst.

Rethinking Mobile:  How do I begin?
Mobile Web Development

As usual, the first thing to do is to step in to your customer’s shoes.   If someone is accessing your site for a mobile device what are the kinds of things they would want to do there?    Will they read your latest article, find a store location or perhaps check to see if you are offering a special promotion?

Consider some basic aspects of the mobile user:  They are likely out and about and time is an issue for them.  They are looking for something more specific from you – either a recent article or some information to connect with your brand, maybe they want directions to your storefront.   By the way, they are holding a device that can make a phone call so consider adding voice interaction (can you say “click to call”).   The device probably has a smaller and perhaps less comfortable keyboard than the desktop- so you’ll also want to consider what keystrokes you will ask them to perform.

Less will always be better-  that is the primary rule of converting your website to mobile.

Here are some questions to consider when you are making a website mobile:
•    What is the context of the average mobile visitor?
•    What are the goals of the mobile user?
•    Why are they going to your mobile website at this time?
•    What are they likely and unlikely to have any interest in?


MoFuse Top 10 Rules of Mobile Website Design

1. Keep it Simple
With over 5000 devices and screen sizes, simple layout is the only way to go

2. Make it Convenient
Put most important information at the top, easy to access

3. Speed Up Their Use
Think less keystrokes, use radio buttons or dropdowns to get data entry when possible

4. Don’t Annoy Them
If you use images use jpeg or gifs to make them quick to load, nobody likes to wait for a slow loading site

5. Pay attention to Navigation
MoFuse ensures a ‘back’ button on every page, nesting topics leads to quicker understanding

6. Consider Color Contrast
Make sure text shows up against a pleasant, yet contrasted background for easy reading

7. Connect With Them
If it is appropriate for your business type, enable them with a Click to Call button, use the phone’s core capabilities

8. Help Them Find It
A search bar is more than a convenience; it is a time-saver and often their quickest way to get answers

9. Keep Them Up To Date (and make your job easier)
Use RSS feeds to populate your mobile site, whatever you use on your desktop site should work fine

10. Listen and Iterate
Just like with your desktop site, you will learn as you go and it is easy to make changes with the premium site builder

For more information on Best Practices for Mobile Design visit the W3C guide: http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/

To get some ideas on the best new mobile site designs you can check out:  http://www.mobileawesomeness.com

MoFuse has a platform that helps you build sites for mobile devices around the world.  Find us a www.mofuse.com
 

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Is A Mobile Site Really Necessary?

Monday, June 15, 2009 by Annette Tonti

Today there are over 5000 mobile devices that can display some version of a web page. That number is getting bigger fast!   As more phones become “smart” and more computing devices become… well smaller, you need to have a strategy around having a high quality mobile presence that works everywhere.

Your customers are mobile, be there for them. It's time to create a mobile website.

A recent report showed that mobile web traffic more than doubled between January 2008 and 2009.  Mobile web traffic is going to continue to rise, quickly.  Sites like ESPN have already had days where their mobile site gets more traffic than their desktop site!
 

Whether in the US, Asia or Europe your customers are likely carrying more than one hand held mobile device.  Legacy PC companies are all moving mobile, and about to put new portable “netbook” devices on the streets.  At the end of March 2009 Michael Dell, CEO of Dell said “For the last three years, we have integrated 3G radios into our notebooks,” said Dell. “We already have agreements with many mobile carriers around netbook devices, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that we would have smaller mobile Internet devices or smartphones in the future.”

comscore-by-type

If you want to make your website mobile friendly there are a few ways to get there: an expensive custom built site or you can go to a provider like MoFuse who will help you by offering mobile platforms for building business sites and blog sites.

What is MoFuse?

MoFuse is the fastest growing network of build-it-yourself mobile sites in the world. Short for Mobile Fusion, MoFuse provides a platform that enables businesses, bloggers and any other web publisher to provide a compelling mobile experience on any mobile device.


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