Comment by mosburger | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mosburger | Hacker News Reader

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A lot of people are responding to this article by saying "The Mobile Web" is dead insofar as reading stripped-down websites for mobile browsers are dead. I think everyone is missing the point, and this has frustrated me for some time.

What's important to the mobile web isn't presentation, it's context. It's correct to say that mobile browsers are no longer the sub-par readers of teeny-tiny pages anymore. But the type of information you want when you've got one hand free riding the subway, or when you're stranded in an airport, or when you're waiting in line at an ATM, is fundamentally different than the kind of information you want when you're sitting at a PC or laptop. That's the key to understanding the mobile web - it's context. When a user is browsing on a handheld device, chances are that they want more concise bits of data, or data which is related to their geographic position, or a way to remotely "check in" with a home base.

I've tried to envision a business that addresses this gap, but I haven't quite gotten there yet. Anyone have any ideas? :)

I don't think that is true. There are probably opportunities for new services (location based), but mobile users will still want all the other internet services on the go. For example, sitting in the cafe and chatting with friends, they might check wikipedia to clarify some topic they are talking about. They see somebody walking on the street with an interesting fashion accessory, and they might check ebay to see if they can get it, too. Not everything that is useful on the mobile has to be location based.

OK - you're right. I should clarify what I meant, I guess. The point I was trying to make (and doing a poor job of it) was to re-define "Mobile Web." I.e., it no longer means tiny, content-less web sites. Instead, it means the information itself, not necessarily the presentation, is applicable to the context of a mobile device.

You're absolutely correct to say that there are sites which will be useful on a mobile device, like Wikipedia or IMDB or whatever. But the web is like one of those Ven Diagrams where there are sites that are mostly applicable to PCs, sites which are mostly applicable to mobile sites, and a large area of overlap. The area that's mobile-directed is comprised of what I was speaking of (location aware stuff, remote checkins, etc), and what defines that area is not how the information presented, but what is presented.

What sites do you see as being mostly applicable to PCs?

Hmm - good question... perhaps graphics-intensive games (yeah, I know, there's not much of these that are web based yet)? Writing long online document? High-resolution pornography? Maybe stuff involving heavy research (e.g., large medical publications) where you want to cross-reference multiple documents and/or take notes?

I guess it's basically stuff that either works best with a large detached monitor for graphics-related reasons, or stuff that requires any amount of intensive typing. I suppose there's not a huge amount of that type of thing on the web yet, but there are a few examples and probably (?) will be more in the future.

I think most people make this mistake. They start with themselves when they think of use cases.

This is when most people use the mobile web:

- At home

- In school

- On public transportation

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