
How To Build A Mobile Website  - vladocar
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/11/03/how-to-build-a-mobile-website/
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chadgeidel
How NOT to build a mobile website:

When I click a direct link to an article on my phone, just redirect me
(without prompting) to your mobile home page because you are too lazy to
remember the article I wanted to read.

Bonus points if your mobile site is actually hosted on another domain (and,
presumably handled by a 3rd party).

I guess you just don't want my mobile traffic then?

~~~
thwarted
JavaScript based redirects to a mobile version are annoying also, because they
seem break the back button in mobile browsers. When I hit back, it goes back
to the page that redirected me, and I end up right back at the place I don't
want to be anymore. I hate Wikipedia's mobile browsing because of this.

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tnorthcutt
One thing I didn't see covered in the "User Initiated Method" section is
detecting mobile browsers, and prompting the user to choose between the full
site and the mobile site. I like this method, since most of the time, the
detection will probably work, and thus users will be made aware that there is
a mobile version, whereas they might miss a small link in the header or footer
(even moreso on a small mobile screen). Additionally, it still allows choosing
for those mobile users who wish to view the full site (or desktop users who
wish to view the mobile site), and you can still have the "view mobile site"
link on the full site for the users who were somehow missed by the browser
detection method. IMO, this is the best combination of automagically changing
things and allowing the user to choose. ESPN.com is a good example of using
this method.

~~~
djb_hackernews
I do this for one of my webapps. I detect based on the user agent, and just
pass off to different templates (I'm using django). So it doesn't really
matter what url you use, it just matters what device.

I also have an 'm' subdomain that automatically goes to the mobile version.

I stayed away from the prompt, because mobile browsers are really terrible,
and dialogs are that much more terrible.

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bretthopper
Like most Smashing Magazine articles, this is good advice overall but gets
some details wrong.

They recommend using display: none on images to reduce bandwidth. Except
browsers still load images which are set to display: none.

~~~
iamjpg
I think my problem with development articles on Smashing Magazine is that they
most often tend to be "good advice" and a little thin on content.

While a lot of the information in that article is relevant/important from a
foundational aspect, it only scratches the surface of mobile development.

Additionally - to barely mention mobile frameworks like jqTouch, jQuery
Mobile, & Sencha Touch under a section called "Special iPhone / iPad
Enhancements" is not only misleading (WebKit is also on Android, hello) but ,
if expanded on, could have been the most helpful part of that article for
someone who really wants to learn about mobile development.

The conclusion of the article talks about the infancy of mobile and how
standards are emerging. I would argue that frameworks like the ones above can
help drive mobile standards and also enable developers to build applications
within the mobile space with confidence.

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davidedicillo
I wish they took in consideration in the first chart the percentage of users
of those platforms who actually surf the web with their phone.

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RyanMcGreal
They do address this later: "With a market share of 28% and estimates of as
much as 50% of mobile browsing going through iPhone, it makes sense that
developers make special accommodations for the mobile giant."

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mishmax
Speaking of mobile design. Anyone here experienced with converting static
websites to mobile-friendly sites? I have a few paid projects to do this and
it's been hard finding a good contracter in this space. If interested, please
email me. My email's in my profile.

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Concours
My startup ( <http://www.gmbhnews.net> ) offers a solution for dynamic sites
at this point. We are working to find a way to offer the same service for
static sites and have this on our developpment roadmap.

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davidw
Symbian's share seems suspiciously small. Maybe it's US only or something like
that.

~~~
hopeless
When I owned a Symbian phone I did use it to browse the web but I used Opera
Mini. The symbian browser was pitifully slow and awkward. That might also
account for the small percentage.

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Isofarro
How to build a mobile website: 1.) Open website in a mobile browser.

