Web 2.0 – Mobile AJAX and the Future of the Web

Original Post 04.26.2009
Mobile Ajax and the Future of the Web
Daniel Appelquist (Vodafone )
11:00am – 11:50am Thursday, 04/24/2008

The Web and mobile ecosystems are converging. The Web is an evolving medium and is extending to embrace the mobile platform. At the same time, mobile devices are becoming more Web-friendly and mobile browsers are becoming more sophisticated. The iPhone showcases this convergence in action.

The advanced browser supports the Ajax platform well and can render most sites designed for desktop usage. However, the iPhone browser really shines when used with content designed specifically for the mobile use case. Examples of this include the iPhone facebook app and Google application such as search and gmail.

This talk will follow from the discussion on usability to showcase specific UI techniques that can be implemented using Mobile Ajax to develop application-like UI, not only on the iPhone but on any device equipped with an advanced browser (such as Nokia N-series phones). Appelquist will showcase and talk a bit about some of the reasons standard Ajax development techniques fall down on the mobile browser (even iPhone) and talk about how some Ajax toolkits such as Dojo and Laszlo are addressing this head on. The idea is to energize people about the mobile Ajax platform (across devices) and to get people thinking about using web technologies to build these mobile-specific user experiences.

Appelquist will back all of this up with some info on what he’s working on in the W3C Mobile Web Initiatives around guidelines for mobile web applications and also work in the OpenAjax Alliance around Mobile Ajax.

Daniel Appelquist
Vodafone
Daniel K. Appelquist is a senior technology strategist at Vodafone Group, where he works on Web and Internet projects and industry activities. He helped to create dotMobi and the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, where he chairs the Mobile Web Best Practices working group. He is also the founder of Mobile Monday London and the Mobile 2.0 conferences, and has spoken on the mobile Web at numerous conferences and events, including Web 2.0 Summit, South by Southwest Interactive, Future of Web Apps, Ajax World and Le Web 3.

Conference Notes

Mobile Trends

In 5 years the majority of the Web will be access via mobile.

Mobile applications developers are increasingly choosing the Web as a platform.

Mobile 2.0 – What is it?

· SMS – mobile blogging IM
· MMS – Media Sharing
· Operator Portal – Content and search and discovery
· Premium SMS Billing – Mobile Stored value Accounts
· Java Games – Connected Applications
· Presence and Push to talk – VOIP apps
· WAP sites – web sites that adapt for mobile browsers
· WAP push – RSS readers
· Wallpaper – Idle screen applications
· Location based services – proximity and location aware services
· Content consumption – content creation (eg mobile blogging)
· Per KB data tariffs – Flat data tariffs
· Carrier/Operator chooses User Chooses

Top 11 Mobile 2.0 Trends

· Smart mobile browsers
· Mobile Web Standards
· Mobile AJAX & Widgets
· Mobile Search
· Mobile Ads
· Mobile Mashups & Open API’s
· Mobile RFID & 2D Barcodes
· Location and Geotagging
· Mobile Social Networks
· Mobile User Generated Content
· Smart Web Devices

2D barcodes – Big in Japan and Korea – allows quick access to web sites through the bar code method.

Why is mobile different?

Limitations on mobile

· Small memory footprint
· Lower CPU
· Small screen in varying sizes
· Different input modes
· Slow/high latency network
· Browser fragmentation

Unique device features

· Make and receive calls
· Send and receive a SMS/MMS
· Take pictures
· With you anywhere
· Always on
· Uniquely personal

Mobile phones and other mobile connected devices and personal communication and information tools.

W3C Mobile web initatives – get url

Mobile web best practices

· Design for One Web
· Rely on Web standards
· Stay away from know hazards
· Be cautious of device limitations
· Optimize navigation

Thematic consistency
One web principle – Ensure that conten provide by accessing a URI yields a thematically coherent experience when accessed from different devices

· Use Vaild markup
· Use Style sheets
· Not relying on cookies
· Not relying on objects and Scripts

Mobile OK – trust mark for mobile friendly content

Mobile Web compatibility test ACID tests
· CSS2 min width
· Transparent PHG
· GZIP support
· HTTPS
· Content type applications xhtmlplu xml
· Static SVG
· XMLHTTPRequest
· CSS Media Queries
· Dynamic SVG
· Canvas element
· Contenteditable
· CSS3 selectors
· Mobile landscape for browsers consists of Blazer, Safari, plam, etc. is very fragmented

http://snurl.com/25n2s – bar code leadin’s

Mobile Web Best Practices 2.0
 
How to use Web apps development skills
· Mobile AJAX
· DOM
· Style
· Phone Resources – Beta (location information – early stages)
· Browser Frame work
· All tied together with JavaScript in the middle

SoonR – application that allows access to PC contenet – like PC anywhere that runs through opera browser

http://www.soonr.com/

Iphone specific applications like facebook.
Live football results and soccer results – applications that bring in pushed updates instead of having to reload all pages.
· AJAX of mobile is same as AJAX on desktop
· AJAX mobile/desktop issues are mainly related to inconsistent implementation of web browser components and bad web pages design
· Mobile network does not work like a lan network in several aspects – multiple
· Keep in mind latency , battery life etc all the things that go along with mobile units.
· Progressive Rendering is important

Improving site rendering
· Don’t load unnecessary resources
· Keep use notified of non visual browser activity.
· Improve scripts
· Improve cache-ability

Device Atlas – joint venture initiative form dotMobi that is part of the developer community dev.mobi

Vodaphone – SPG – whole screen rich technology for soccer highlights with video, factoids and game scores

Future will bring:
· Mobile apps wwill migrate into mobile Web apps and widgets
· Consumer expectations of the Web incr accepting of different representation on different devices
· Browser consolidation and move towards standards compliance
· More access to device capabilities, local storage, from with in browser scripting layer enables more sophisticated mobile Web Apps.

http://dev.mobi/
http://betavine.com/
http://mobile2event.com/
http://torgo.com/blog/

Sprint xohm service – opening api’s = question from audience = answer good idea and is the trend that should be duplicated.

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