Now that I’ve had my iPod Touch for a few months now, I have truly grown to appreciate it’s version of the Safari browser. I haven’t seen a mobile device nail the task of web browsing quite like the iPhone and iPod Touch. As good as a job that it’s browser does displaying regular web pages (except for Flash, don’t get me started), every once in a while someone goes the extra mile, develops an iPhone version of their site, and puts a nice big smile on my face.

Just recently Encyclopedia Britannica did just that and launched a mobile iPhone edition of their site. I must say that it’s one of the better designed iPhone sites that I’ve seen so far. First of all, like so many other iPhone-specific sites, they took away the need to “double-tap” zoom to read their content. The home page is not only striking in appearance, but overly simple. One button to search and a few suggested searches to help get the user started. Mobile needs to be simple…to the point. The search button brings up the oh-so-familiar iPhone keyboard. If it works, why change it? (more…)

I’ve recently been intrigued with where the whole “mobile web” world is going. In the future, will we be able to view normal websites on small, handheld devices? Will the need to develop mobile versions of websites diminish in our field?

With the launch of the iPhone today, and my recent experience of browsing web content on my Nintendo DS Lite, it seems that we may be getting a little closer to viewing the web as we know if on very small screens. Both of these devices show the entire web page in a small, unreadable form—relying on a “zooming” interface to allow the user to actually read the content. One thing to note, though, is that neither of these devices support Flash or movie files.

Especially watch the Seadragon portion at the beginning of the video linked below. It really blows my mind how this technology is allowing lots of content to fit into a small space…again, by allowing the user to zoom. Is this just a gimmick? How usable will the iPhone be? It’s going to be exciting to find out.

(The Photosynth part of the presentation is pretty amazing as well. Recently impressed at the addition of geotagging Flickr images, this takes it to a whole new level!)

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/129