mobile web

Facebook Looks to the Past to Present Its Future

If there’s one key area that social network giant Facebook has been weak in, its the mobile arena.

Users of the official Facebook app for both major platforms Android and iPhone, as well as other handsets manufacturers, have had to dealt with slow loads, poor user interfaces, bugs and other such quirks.

This is especially true when comparing the Facebook mobile experience to the Google+ one, with the Android app in particular offering a seamless experience.

Facebook, for their part, are clearly aware of this. There are rumours that they’ll be presenting the “Facebook phone” at a special event this week, and Mark Zuckerberg has often been cited as telling his mobile developers they need to up their game.

However, a recent media update would suggest Facebook isn’t just resting its laurels on a new Android-powered Facebook phone – it’s also going much more integrated with mobile leading its strategy for the remainder of 2013 and beyond.

Reanimating “The FaceBook” for the Connected Consumer

Rumoured to have been in production for the last six months, The FaceBook (in a nice tip to the company’s original name) is a tech-laden tablet that’s set to go head-to-head with the MacBook Air and the new, extremely powerful-looking Google Chromebook Pixel.

Built solely for the Facebook user, The FaceBook looks set to be the Palo Alto giant’s final piece of the puzzle when it comes to owning the social web. It’s no secret that the platform is being shaped to ensure users never need to go anywhere else, as brands, e-commerce, graph search and more integrate to offer the complete experience.

Facebook doesn’t want people using Google, and the back-and -forth between the two tech giants has seen the battle often get ugly as users are bombarded with why one network is better than the other.

Google seemed to have taken the lead, with its Google+ network integrating across all Google properties and allowing Plussers to have access to pretty much everything they need in one place.

However, Facebook has a much higher user base, as well as one key factor – the Facebook experience is such a heavy part of web users’ culture now, it’d be hard for many to leave.

The FaceBook tablet aims to ensure there’s no need to.

The FaceBook Integrated Experience

Taking a lesson from Google and how their G+ user can access all of Google’s main properties from one key home base (Google+), Facebook has made some interesting decisions when it comes to its new The FaceBook.

Facebook will launch its own version of the App store, and when you connect you switch on The FaceBook, all your current apps and games will be synced for you.

Built with a high-density retina display, The FaceBook will take a picture of your face while powering up, and cross-reference the image with your personal photos to ensure you are the official user of the account. This is to prevent future hacking.

Eye-tracking and sentiment detection software will let Facebook know where on your profile you’re looking the most, and tailor each visit for you. This is Facebook’s attempt to truly serve users ads that they’re interested in, increasing the propensity of a click.

Voice recognition will allow you to talk and these will be posted as text updates for users without The FaceBook, and voice updates for other tablet users.

Running its own version of a Google+ Hangout (thanks to Facebook’s partnership with Skype), The FaceBook will detect who you speak with the most and automatically connect with those people when they’re online. Using the eye-tracking and sentiment detection software again will allow Facebook to see when you’re happy to talk with someone and when you want to ignore, and will act accordingly.

The camera will detect your background and change your profile colour scheme to match your surroundings and mood, using Chameleon? technology.

These are just some of the early stats and features that have been shared so far. But it’s clear to see from just these alone how seriously Facebook is taking this shifting trend to mobile, smartphone-powered browsing experiences.

With a suggested price point of $999, keeping it under the magic thousand dollar number, it’s also clear Facebook have high hopes of attracting a large number of its existing web-based user base when The FaceBook is launched later this year.

Moving the Old to the New – What Next?

One of the big questions that The FaceBook poses is, what happens now for the web version of Facebook? After all, even though such a technology-enabled tablet is coming in at under a thousand bucks, that’s still out of the reach of many of Facebook’s current users.

The hope for those that can’t initially afford The FaceBook is that they’ll first migrate to the rumoured Facebook phone, and once they’ve had that a year, they will be eligible for a free upgrade to The FaceBook itself.

If Facebook can take the hit on the cost of that – and if any company can, it’s probably Facebook – then we might just be seeing the start of Zuckerberg’s global private social network be taking shape.

Where that leaves Google, Twitter, etc, is anyone’s guess – one thing’s for sure, the next 12 months is going to be one heck of a battlefield.

Full details of The FaceBook announcement can be found here.

Does Your Blog Embrace Mobile Browsing?

Some interesting figures about mobile browsing and user activity:

38 percent of web users in the U.S. access the web from their phone (or 89 million people).
53 percent of Americans using their phones to go online do so at least once a day.
65 percent of mobile users aged between 18-29 use their phones to go online.
43 percent of mobile users aged between 30-49 use their phones to go online.

And these stats are just for American users. Across the globe, mobile browsing is continuing to grow at a huge rate and, as you can see from the image at the top of this post, it’s expected to overtake fixed (or desktop) browsing within the next 2-3 years, going by current trends.

Which begs the question – is your blog or website mobile-friendly? And if not, how do you make it more mobile-friendly?

Defining Mobile Friendly

Depending on who you ask, making a blog or site mobile-friendly is as simple as asking the question, “Can I view it when I open my phone’s browser?” (or tablet, as the likes of the iPad and Playbook continue to grow in popularity).

While this might help, it’s not really looking at the bigger picture, and the differing experiences of the various mobile browsers that are in use. Apple uses a different browser from Android uses a different browser from BlackBerry and so on. Then you also have older phones that don’t have the features of a smartphone, and this makes the experience even more different.

So to define mobile browsing, let’s work with the meaning of “compatible with as many mobile browsers as possible”. It might look better on some than on others but at least it’s available on more than just the latest smartphones.

So now that’s kinda cleared up, how do you make your site or blog mobile-friendly? It depends on the experience you want to offer and how much you want to spend (if anything).

The Build It Yourself Approach

The most intensive way to mobilize your site is to give it a full mobile makeover. This can be by yourself with some recoding, or by hiring a professional to do the work for you.

Depending on how much you want to make your site mobile-friendly and still interactive, the cost can run into several thousands of dollars.

Other ways you can bootstrap and make immediate changes include:

Use a fluid width design. This is a fairly straightforward approach and just involves modifying your CSS style sheet to allow your site to change widths depending on what browser it’s being viewed on. Make sure you make a back-up of your site and refer to any manuals before progressing with this option.

Centre your content. If you’re reading this blog on a desktop browser, you’ll see that the content is pretty centred, as opposed to being full-width and starting on the left. This means I don’t waste any content in the sidebars, and keep the main post area as the one that’s always front and centre.

Friendly Links. A lot of websites and blogs use contextual links, so when you hover over them a box opens up on-screen and shows you an ad or similar (think Kontera and Apture). Great for desktop browsers, not so much for mobile. Consider making all your links simple and mobile-friendly too.

Easy and Complete Navigation. When you’re on a site and you can’t find what you’re looking for, then it’s either a choice of searching (if it has that option) or simply leaving (never a good scenario). For mobile browsers, it can be even harder to implement a search option for such limited space. So make sure you have a clear, uncluttered navigation option, and have the most important pages you want your visitor to view upfront and centre.

Brevity is King. Depending on what browser a mobile user comes in on, the load time of a page filled with content can be nasty, and put them off. Counter this and have a short, punchy page each time – the easier the experience (including load), the more likely a repeat visit.

The Plug-In Approach

While the most comprehensive way to mobilize your site is by in-depth optimization, like I say this can be pretty expensive (though definitely worth it for larger sites). For blogs, though, it can be less expensive, because generally most blogs only worry about the post content, and not other sales pages, etc. This means you can choose a simpler option, and there are a ton of these available. Note – these are for self-hosted WordPress blogs – there are options for Blogger and other platforms.

WPtouch Pro. Probably my favourite out of all the mobile plug-ins for WordPress, WPtouch Pro offers a great-looking and customizable app that supports all the major mobile browsers. You can even add less popular browsers through the excellent WPtouch Pro documentation. There is a free version – but it’s definitely worth investing in one of the premium licenses. I use WPtouch Pro on this site – if you have an iPhone, iPad, Android or similar, check it out. You have the choice to switch between mobile and desktop view.

Wapple. Wapple is another excellent option, and one that I’ve used previously on this blog. It’s hugely in-depth and really lets you set up the mobile version of your site to replicate a lot of the desktop version. Again, it offers a free trial, but it’s the premium options that stand out. I prefer the simpler approach of WPtouch Pro, but Wapple would be my next choice for sure.

WordPress Mobile Edition. Built by the guys that developed the popular Carrington framework, the WordPress Mobile Edition automatically detects what browser is on your site, and offers a straightforward user experience based on simplicity. It’s probably the least “graphic” of the three plug-ins here, but its ease-of-use and simple set-up make it one to check out. Oh, and it’s completely free!

So these are the two main ways to make sure your site and/or blog is mobile-friendly. Some are more in-depth and expensive than others – your needs will determine how much you need to spend.

But with mobile browsing become more popular by the day, it’s a small cost to pay compared to losing readers and customers, no?

Note: A version of this post originally appeared on For Bloggers By Bloggers, the free blogger resource centre from Bonsai Interactive. It’s reproduced here to give you an idea of the daily tips on offer to help you grow your blog. If you enjoyed the read, feel free to drop on over and check us out.

Taking Your Blog Mobile with BuzzVoice

One of the benefits of subscribing to blogs by email is the opportunity to catch posts that may otherwise have slipped by in an endless RSS feed stream.

One such one that caught my eye was by Jason Falls over at Social Media Explorer, and his views on new mobile voice service BuzzVoice. It’s similar to Odiogo (which I’ve tried before) in that it transcribes your blog or website into an audio format. The difference with BuzzVoice is that you can get an app for your iPhone or iPod touch (currently $1.99), making it more of an audio library of your favourite blogs.

Not only that, but BuzzVoice also offers a real-time radio widget for your blog’s sidebar (take a look in my right sidebar underneath the option to read my blog on your Kindle). This plays streaming audio of all your posts, which you can listen to via iTunes or via mobile, as well as the option to grab the widget and share on other networks.

The obvious main benefit behind BuzzVoice is its ability to open up a blog or website to folks that want to listen or multi-task online, or on the go (so at the gym, in the car, on public transport, etc). Yet is also has benefits for anyone with impaired vision or sight disability, as pointed out by Glenda Watson Hyatt on Jason’s post (Glenda has cerebral palsy and is a highly respected blogger and author). Additionally, people with dyslexia and similar learning difficulties could use something like BuzzVoice to improve their comprehension of the written word.

BuzzVoice is currently in private beta, with the public launch due next month. However, John Atkinson (co-founder and CEO of BuzzVoice) has very kindly offered readers of this blog 10 private invites. All you need do is email your blog or website’s RSS feed to publishers@buzzvoice.com to be considered for the beta.

Since I’ve just installed BuzzVoice tonight, I haven’t had time to have a look at the more in-depth features available at their website. I’ll be sure to look at it in more depth soon, and share my thoughts in a follow-up post shortly.

In the meantime, what’s your take on BuzzVoice and its approach to opening up the written word?