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6 Brilliantly Designed Mobile Sites

June 29, 2010 in Making it Count, Mobile 2.0, Writing on Life: Social Media and the World, facebook, features, google, mashable by Ben Parr View Comments

This series is supported by Webtrends Mobile Analytics. Webtrends Mobile Analytics lets you monitor the adoption and usage of your mobile apps and mobile sites. To keep up with Webtrends Mobile, add their blog to your RSS reader.

It’s true: the mobile web is taking over the world, and by 2015, many predict it will be larger than desktop Internet use. It’s no wonder everybody’s racing to build mobile versions of their websites.

Some are simply better than others, though. While many companies just build stripped-down versions of their current sites with a few links and maybe an image, others have taken the time and energy to really think about the advantages of mobile and truly become destinations that can be accessed on any platform. These well-designed mobile sites provide a glimpse into what we can expect in the future.

For now though, here are six examples of brilliantly designed mobile sites, chosen from six different verticals. We couldn’t cover them all, so we encourage you to add your own favorites in the comments below.

1. Media: CBS.com

It took about 10 seconds for me to go from loading the homepage to watching a full episode of MacGuyver on CBS.com.

CBS is amazing to behold on a smartphone. It presents you with exactly what you want: TV shows. On both Android and the iPhone, it took only two clicks to play clips from hot shows such as NCIS or stream full episodes of classic shows such as Star Trek. There’s no way around it: it makes you want to keep coming back.

While NBC doesn’t boast full TV episodes, its video library is also easy to access via mobile.

2. Social: 0.Facebook.com

Facebook was presented with a dilemma in its neverending campaign of global expansion: how could it expand on mobile platforms internationally, when most nations charge an arm and a leg for wireless data?

The answer: Facebook Zero, a completely stripped-down version of the world’s largest social network. While it has almost all of the functionality of Facebook.com — status updates, news feeds, profiles, etc. — that’s not what makes it brilliant. What makes it brilliant is that use of 0.Facebook.com is free in 45 countries via over 50+ wireless operators through various deals the company has cut.

The result: a free and accessible version of Facebook for millions of people in emerging markets.

3. Productivity: m.dropbox.com

Dropbox has a great iPhone app and an Android app that’s just as good, but the mobile site version of the popular file-hosting service isn’t far behind.

It doesn’t matter what type of phone you have: you’re going to be able to access Dropbox. The website is smart enough to give you the right interface, providing you immediate access to your files, photos, and Dropbox activity history. The service’s ubiquity and usefulness across multiple platforms is what makes it brilliant.

4. Photography: m.Flickr.com

If you want simplicity and beauty in one package, then Flickr’s mobile interface is definitely a gold standard. Not only is it easy to navigate, but it places the focus on the only thing you probably care about: the photography.

Still, beyond the ability to browse, explore, and search for photography, Flickr’s mobile site lets you access your account, manage your albums, and view your activity stream. The only thing it can’t do: upload photos. You’re going to need an app for that.

5. Sports: ESPN.com

When it comes to being ahead of the technological curve, ESPN has consistently been setting the pace. The mobile versions of ESPN are no different.

The Disney-owned sports broadcasting company has versions optimized for nearly every mobile platform, and they all carry the most important sports stories of the day. However, ESPN’s mobile versions, especially the Android and iPhone versions, also contain video highlights, up-to-date sports scores, fantasy sports info, and a streamlined interface that lets you browse based on your favorite sport or team. It’s simply one of the best-built and easy-to-use mobile sites around.

6. Search: Google.com

You can’t have a list of brilliant mobile sites and not include Google.com. The search giant has managed to pack a ton of functionality into a tiny little package.

The familiar sparse interface of Google Search is still there, but through the mobile site, you can quickly pull up Google Maps, find local restaurants and destinations (if you phone has geolocation), watch YouTube videos, check Gmail, browse through your news feeds, translate on-the-fly, post updates to your Google Buzz account, and a great deal more.

Google for mobile is simply one of the best-engineered mobile interfaces around. It’s designed to do countless tasks while keeping the design simplistic. It succeeds in spades.

What’s Your Favorite Mobile Site?

It’s your turn: what mobile sites do you think are brilliant? Which ones catch your eye or stand out from the rest?

Let us know your answer in the comments.

Series supported by Webtrends Mobile Analytics

This series is supported by Webtrends Mobile Analytics. Webtrends Mobile Analytics lets you monitor the adoption and usage of your mobile apps and mobile sites. It provides near limitless customization in terms of the data gathered and depth of analysis across iPhone, Android and Blackberry. And the data resides side-by-side with your website analytics. To keep up with Webtrends Mobile, add their blog to your RSS reader.

Reviews: Android, Dropbox, Facebook, Flickr, Gmail, Google, Google Buzz, Google Maps, Google search, Twitter, YouTube, blog

More About: cbs, ESPN, facebook, Facebook Zero, features, Google, Mobile 2.0, Mobile Sites and Apps Series, mobile web

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Tags: cbs, ESPN, Facebook Zero, Lists, Mobile Lists, Mobile Sites and Apps Series, mobile web

The New Digg: First Impressions

June 25, 2010 in Making it Count, News, Top Stories, Writing on Life: Social Media and the World, mashable by Ben Parr View Comments

Ever since the new version of Digg was announced three months ago, it has undergone a lot of revisions and caused a lot of turmoil. In that time, Kevin Rose replaced Jay Adelson as CEO, reportedly unhappy with the direction Adelson was taking the company and the product.

The New Digg is almost here though, and we have access to the preview. We’ve been playing around with the new interface and its many features, and we’ve compared them against both the “old” Digg and other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.

Here are our first impressions of the New Digg:

Digg Has a Suggested Users List

When you first log onto the New Digg (New.Digg.com), you’re presented with a couple screens. The first one is Digg’s version of the suggested users list — a hand-picked list of people and companies to follow on Digg. The list includes everyone from Kevin Rose to The New York Times to Mashable, and it categorizes their accounts based on topic area.

Twitter spurred a lot of growth and created a small set of power accounts with its suggested user list (SUL) — at least until this year’s changes. Still, these types of lists help new users get started, and acquiring fresh users is something Digg needs to do.

Even if this hand-picked version of the SUL isn’t sustainable, it should give the company a boost in terms of new user engagement and retention.

Adding Content Is Much Easier

One of the first things that struck us when we finally got to the new Digg homepage was the prominence of the “Digg It” option. It looks and feels like the Facebook Publisher box. Whenever you enter in a link, it imports the title, finds images from the link, and lets gives you write a description and choose a topic. After that, all you have to do is click “Digg It,” and the link is broadcast to the Digg universe.

There are some other nice features about the new publishing box. For example, if you put in a link for a story that’s already been submitted, it will alert you to the fact and display the Digg information for that specific link, complete with sharing tools and a Digg button. It’s also a ubiquitous box: you will find it on many of the other pages in the New Digg.

Clearly, Digg is placing an emphasis on getting people to add more content and articles to the social news hub. As we’ve reported before, there is an option in the New Digg to link your RSS feed to your Digg account and auto-submit your posts for the community’s consideration.

Discovering Content

Content discovery has changed in the new version of Digg. There are two tabs on the top left of the interface: My News and Top News My News is the default homepage for all users. Unlike the current version of Digg, where content bubbles up from the overall community, the new version focuses on content coming from your friends and followers.

The new homepage no longer shows who submitted a story, but instead focuses on which of your friends dugg it. Even the sidebar focuses on how many of the people you follow have dugg a story, rather than whether or not a friend of your submitted it.

We welcome the change. It democratizes the site a bit more by reducing the need for publisher to hit the front page of Digg in order to generate any traffic. We saw content with between 16 and 150 Diggs on our personalized feed of news.

However, long-time Digg users don’t have to worry. “Top News” is just like the current version of Digg, focusing on the top content from the collective Digg community. You can even sort top content by day, week, or month. There seems to be a minimum Digg count to appear on the week or month Top News charts though, as we only saw three news items between the two tabs.

Interface

The overhaul not only focused on the algorithms and content discovery, but also on the interface itself. It’s definitely faster, cleaner, and more social. In our tests, we found it incredibly simple to navigate and a pleasure on the eyes. Unlike the last version of Digg, this is something that new users can quickly pick up and understand.

It’s not perfect, though. Search still needs some work. For example, we found the exact same content from Mashable when we tried to resort by “Most Recent” or “Best Match.” Hopefully this is a small bug that will quickly be resolved.

Overall though, the New Digg is a remarkable improvement over its predecessor. It keeps much of the old look and feel of Digg, while giving it a much-needed refresh and emphasis on the social graph. Expect the new version to launch for all users very soon.

Reviews: Digg, Facebook, Mashable, Twitter

More About: digg, mashable, New Digg

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Tags: digg, New Digg

Mozilla Explains Why Firefox 4 Has Tabs on Top [VIDEO]

June 25, 2010 in Making it Count, News, Writing on Life: Social Media and the World, google, mashable by Ben Parr View Comments

Firefox 4 is coming soon, and it’ll carry with it a lot of design and UI changes. One of the biggest ones is that the default setting will be to place tabs on top, a design Google Chrome popularized.

For years, there’s been heated debate in the Firefox community over whether the tabs should be on top or below the address bar. To explain Mozilla’s decision, Alex Faaborg of the User Experience Design team recorded this seven minute video explaining the four key reasons Firefox 4 defaults to tabs on top. Watch the video to learn about them all.

If you hate the tabs on top look though, don’t worry: Faaborg makes it very clear that tabs on top is just the default setting, and that users will have full control over where their tabs are located.

Reviews: Firefox, Google Chrome

More About: chrome, Firefox, Firefox 4, Google, google chrome, mozilla, Tabs

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Tags: chrome, firefox, Firefox 4, google chrome, mozilla, Tabs

How Did Apple Miss the iPhone 4’s Reception Issue? Maybe It Didn’t

June 25, 2010 in Making it Count, News, Top Stories, Writing on Life: Social Media and the World, mashable by Ben Parr View Comments

The iPhone 4 launch day has been dominated by two storylines: unprecedented demand for Apple’s newest smartphone and critical issues that even Steve Jobs has addressed.

While the yellow discoloration has been a big issue, the bigger issue seems to be the iPhone 4 reception issue. Hold it the wrong way and you can completely lose your signal. For now Steve Jobs advocates buying a case or not “holding the phone that way.”

The issue begs an important question: How did Apple miss this? Apple extensively tests its products and the company is nothing short of obsessive with the quality of its products. It’s difficult to believe that Apple wouldn’t have tested the quality of the antennas with extensive rigor.

Of course, that type of field testing is what led to the lost iPhone 4 prototype and the ensuing legal drama.

Here’s one interesting theory, proposed by Matt Schlicht, Ustream’s product lead for social and virality:

It’s probably true that, when the iPhone 4 was taken into the field, it was always inside of a case that hid the device. Apple may have discovered the antenna problem later on, but it might have been too late by then.

Another opinion is put forth by Spencer Webb, an antenna designer. Here’s what he says:

“The iPhone 4 has two symmetrical slots in the stainless frame. If you short these slots, or cover them with your hand, the antenna performance will suffer … There is no way around this, it’s a design compromise that is forced by the requirements of the FCC, AT&T, Apple’s marketing department and Apple’s industrial designers, to name a few.”

If this is the case, then Apple knew about the issue long ago, but decided that it was an acceptable trade-off. We’d agree, but we want to know the most common ways the typical user holds his or her phone first.

In the end, though, these issues amount to minor bumps in the road for the world’s most valuable tech company. It already looks like the iPhone 4 will become the best-selling iPhone in company history. We doubt this issue will actually scare any potential customers away. Maybe that’s what Apple’s betting on.

Reviews: ustream

More About: apple, iphone, steve jobs

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Tags: iphone, Opinion, steve jobs

IE9 vs. Chrome vs. Firefox: Microsoft’s Gaining Ground [VIDEO]

June 25, 2010 in Making it Count, Writing on Life: Social Media and the World, google, mashable by Ben Parr View Comments

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer may still hold dominant market share in the web browser arena, but it is quickly fading against strong competition from Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. The IE browser has been much maligned for its lack of support for web standards and its poor performance against the competition.

Enter IE9, the next iteration of the world’s still most-used browser. Microsoft is taking a completely new approach to IE9, embracing HTML5 and CSS3 and placing a heavy focus on web standards and speed.

Yesterday, the company launched IE9 Platform Preview 3 at an event in San Francisco. What surprised us was that Microsoft’s presentation focused almost exclusively on how IE9 beats its competitors, Chrome 5 and Firefox 3.6.4. They ran test after test showing off its processing capabilities. What came up the most though was hardware acceleration: IE9 utilizes DirectX 10 to make far better use of the hardware.

The results, we admit, are striking. Check out both of the videos below. The first demonstrates a speed test between IE9 and Chrome, and the second pits IE9 against Firefox.

Could IE9 finally be the iteration that turns Internet Explorer’s woes and horrendous reputation around? We leave it up to you to decide.

Reviews: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer

More About: chrome, Chrome 5, Firefox, firefox 3.6, Google, google chrome, IE9, internet explorer, microsoft, mozilla

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Tags: chrome, Chrome 5, firefox, firefox 3.6, google chrome, IE9, Internet Explorer, microsoft, mozilla

Exclusive: Vevo’s Location-Aware iPhone App Debuts in July [PIC]

June 24, 2010 in Making it Count, News, Writing on Life: Social Media and the World by Ben Parr View Comments

Music videos are going to become a lot more accessible come July, as
Vevo will launch its official iPhone app during that sweltering month. We got a sneak peek at the upcoming toy.

Yesterday, I sat down with Rio Caraeff, the CEO of Vevo, for an informal discussion about the music video service, the music industry overall and what’s going to be coming out of the company in the near future. While I learned lots of interesting facts about Vevo (Justin Bieber is the most-watched user on Vevo currently; it already has ~80 employees, etc), one of the big things he revealed is that the iPhone app is nearly done and that we should expect it to drop in the app store next month.

The Vevo iPhone app is all about the music videos, as you’d expect. The Carousel option cycles through popular videos. There’s also a featured section, both of which help you find and watch the world’s most talked-about music videos.

The feature that caught my attention the most, though, was geolocation: the Vevo app utilizes your iPhone’s location and helps you discover local artists that might interest you. This feature could be a huge boon to lesser-known artists looking to build an audience, and it should be a great way for music lovers to find local bands and shows to attend. It’s limited to Vevo’s partners, but that encompasses a lot of artists.

While we expect the app to launch next month, product delays and Apple’s rigorous application review process could certainly delay it. However, you should start getting excited for this app now. I only got a short demo from Caraeff, but from what I saw, this app is slick, functional and useful.

Oh, and for you Android users, don’t fret: you’re getting an app in the near future as well. An iPad version is also in the works.

Below is a picture of the Vevo app’s interface. Let us know what you think about Vevo and its upcoming iPhone app in the comments.

Reviews: Android, iPhone

More About: EXCLUSIVE, iphone, iphone app, vevo, youtube

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Tags: EXCLUSIVE, iphone, iphone app, vevo, youtube

FTC Closes Its Investigation of Twitter’s Security Practices [UPDATED]

June 24, 2010 in Making it Count, Social Media, Top Stories, Writing on Life: Social Media and the World, mashable by Ben Parr View Comments

Twitter and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission have announced that an inquiry into Twitter’s security practices has been resolved after the company agreed to implement several suggestions from the governmental body.

The FTC has been investigating Twitter following the two major security incidents that resulted in 55 hacked accounts, most of which belonged to celebrities. The first incident occurred in January 2009, compromising the Twitter accounts of Fox News, Facebook, Britney Spears, Barack Obama, and 41 other accounts; hackers used the opportunity to tweet from the popular accounts. The second incident occurred in April 2009 and resulted in 10 hacked accounts, along with leaked screenshots of Twitter’s admin panel.

After both incidents, the FTC launched an inquiry into Twitter’s security practices to see whether the company was doing enough to protect users and their safety. But now that inquiry is officially closed. From Twitter’s announcement:

“Why are we bringing up these incidents from 18 and 14 months ago that we already told people about? Because the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched an inquiry into our security practices related to these attacks and today announced that we’ve reached an agreement that resolves their concerns. Even before the agreement, we’d implemented many of the FTC’s suggestions and the agreement formalizes our commitment to those security practices.”

Twitter probably didn’t need FTC pressure to fix its security holes — the embarrassment of hacked celebrity accounts was probably more than enough motivation.

Updated: While the FTC’s inquiry is indeed closed, it didn’t close it without railing into Twitter:

“Under the terms of the settlement, Twitter will be barred for 20 years from misleading consumers about the extent to which it maintains and protects the security, privacy, and confidentiality of nonpublic consumer information, including the measures it takes to prevent authorized access to information and honor [sic] the privacy choices made by consumers. The company also must establish and maintain a comprehensive information security program, which will be assessed by a third party every other year for 10 years.”

Twitter wasn’t ready for the types of attacks it received when it rose to prominence last year. The FTC’s line to ban Twitter from “misleading consumers” is essentially a slap on the wrist, while having a third party assess its security program every other year is not only reasonable, but probably would have happened without the FTC’s involvement.

[img credit: Thomas Roche]

Reviews: Facebook, Twitter

More About: FTC, Twittert