The State Of The Mobile Web: Lookin’ Good, Folks

If you’re one of the lucky few to win an iPhone through our blogging competition here on Profy, or a US-based consumer who fell under Infinite Loop’s spell and laid down some hefty coin to have one as your own, you likely want to know about all the virtual places you can go to get the most out of your multi-touch miracle.

Actually, scratch that. You probably already do know of all such locales. Well, in that case, how about we talk design.

You must’ve read about the recent establishment of places like Digg.com/iPhone and the recent news of the delivery of sites for both Netvibes and Facebook to access via Apple’s mobile device. Have you managed to spend any time with these new developments? How do they feel in your hand? How do they stack up their larger and undoubtedly more featureful ancestors? Well, that’s not such a fair term to use. How about parent sites? Sounds acceptable, I suppose.

From what I can gather from images floating about the blogosphere showcasing the newest of the new, design is no doubt taking a front seat as a component for iPhone-friendly Web development. Simplistic elegance is the target of developers of these apps and consolidated websites, and I think it’s safe to say several companies – including the ones listed above – have already achieved pretty stunning results.

Websites, as we’re all aware, must be made to look attractive as well feel useful to catch one’s eye nowadays. Bareboned HTML simply won’t cut it anymore. And if you take a look at what some of companies with Web 2.0 footprints currently have to offer, you’ll see equal parts utility and aesthetic refinement.

The iPhone-compatible websites of Digg, Facebook, and Netvibes are superb examples of this.

Digg.com/iPhone, a far more simple alternative to Digg.com, is quite a beautiful piece of work. Taking into account the fact that it’s only a few weeks young, the mobile supplement to the very popular social news aggregator operates in a way similar to the average iPod. A single column of titles to 10 stories is presented below the header (which contains buttons which allow one to login and choose topics other than ‘Technology’, which remains the default). Clicking – or in the case of use with an iPhone, touching – one will bring about a page offering a link to the story, a user-submitted description, and the top 5 comments. That’s about as detailed as things get. Throughout the browsing process, the essentials are present, and any potentially cumbersome additives are done away with entirely.

Netvibes follows in a similar vein of super simplicity. Point your mobile Safari browser to the company’s custom iPhone-compatible website, log in, and you’re shown a vertically arranged list of your preferred widgets. Thematically aligned with the iPhone’s uncluttered interface, the website is likely to become an increasingly popular hit as more users learn of its availability.

The iPhone-friendly version of Facebook, introduced only hours ago, is perhaps the king of all websites built specially for use with Apple’s handset. While I harbor little or no appreciation for Facebook itself, I will with no hestitation say that iPhone.Facebook.com is perhaps the most technologically phenomenal piece of kit to show up as a mobile-specific development built, ever. Its layout is top notch. It’s no doubt easily navigable. It’s concise, yet still chock full of features. It’s, in a word, brilliant. I’m not likely to ever use the website myself (I don’t even have a Facebook account, to be entirely frank about it), but for those that love Facebook, the iPhone supplement will be seen more or less as the best thing to arrive since sliced bread.

I think that’s a good place to end this. Here you have just three sites showcasing what can be done with some good codes and a few good eyes. Looks like the mobile Web is starting to get awful purty, eh? I welcome this trend with arms wide open.