View any site on a cell phone

Uncategorized 1 Minute

One thing that is a pain is on many phones looking at a full Web page is painful. MSN has a neat little search feature that lets you look at a Web site reformatted specifically for viewing on a phone. Just go to MSN Mobile Search, put in the site’s URL that you want to visit, and click “mobile” next to the result.

For instance, TechCrunch really sucks on many phones (you have to scroll to see the content and the page takes a long time to load up). Sorry Mike, but it’s true.

Looking at TechCrunch this way makes it a lot nicer on a cell phone (although TechCrunch could help even more by moving its content DIV on top of its navigation DIV).

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

Published

49 thoughts on “View any site on a cell phone”

  3. Robert, the Google site Steve linked to is much better for espn.com. You guys have got to get that one right if you want to hang w/Google.

    Like

  4. Robert, the Google site Steve linked to is much better for espn.com. You guys have got to get that one right if you want to hang w/Google.

    Like

  5. Error page displayed when using a
    Treo 650 blazer browser.
    I agree with Steve Rubel’s post, Google’s site
    is currently a better solution.

    Like

  6. Error page displayed when using a
    Treo 650 blazer browser.
    I agree with Steve Rubel’s post, Google’s site
    is currently a better solution.

    Like

  11. Robert, thank you for the link! If there is any way to avoid, in the future, having the word “techcrunch” next to the words “really sucks”, I’ll be your best friend forever.

    🙂

    Like

  12. Robert, thank you for the link! If there is any way to avoid, in the future, having the word “techcrunch” next to the words “really sucks”, I’ll be your best friend forever.

    🙂

    Like

  13. Commenting on the flaws of transcoding services will have me typing all night…

    TechCrunch has chosen to take control over it’s mobile environment, branding, and in the meantime actually reaching it’s audience on most any web-enabled phone on the planet.

    TechCrunch Mobile Address:
    http://winksite.com/techcrunch/mobile

    Web 2.0 Workgroup Mobile Address (mobilized via OPML):
    http://winksite.com/web20/workgroup

    This is the beginning, took about 5 minutes. More features to be launching soon. Feedback welcome.

    Like

  14. Commenting on the flaws of transcoding services will have me typing all night…

    TechCrunch has chosen to take control over it’s mobile environment, branding, and in the meantime actually reaching it’s audience on most any web-enabled phone on the planet.

    TechCrunch Mobile Address:
    http://winksite.com/techcrunch/mobile

    Web 2.0 Workgroup Mobile Address (mobilized via OPML):
    http://winksite.com/web20/workgroup

    This is the beginning, took about 5 minutes. More features to be launching soon. Feedback welcome.

    Like

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  22. How many freaking times people gotta tell you before it actually sinks into your skull? The internet on phones looks HORRIBLE in Pocket Internet Explorer, get Opera Mobile for goodnesss sake, and then you won’t have to worry about such hoop-jumping tricks or special pages (well not as much, nothings perfect).

    Like

  23. How many freaking times people gotta tell you before it actually sinks into your skull? The internet on phones looks HORRIBLE in Pocket Internet Explorer, get Opera Mobile for goodnesss sake, and then you won’t have to worry about such hoop-jumping tricks or special pages (well not as much, nothings perfect).

    Like

  24. to David Harper (and others),
    maybe I’m being a bit dense and so forth, but can’t you link to a stylesheet with media=”handheld” and use that to format techcrunch.com nicely on a phone or other mobile device ?

    Like

  25. to David Harper (and others),
    maybe I’m being a bit dense and so forth, but can’t you link to a stylesheet with media=”handheld” and use that to format techcrunch.com nicely on a phone or other mobile device ?

    Like

  28. Is there some sort of emulator or something that developers can use to see what their website looks like on a mobile device?

    I don’t have a mobile device (and can’t afford one right now). But I would like to make sure my sites work well for the mobile audience…

    Like

  29. Is there some sort of emulator or something that developers can use to see what their website looks like on a mobile device?

    I don’t have a mobile device (and can’t afford one right now). But I would like to make sure my sites work well for the mobile audience…

    Like

  32. To Martin (and others)

    Linking to a stylesheet with media=”handheld” would be ideal in a perfect world, and in no way am I suggesting that sites should not do that as part of their mobile solution.

    Unfortunately, not all 2 billion plus mobile phones in the world support XHTML MP / CSS, and the ones that do so offer varying support for those standards. There are also issues of a specific phones media support, screen size and network speed. Throw into that mix the notion that 1.) Perhaps browsing is not necessarily the best use case for mobile users and 2. ) Perhaps you wish to have your mobile site take advantage of the fact it is being viewed from a phone by interacting with phones’ inherent features.

    If anyone wants to explore this topic more, Cameron Moll has done a great job offering insight and options in this series he wrote on mobile web design:

    Mobile Web Design: Methods to the Madness (which contains a great chart comparing various methods)
    http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000428.html

    Mobile Web Design: Tips & Techniques
    http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000577.html

    From my perspective it is more than just publishing content to a mobile environment or automagically squeezing a Web site onto a small screen. It is about the individuals it engages, the people it connects, the dialogue that develops, the community that forms and the collective action that can result. Providing mobile solutions with this in mind requires more then stylesheets and transcoding services to get the job done.

    I’m simply glad to see the “Mobile 2.0” conversation beginning. It’s long overdue.

    Like

  33. To Martin (and others)

    Linking to a stylesheet with media=”handheld” would be ideal in a perfect world, and in no way am I suggesting that sites should not do that as part of their mobile solution.

    Unfortunately, not all 2 billion plus mobile phones in the world support XHTML MP / CSS, and the ones that do so offer varying support for those standards. There are also issues of a specific phones media support, screen size and network speed. Throw into that mix the notion that 1.) Perhaps browsing is not necessarily the best use case for mobile users and 2. ) Perhaps you wish to have your mobile site take advantage of the fact it is being viewed from a phone by interacting with phones’ inherent features.

    If anyone wants to explore this topic more, Cameron Moll has done a great job offering insight and options in this series he wrote on mobile web design:

    Mobile Web Design: Methods to the Madness (which contains a great chart comparing various methods)
    http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000428.html

    Mobile Web Design: Tips & Techniques
    http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000577.html

    From my perspective it is more than just publishing content to a mobile environment or automagically squeezing a Web site onto a small screen. It is about the individuals it engages, the people it connects, the dialogue that develops, the community that forms and the collective action that can result. Providing mobile solutions with this in mind requires more then stylesheets and transcoding services to get the job done.

    I’m simply glad to see the “Mobile 2.0” conversation beginning. It’s long overdue.

    Like

  36. Hey Robert,

    You can also check out http://skweezer.net

    MSNTV2 and WebTV users have found this site to a boon for accessing all sorts of pages that those boxes have problems with. I’m using it on my new PPC-6700 from Sprint and love the site.

    Like

  37. Hey Robert,

    You can also check out http://skweezer.net

    MSNTV2 and WebTV users have found this site to a boon for accessing all sorts of pages that those boxes have problems with. I’m using it on my new PPC-6700 from Sprint and love the site.

    Like

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  44. Also check out webxcope.com (similar to demo.mobileleap.net)

    I just learned of both of these and am amazed…

    Like

  45. Also check out webxcope.com (similar to demo.mobileleap.net)

    I just learned of both of these and am amazed…

    Like

  46. i was wondering if there were any other sites that were avaliable to be reached from your molible phone. I have tried http://www.google.com/gwt/n and put in the url but sometimes that does not work…so if anyone has anyother suggestions please let me know of them.
    thank you.

    Like

  47. i was wondering if there were any other sites that were avaliable to be reached from your molible phone. I have tried http://www.google.com/gwt/n and put in the url but sometimes that does not work…so if anyone has anyother suggestions please let me know of them.
    thank you.

    Like

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