ready.mobi – You Can’t Handle The Truth!
Posted by Rich Holdsworth on July 16, 2009 at 11:22 amFiled under: Mobile Device and Browser Detection, Mobile Web Design, Mobile Web Development, Wordpress Mobile
We received the following comment from Jeff Miller on the ‘removing scrollbars‘ article.
“Your site doesnt even show up on any mobile phone, other than maybe an iphone. But doing a test on your site it show up very bad on other phones which most of the world use. it only scores a 3/5 on ready.mobi and its very hard to navigate on phones. Obviously you are not the mobile web junkie but the wapple (wurfl rip off hosting solution) for iphone junkie.”
Ouch. Oh well, there’s always one… The reply got kinda long but turned out to be quite a good read. So I thought it would be nice to post it as an article. Here it is:
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your post. Perhaps some would take it as a flame but I’ll accept it as constructive criticism and a chance to set a few things straight.
Firstly, I’m not sure what you mean when you say that this site doesn’t show up on mobile browsers.
It does.
Are you certain that you typed the URL in correctly? It’s http://mobilewebjunkie.com (you should see this article live on there as well because it’s using the mobile web plugin for WordPress built by Rich G using Architect). Please let us know exactly what you’re experiencing.
But then you go on to say that it’s hard to navigate on phones. How would you know this if it didn’t work on your phone? I guess it did work after all then? Perhaps you could elaborate?
Now, let’s talk about ready.mobi.
Ready.mobi assumes a generic site for all mobile phones. The Wapple Architect mobile web plugin for WordPress that this site uses does not generate a static site. Instead it delivers exactly what the device in question requires for its capabilities.
So, I tried http://mobilewebjunkie.com on ready.mobi. I used a useragent for a Nokia N95 as a test (which incidentally, I have and I know that the site works perfectly on it). I could have picked any, but I’m keeping things simple.
So we’re clear before I analyze the results, the resulting site that it tested will have been the optimized version for that particular device. If I’d used a different device the output generated by the Wapple Architect plugin would have been different and tailored to that device’s capabilities.
Here are the so called ‘fails’:
Specify image sizes
Ready.mobi insists that the markup contains width and height attributes in image tags.
These are not required by the N95 and by omitting them the page load times are slightly reduced. On a device that requires image sizes to be specified, the Wapple Architect markup would contain them.
Measures
Ready.mobi says avoid pixel or absolute measures.
The N95 achieves more reliable markup by specifying measures. If the target device didn’t like them, they would not be there.
Page Size Limit
Ready.mobi complains if it decides the page is too big.
Look, it’s 2009. The idea that pages have to be 5k is so out of date my toes hurt.
Large Graphics
Ready.mobi says don’t make graphics above 200 pixels wide.
Again, here we are delivering the right size graphics to the phone. So, in this case the screen is larger than 200 pixels so we want to see graphics that big. They look great. Hey, the whole site looks great. If we were using a device with a smaller screen, then the graphics would be smaller. That’s the beauty of Wapple mobile browser detection and device optimization technology, Exhibit – and Wapple in general.
External Resources
Ready.mobi is complaining that the site references external resources. I think it means the external style sheet.
This is fine on an N95. It isn’t on some phones and in those cases the Wapple Exhibit engine wouldn’t do it. But in this case the site benefits from external resources because they are cached and the page itself is dynamic. This means faster load times.
All these fails are there because ready.mobi assumes that you have ONE version of a site for ALL devices.
Get a grip, that’s just stupid. It might work for ‘crap wap inc.’ but not for anyone serious in mobile internet. Read ‘Coding for Mobile Web – Automatically Adapting to Every Device and Browser’.
The Wapple platform allows you to build ONE site that dynamically adapts and works perfectly on ALL devices.
Quickly, I’ll look at the warnings ready.mobi flags.
MIME types: Some devices LIKE things the way Wapple does it. Please remember there is a dynamic engine here, not a static, generic service.
Use of stylesheets / stylesheet dependency: The N95 handles stylesheets. Therefore, a stylesheet is used.
Tables: (this is the BIGGEST clue that ready.mobi expects a rubbish generic site for all devices) They say that tables are not supported by all devices – correct, so Wapple only uses tables when it can.
Access keys: They are not needed or wanted by the site. An option would turn them on, but hey what use are they on modern devices without a keypad anyway!
Caching: Caching is handled correctly for this site.
The bottom line is that the site works really well on all devices. The wordpress plugin is every evolving and based on sound technology that serves some of the largest brands in the world.
The Wapple Platform.
You describe Wapple as a wurfl rip off hosting solution.
What? Seriously, how are you comparing the two?
I have a ton of respect for wurfl. It’s a useful resource of information about devices with some attached tools. But really, how is Wapple a rip off of that?
Have a look at Wapple. I’d be happy to set you up for a full demonstration of the CMS, site builder, etc. I’m sure you’ll love it. Really, take me up on that. You can also sign-up for our developer program.
Wurfl is information. Wapple is a complete building and publishing system with a full GUI and a stack of developer focused tools for writing at an application level.
You simply cannot compare the two.
Jeff, I thank you for your comment. I really do. I hope that you read this reply and take me up on the offer of a tour of the tech. I also hope that you understand that the mobile internet is what you, the builder, make it. Wapple tech delivers it. Appropriately.
By the way, try http://dotmobi.mobi on your phone… [grin]
Related posts:
August 7th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Sorry, but what you have written here is not very sound. Your website is not mobile-friendly only because it works on your Nokia N95.
After all I’m quite astounded that you don’t even know that some mobile phones do not show anything when they are unable to render a website. They do not try to show what they are capable of – they just stop. I guess that’s what the commentor ment and I know that this behaviour is quite common out there.
Maybe you should stop talking about how bad that mobility test is and how good you site looks on your N95 and start working on a plugin that actually works and gets better scorings.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
You have totally missed the point. The site does not ONLY work on a Nokia N95. Whatever phone hits the site, the plugin optimizes the content for that device. So, if it’s a WML device then WML is served. Higher end devices get more advanced markup. Everything in between is catered for – images are resized according to the capabilities of the device, quirks are accounted for and so on.
A .mobi score means nothing at all because it requires that you create one mobile site that adheres to very basic standards so that as a lowest common denominator it works across most devices.
Our system creates the appropriate markup for devices.
So, again, a .mobi score means nothing. What matters is that the site looks and performs to the capabilities of all devices.