DISQUS

louisgray.com: louisgray.com: You Can't Afford to Lose Mobile Readers

  • Daniel J. Pritchett · 11 months ago
    I'd like to highlight FriendFeed's iPhone view as well as Google Reader's iPhone view as particularly good examples of mobile-optimized browsing.

    For a nice all-purpose mobile page (i.e. not iPhone specific) take a look at CNET Mobile.
  • Chris Baskind · 11 months ago
    GReader's mobile interface is by far my favorite Google service. Blazing fast and east to read.
  • ontarioemperor · 11 months ago
    Chris, just saw your 12/19 comment on mobile GReader at louisgray.com. If mobile GReader included notes capability, it would be absolutely perfect.
  • ontarioemperor · 11 months ago
    Daniel, you have some good points, but they don't go far enough.

    Don't assume that everyone has an iPhone or equivalent. My mobile surfing is done on a first generation Motorola Q running the equivalent of Internet Explorer 4.

    If I were on my phone right now, I wouldn't be able to add a Disqus comment to this post. In fact, I couldn't even surf to FriendFeed and leave a comment there - Benjamin Golub had to create a special site called fftogo to allow me to comment in FriendFeed.

    Now some of this will be taken care of in the next couple of years as the older phones break down and are replaced, but it's still something to keep in mind.
  • Daniel J. Pritchett · 11 months ago
    Great points, Emperor. A lot of third-party widgets (as well as these comment systems) rely heavily on Javascript. I imagine DISQUS could fail gracefully to a lo-fi JS-free mode with server-side access (i.e. WordPress plugins) or if the comments were loaded in a frame (Blogger et al).

    I've used FFtoGo and liked it, I only recently abandoned it in favor of the native FF iPhone page.

    Can you give us more insight on the kinds of things that break on your phone? I'm guessing Flash, JS, and any kind of video...
  • ontarioemperor · 11 months ago
    Flash, JS, most (not all) video, some audio, some audio streaming.

    In defense of Disqus, I forgot about its email interface, which has
    allowed me to respond to your comment.

    --
    mrontemp - blog by Ontario Emperor
    succinct and all-encompassing
    http://mrontemp.blogspot.com/
  • Louis Gray · 11 months ago
    Ontario, given this is an early adopter blog speaking to a tech-savvy
    audience, we have high expectations for our readers. That you surf
    with the equivalent of IE 4 is something I don't want you telling
    anybody else, as it reflects badly on the site and my fellow writers.
    Promise you won't reveal this again.
  • ontarioemperor · 11 months ago
    I am not trendy. Perhaps I'm a Luddite. :) I'll telex you more details on my archaic phone interface.
  • Claire · 11 months ago
    Nah, I don't think having a mobile audience is as important as you make it sound here. People who can't look at a simplified mobile version of it but really want to read your blog still will may it be by waiting longer for loading times or just waiting until they get in front a computer. I doubt you'll lose many readers without a mobile version.