Slightly ajar

The mobile Flickr rendered in Mini

The mobile version of Flickr has recently been updated, along with a few new desktop features. While Opera (including myself) promote One Web, where one site is used for all devices, and customised with the likes of handheld stylesheets and/or media queries, this doesn't preclude the use of mobile specific web sites where it makes sense. One thing we think is important is user choice, and that the user can access the original site if they wish.

The new Flickr is the perfect example of a situation where a mobile version makes sense, and a great example of this delivered almost faultlessly. The advantage a mobile version of the site gives them is that Flickr is a fairly complex web application, with a lot of options. With a mobile optimised site, they can cut the fat and expose only the options that are most likely used on the move, with the minimal of clicks to get the user there. If the user wants more control, the link to the regular Flickr is upfront on the first page visited. An example of this ease of use can be hi-lighted by using the new Opera Mini 3 Beta. Four clicks of the down arrow (or one click on the link if you have a touch screen) gets you to the photo upload, and if you have a camera phone, unlike me, one click on the upload button allows you to take a photo straight from the browser. Bang, your new photo is ready to be included in your Flickr photo stream. There can't be any faster way to upload photos on Flickr than the combination of this new easy to use site, and Mini's speed and advanced new features. The mobile web may have just found its first killer app. My only qualm would be that, in my opinion, the photo upload feature should be higher on the menu list than fourth place.

While not a fan of dotMobi, I think this is one example where it would be useful, as flickr.mobi would be much easier to guess than m.flickr.com. One basically doesn't know Flickr mobile exists unless one has read about it somewhere first.

If your site isn't an advanced application, with tons of links and even more JavaScript, in general the best approach is still to define a handheld stylesheet, and make sure to hide what you don't need with display:none; (Opera doesn't load this content, so bandwidth isn't wasted), otherwise it may be worth going down the route Flickr has. Just make sure you let the user go to the regular desktop page if you do.

As well as this site, Yahoo! created the FIFA World Cup Mobile site, which is another brilliant example of a well crafted mobile web site. They maybe one of the very few companies that really get the mobile web at present. Does anyone know of any other best of breed mobile sites, whether mobile specific or through use of handheld stylesheets? Not to blown our own horn, but I think Opera.com and my.opera.com are two other great examples -- even if they don't qualify for a dotMobi domain because of the insane requirement of needing to use XHTML mobile profile. Why? Mobile browsers are perfectly capable of displaying full (X)HTML, what's wrong with XHTML Strict? That one requirement breaks the who concept of "One Web" and device independence.