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Earlier this week, Russell Beattie set off a discussion when he announced that his mobile start-up Mowser was ceasing operation and that he believed the mobile web was dead! Now Mowser made it easy to create stripped down mobile websites from existing websites. Michael Arrington of Techcrunch respectfully disagreed saying that the mobile web has just begun. He pointed out that new mobile technology has made it that customers want fuller experiences on their mobile phones. He called out for more developers to build exciting applications to run specifically on the mobile platform.

The Mobile Web Has Just Started

I agree with Michael that mobile web is just in its infancy, but I am not so sure about building a business around an application that directly serves the market through the mobile handset - that is a quick way to the deadpool. I think we are still many years away before the mobile web is the primary form of our web experience. The best web applications will be ones with a web foundation. It's not that I don't think that compelling exclusive mobile web experiences can be built, it is that I think the mass market is not ready for it.

"Mobile Web Apps Must Complement Our Physical and Virtual Lives"

Just as the first internet wave, we cannot view mobile web as a separate entity. The most successful mobile applications will be ones that best integrate our physical and virtual worlds. At this moment, people only view the mobile web as an enhancement to our computer internet experience (Heck, most people only view the web as an enhancement to our physical experiences). Thus the most popular applications are ones complement our online experience.

How Do We Approach Mobile Web

Here would be my rules for engaging mobile web: 1) Build a compelling web experience - Start where most people access the internet (their computers) and offer them a compelling experience 2) Engage Your Audience - Ask your customers how would they want to experience the service over the mobile web? Or would they not use it? 3) Think of the Possibilities - Sometimes your customers do not have all the answers, so you and your team should look at where the technology is going and how your service may benefit from it. Don't just start building; write up detailed descriptions, create mock ups and ask your customers what they think of the ideas.

Yahoo! just announced its oneConnect solution for its mobile platform Go 3.0. I haven't used it yet, but it looks simply beautiful integration of our diverse web lives in a simple mobile solution. I hope it works as good as it looks! I left Yahoo! back around 2005 when they took forever to use ajax on their mail platform. I have been a happy Googler ever since, but if Google doesn't come up with something similar within the next year I will have to reconsider returning to Yahoo! The bigger question in all of this is if they can do this on mobile, why don't they do this with their Yahoo! User home pages? With so many amazing applications available today, the web is screaming for someone (preferably a leader) to consolidate and integrate in one space. Both Yahoo! and Google have acquired some incredible web properties that are integral to our web lives. It is inexcusable that they have done such a poor job of integrating. Bravo to Yahoo! mobile for doing it on their own.