Transcoding vs. Mobile Design

A large number of companies are trying to wedge the entire internet into your mobile phone. Examples range from Novarra to Google to Opera, and if you are using the internet on the phone, you very likely are using one of these servers.

They take a standard web site, strip out things that don't work on mobile, convert the markup to something that works on mobile, and might even rearrange the page a little bit. Back in the day, they deduced which part of the page was "navigation" and which part was "content", but this is unusual now.

The user experience of a full PC-targeted web site on the phone ranges from terrible to pretty good. I haven't seen "great" (even Apple recommends targeting the iPhone for best experience).

A key technique to do mobile design is to detect the user agent string on the request to the site. If it reports that it is Firefox 2.1, go ahead and deliver the full experience. On the other hand, if it reports that it is a Motorola RAZR running Openwave 4.2, deliver a mobile-optimized experience.

The user agent technique is not perfect; some phones lie about what they can do. Device databases such as WURFL let you know for a specific device whether it is a touch screen, how wide the screen is, and several other key variables that help you make intelligent design decisions. (Need more characteristics? Ask them!)

Developers who have optimized their site for mobile regularly rely on the user agent to deliver a good mobile experience. I mean rely: if you access their site from a PC, they will deliver a complex PC-targeted experience which will break if you attempt to transcode it. Some sites will break entirely. Certainly the end user experience is far worse.

So when Vodafone and Novarra stripped out the user agent strings, sites suddenly stopped working well. Some stopped working at all.?? This is not a good thing.