A story circulated around the blogosphere recently that showed mobile web user’s frustration with trying to use their mobile devices to access the Internet. First, the good news: mobile web usage is increasing by about 34% up to 57 million users as of July, 2009. However, it seems that the user experience was poor, with many mobile web users ending up frustrated.

Why all the disdain towards surfing the web on their mobile devices? In the study, users cited reasons such as slow web page loading times, text and images appearing too small due to poor web site formatting, and mobile websites crashing on a routine basis.

So, is all lost for those trying to build and enhance the mobile web?  The answer, from Taptu’s perspective, is an emphatic No!

First off, if you look at the how the Gomez study was conducted, there are some fallacies that should be pointed out.  For example, as our CEO Steve Ives points out, the story that got so much attention earlier this week states:

Unlike some other mobile studies, the Gomez report did not differentiate between regular cell phone and smartphone users.

This means that the firm conducting the study treats an iPhone user (who gets desktop results from Safari search) as equivalent to a RAZR user (who gets an unspecified mix of mobile results plus transcoded desktop results plus actual desktop results)   So it’s impossible to tell whether the problem is “slow mobile Web sites” or “fast desktop sites loading slowly over a wireless link”.

As you may already know, your normal ‘desktop’ web sites (those intended for viewing on your regular computer) are very large sites that have a lot of data.  Downloading all these images, advanced scripts, and text over a wireless link is a slow and frustrating experience.

A more exhaustive survey would have queried more device users and separate categories of devices – probably resulting in more positive user experienced based on the device.

Web authors and website managers should take note – this study shows a high degree of frustration from mobile users.  With more and more mobile customers adopting smartphones, mobile web usage is going to continue to skyrocket.  For the sake of your customers and users, enhance your site(s) for the mobile web.

For those seeking the web’s best mobile-friendly content, look to Taptu. We are constantly indexing and seeking out the greatest content that is specifically formulated for you to use on your mobile device.  We believe the mobile web is an exciting place and we’re striving to show you the best content the mobile web has to offer.

(Photo credit: Flickr User adactio)

Cloud computing is a  that describes a model of computing where by your data is kept on servers that are outside your control and out on the Internet (hence, in the cloud).  According to Wikipedia, cloud computing is:

Cloud computing services often provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers.

Cloud-based services are ideal with devices such as Netbooks and mobile handsets because the mobile devices have little computational horsepower, meager storage, and are typically connected to the ‘Net via data connections, either Wi-Fi or 3G data networks.

The promise of cloud computing for users lies in the assumption that our data is safely held in professionally-managed data centers somewhere in the world.  But as recent events show, this isn’t always the case.  Last week, Microsoft/Danger lost millions of Sidekick users’ data in a botched storage area network upgrade.

Microsoft is supposedly working around the clock to bring back the data.  But, as it stands, millions of Sidekick users are without their contacts, photos, emails, notes, and other valuable data they depend on when utilizing their mobile devices.  Because the Sidekick uses RAM to store all this data, any user who power cycles or lets the battery run out on their device will lose all their data until Microsoft/Danger can recover it – if at all.

What is the lesson here? If you have a device you care about that contains data you find valuable, you must seek and constantly update your backups.  If you rely upon hosted services to house your data in the cloud, I suggest seeking ways to backup your phone’s data locally as well.

For example, iPhone users are in luck because of the way iTunes is structured.  In addition to the availability of Apple’s MobileMe service, the iPhone/iPod Touch is automatically backed up each time you sync your phone with iTunes.  Likewise, Nokia N Series and E Series users have access to some Ovi services that back up your photos/contacts and other data, but if you want a local copy of these types of data – Nokia users must use PC Suite on a regular basis.

There are services for many platforms that allow you to backup and maintain your data and I suggest you evaluate our options.  Blackberry users have online and offline backup options and using Google’s mobile web services, you can backup your contacts to their services as well.

Don’t take the Sidekick data loss and assume this type of catastrophe couldn’t happen to you.  With mobile devices becoming a part of our daily lives, there are likely contacts, photos and videos you care about.  Take a minute to back up and ensure your data is safe! 

(Photo credit: Flickr User kevindooley)

Taptu is hiring!

We are looking to take our Wapedia iPhone application international!  Taptu seeks contractors to help us translate our Taptu Wapedia application into the languages listed below.  Depending on how it goes with our Wapedia application, we might enlist your help in translating the main Taptu application as well.

Here are the details on what we’re seeking:

Seeking speakers in: Dutch, Russian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi, Swedish, Greek, Finnish, Czech, Norwegian and Spanish (from South America or preferably Mexico).

You should use the web frequently, especially Wikipedia, and should know Internet terms and have some experience in translation or Computer Science (students are preferable). We’re not offering full time employment but work as either contractor or on pay roll (for UK residents). The wage depends on the amount of work to be done.

If you are interested, please send your CV and cover letter to givemeajob@taptu.com.

Please NO Agencies – We WILL route you to /dev/null

In the spirit of building community and talking with other bloggers and mobile aficionados, Taptu will be sponsoring Beer and Blog in Portland, Oregon this Friday, October 16, 2009.

Beer and Blog takes place every Friday at the Green Dragon Brewpub in southeast Portland, Oregon.  What started out as “bloggers helping bloggers over beers” is now that plus a bloggers’ happy hour.

This Friday will be great because Chris Moisan, our VP of Product and Market Development will be joining me in Portland to meet and greet people interested in Taptu.

Come on out and join us at Green Dragon!

As posted last week, we have some fans of Wapedia on the Android platform.  After looking at some more figures, we have some fanatics in Japan as well.

This week we have learned that Wapedia amongst the top free apps in the Japanese iTunes Music Store!

Many moons ago, Florian Amrhein launched Wapedia as a way to bring the ever-popular Wikipedia online encyclopedia to those accessing the site on their mobile phone.  Since then, we have released a Wapedia application on both the iPhone and on the Android platforms.

The take-up and feedback of Wapedia on Android has been fantastic. We’re over the moon with it’s early success. Thanks to all of you that have become regular users and provided feedback.

Here are a few highlights so far:

• On September 19 of this year, the Wapedia application surpassed the 100,000 download mark on the Android Market.
• As of yesterday, September 30, the application has been downloaded more than 120,000 times.
• The Wapedia Android application has received over 20 5-star ratings from Android users at cryket.com.
• The Wapedia application has a very high satisfaction rating on Androlib.com.

New Features Abound

The most recent version of Wapedia which was just released to the Android Market has a few new features that are sure to gain notice.

First of all, the newest version supports the most recent 1.6 ‘Donut’ revision of the Android OS.  Also, the latest Wapedia app supports the creation of bookmarks of Wikipedia content and an all new history functionality.

As you can see, Wapedia on Android is growing strong.  With the new features, and others we have coming down the pike, we expect our Android Wapedia users to continue to be happy with the product.

As always, if you have any feedback on how to make our apps and services better, please reach out.  My email address is jason@taptu.com and we’re on Twitter as well.

Back in July, we announced the availability of our fun music trivia game called Music Cube.

Since then, thousand of people have downloaded Music Cube from the App Store and enjoyed the addictive game that tests their knowledge of music and artists in a fun visual puzzle game.

To help spread the love and put Music Cube into the hands of more people, we’ve made the App free.

So, if you were holding out,  fire up the App Store on your iPhone or iPod Touch and get to challenging your musical brain with a great puzzle game!

To grab Music Cube for yourself, use this link.

AT&T released its version of a femtocell this week, called an AT&T MicroCell.  What is a MicroCell?  Basically it is a little unit that plugs into your broadband router that acts as a mini-cell phone tower.  That is, a MicroCell is a repeater for the AT&T mobile network that utilizes your broadband Internet connection to channel mobile phone calls and mobile data connections.

So, in effect, by using a MicroCell, you are helping AT&T patch weak spots in their network by lending them bandwidth from your Internet connection.  The added irony in all this: if you’re an AT&T customer who opts to use a MicroCell, you pay either pay$150 for the device or get one for $100 (with a $450 rebate) and then pay an additional $20/month to your bill.

This equation simply does not make sense and  continues the backwards thinking that exists in US based mobile carriers.  To be fair, I must point out that AT&T isn’t alone in charging for their femtocell enhancement, Sprint charges $20/month for their device and Verizon Wireless has a similar box for $250.

In my opinion, as a cellular subscriber, if you can adequately demonstrate that your mobile network provider’s network is weak in your home or business, that mobile network operator should grant you a femtocell free of charge.  Not only would this promote loyalty and reduce churn of mobile customers, but would help out your surrounding neighbors as well, as femtocells work for quite a ways surrounding the repeater.

What are your thoughts – would you pay to host a mobile carrier’s signal on your Internet service that *you* pay for?

The Android mobile OS from the Open Handset Alliance represents a great promise  for the mobile world.  Like the insanely popular Symbian operating system, Android is an open source project that any handset maker can take and implement on their hardware stack, free of charge.

Android has been available for the better part of the year and the handsets that have come to market thus far have been from well-respected handset maker HTC.  The G1 came first and in the US we now have the MyTouch3G from T-Mobile USA.

By paying attention to recent announcements in the mobile handset world, it’s apparent that Android has garnered attention from a growing list of device manufacturers.  Just last week at the Mobilize Conference, which I attended along with Taptu CEO Steve Ives, Motorola announced the Cliq handset.

The Motorla Cliq is an attractive handset features full GSM/3G and Wi-Fi Internet connectivity, a 5 Megapizel camera, full QWERTY keyboard, and media playback, all running on the Android 1.5 (Cupcake) operating system.

Also at Mobilize I had the opportunity to sit down with Frank Meehan, the CEO of INQ Mobile.  He told me (and the rest of the Mobilize conference) that INQ will enhance their existing handset palette with the addition of Android based handsets.  The new line will INQ’s premium offering, leaving the BREW platform to power their low-cost models.

These developments, along with the addition of LG and Samsung embracing Android make me think that Android is finally come around and will soon be a force to recon with in the mobile world.  The iPhone is currently the darling of the mobile world, but I know of many who are looking for an another option.

Android, with its native web functionality, touch interface, and attractive user experience might be the alternative some are looking for.  Also, for app devleopers, the Android platform is attractive.  You see, in the Android Marketplace, there aren’t as many restrictive practices that limit the publication of applications, unlike the App Store from iTunes.

If you’re already an Android user – you should check out our Wapedia app for browsing Wikipedia content.  To find Wapedia – just search for us in the Marketplace.

Last September, thought leaders and industry analysts descended upon San Francisco, California for the first Mobilize Conference.  This year, the lineup of speakers is just as strong (stronger, I think) as the focus of Mobilize 2009 shifts to the mobile web.

I will be at Mobilize which takes place tomorrow, September 10th at the Mission Bay Conference Center in sunny San Francisco along with our CEO, Steve Ives.

We’ll be attending the conference and spreading the word about Taptu and our vision for search on the mobile web.  If you’re going to be at Mobilize – please seek us and out and say hi!