Mobile web is the accessing of the internet
via wireless devices such as smart phones and tablet computers.
According to the
International Telecommunications Union, the mobile access to the
internet exceeded desktop computer based access for the first time in
2008. This phenomenal success of the mobile web is in part due to the
smart phone revolution and the advent of the tablet computers.
Smart phones are equipped
with multicore processors and come with various input options such as
touch screens, accelerometers, GPS receivers etc. These coupled with
modern mobile operating systems make a solid platform for accessing
the internet.
In the beginning, mobile
web comprised lightweight web pages which were
optimised for smaller screens and lower resolutions and written in
Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language (XHTML) or Wireless Markup
Language (WML). Because of this this, the mobile browsing experience
was never even close to that on a computer. But with the progress in
technology which enabled for faster mobile processors and
better mobile browsers, modern mobile devices are moving
beyond these limitations by supporting a wider range of Web formats,
including variants of HTML commonly found on the desktop Web.
Advertisers have realized
the potential of mobile web and are increasingly using it as a
platform to reach consumers. In 2007 the total value of mobile
advertising was estimated to be in excess of 2 billion dollars. This
fact in itself speaks volumes about the growing size and weight of
the mobile web.
The major problems with
the mobile web faces is the fragmentation of platforms and the
resulting lack of standards. The development of standards is one
approach being implemented to improve the interoperability,
usability, and accessibility issues surrounding mobile web usage.
The Mobile Web Initiative
(MWI) is a new initiative set up by the W3C to develop best practices
and technologies relevant to the Mobile Web. The goal of the
initiative is to make browsing the Web from mobile devices more
reliable and accessible. The main aim is to evolve standards of data
formats from Internet providers that are tailored to the
specifications of particular mobile devices. The W3C has published
guidelines for mobile content, and is actively addressing the problem
of device diversity by establishing a technology to support a
repository of device descriptions.
Many of the technologies
which were once considered to be a part of the computers have
literally moved "out of the box". The way digital music has
almost totally moved from computers to iPods, internet seems to be
moving towards the mobile devices. After all its much more convenient
to have all the web in the palm of your hands than to have it sitting
on the top of your table! This is opening new frontiers and is
nothing less than a complete revolution in its own.