May 31, 2007 What’s Coming for the Web 
Just went you felt good that you had a web site that represents your business well and provides value to your customers, along comes the next round of trends to make you rethink the whole endeavor.
- Mobile web access
- Offline web browsing
Now, before you think I'm behind the curve, mobile web access has been around for years. I was reading news presented by SprintPCS on my phone in 2000. The change is how much more prolific mobile web browsing is, as supported by a study done by T-Mobile and cited around the Web yesterday. (on Web Worker Daily, citing Jeremy Wagstaff)
Admittedly, as an Online Marketing Technologist, my personal experience with mobile web browsing is a bit skewed. My current phone, a T-Mobile Sidekick II, doesn't just happen to have a web browser like many phones, but is built around the web, with web browsing, email and IM, and I purchased it specifically to be able to browse the web while on the commuter train in and out of Boston. What's striking about the T-Mobile study is that users are being driven to mobile web browsing by 1) a desire for ubiquitous access and 2) restrictions in the workplace, as employers curtail web access to maintain productivity.
The brisk pace at which the Internet has been integrated into our daily lives has been the result of its ubiquity and availability, often in the workplace, creating a dependency. As the workplace attempts to diminish that relationship, the dependency isn't going away, it's just shifting to a platform everyone has personal control over: their mobile phone.
What does this mean for your web site?
- Your web site will be viewed on a mobile device by someone, somewhere.
- Have you ever looked at your site on a mobile phone?
- Can you attest to whether your site's developer has looked at your site on a mobile phone or handheld device?
- Is your site built using Web standards, semantic XHTML and CSS, so that sans styles (design) it displays in a readable and flexible manner?
Whatever the percentage of your site's visitors via mobile web browsing nets out at, having an accessible web site --readable on mobile and assistive devices-- is good brand equity. It broadens access, positions you as ahead of the curve, and acknowledges that everyone --including the disabled, elderly, and economically disadvantaged-- are important to your business.
Offline web browsing.
Also in the news yesterday was an announcement by Google that they are launching a platform for offline browsing: Google Gears. (TechCrunch coverage)
Beginning with Google Reader, Google demo'd a plugin for Firefox and IE that will enable developers to create data-driven web sites that can be viewed when users are disconnected from the Internet.
What does this mean for your web site?
Let's say your web site provides a searchable directory of regional suppliers. A member of your sales team is on-site with an important customer and there's no Internet access. That laptop suddenly doesn't seem so useful. With this plugin, however, your web site's data would be stored in a mini-database on his system, so that he could browse and search the web site as if he were connected to the Internet. If you're publishing news and articles on your site, your readers can access local copies of your articles on the train ride home.
As the service matures, users will be able to submit content and interact with sites as if they were connected and browsing directly, relying on Google Gears to synchronize everything once they're back on.
This can directly or indirectly impact your web site strategy. Directly, because this may be a feature your users will be clamoring for once this technology starts to spread. If you're a B2B site with crucial information, and your users have to take to the road, or, say, work from a construction site, this makes for a tremendous competitive advantage.
Indirectly, because ubiquitous access to information is going to become a demand of every consumer, and you need to be poised to respond. Your web site needs to be developed so that it supports multiple interfaces for access. As described with mobile web browsing, you want to be broadly accessible and well-received, even in contexts you haven't anticipated. A solution that boxes in your site, thinking only of access via the web browser with an Internet connection, ignores the promise and potential of the future, and only positions you to spend more later on when it all needs to be rebuilt.
Related: See how your site appears on Opera's Mini/Mobile browser
Related: Cameron Moll's upcoming book on designing for mobile
