Many readers will be familiar with Mowser, the content adaptation engine that made making mobile-friendly URLs from traditional web sites fairly easy. It seems that Mowser's main developer has admitted commercial defeat, saying that there will be no more development of Mowser and that it 'could disappear at any time'. Great shame.
Read on in the full article.
Personally, I don't think this site's commercial failure has anything to do with the mobile internet.
Mowser seems to be dominated by directories of links, and directories of links have been dying across the entire internet, not just the mobile parts.
Look at Yahoo, they used to be a link directory above all else, but even they've abandoned it in favour of other services. The other big directory, Dmoz, is pretty moribund.
No no, Mowser's main raison d'etre was to act as a go between in mobilizing existing sites.
I guess it wasn't made clear, then 8-)
I can't reply on Russell's blog, so I'll say something here. I wasn't a user of Mowser so can't comment on how much of a loss it is, but I will say that having read his blog entry, I do think he is (understandably) disillusioned with the mobile web and speaking more from a disheartening personal experience that cannot be applied to the mobile web as a whole.
Specifically he says mobile internet won't take off unless users have better devices and full browsers accessing full websites designed for PCs. This I'm afraid, is nonsense. Thousands of mobile web developers attest to this, as does the iPhone's much vaunted browsing capability being used to surf sites specifically adapted for mobile use (or iPhone use) in preference to full blown sites. A PC-oriented site is nowhere near as good an experience on a phone as a lightweight, efficient, designed-for-mobile site. Us developers are having to teach the makers of transcoders currently that this is the case, that it's not alright to take over mobile web access with their transcoders that block made-for-mobile sites, and that users want choice (http://wurfl.sourceforge.net/manifesto/)
There are various things holding up more widespread user access to the mobile web - poor design, bad UIs on devices, data costs, lack of awareness etc. but lack of access to full blown websites on the mobile is not one of them.
Alex
phonething.com
I think the main thing by far holding up mobile internet access is the cost, people still think it's very very expensive to look at anything on their phone browser.
Even when there are cheap internet plans available, people are usually unaware of them, and the phone networks aren't exactly falling over themselves to let people know how cheap the mobile internet can be. On top of that there are horror stories like that ludicrous Canadian phone network which tried to charge a user many thousands just for connecting their laptop to a mobile, something that would cost just a few euros on European operators.
It's interesting the blog entry about Mowser's demise claims the iPhone's higher-than-average mobile internet use is because of the browser, as it completely ignores the fact that all iPhones have a flat rate internet plan. If you put a compulsory flat rate internet plan on any phone, and then advertise that it's flat rate, people would use the internet more regardless of how good the phone's browser is.
No no, Mowser's main raison d'etre was to act as a go between in mobilizing existing sites.I guess it wasn't made clear, then 8-)
Certainly isn't made clear from the mowser.com website! Maybe that was part of the problem?
I hadn't actually visited the site until I saw this story, and there's aboslutely nothing on the front page to distinguish it from a link directory.
To be honest though, is there really a need for a dedicated reformatting site when there are already mobile browsers that can reformat automatically, such as Opera?
Well they seemed to be partners with Mippin and I found there video embedding setup pretty good, though the nagging ad screens made me think they might be in trouble.
It's a strange race between making content mobile as in compression sites and .mobi domains and the phone browsers which are getting as powerful as desktop versions.
I think the phone browsers will win.
Wow - one guy decides that startup life isn't for him and this is supposed to throw a whole shadow over the industry.....hmmm I don�t think so.
I like Russell, I've been a long time reader of his blog and an occasional user of his Mowser application.
I think the key point here is that...."Mowser was filling a temporary problem", with the release of the iPhone and the imminent massive model variants of the Android OS on the Horizon and the sure but steady improvements in the Windows Mobile 6 OS I think Russell is throwing in the towel as handsets are getting "good enough to no longer need Mowser".
Now do I think he threw it in too early with only 12 months operation - sure but thats because I'm a serial startup entrepreneur with 2 listed companies under my belt.
As an employee of www.Amethon.com one of the worlds first mobile browser specific analytics applications just for mobile content, I for one, am seeing huge growth in mobile content.
Amethon's clients are seeing traffic build month on month, and yes I think a lot of that has to do with better quality handsets and better quality browsers and most importantly higher data speeds with somewhat more reasonable flat rate unlimited data plans.
With a better user experience more people are finding the convenience of accessing content on the move .....or standing still but getting it right where they are standing with a mobile device never far from their hand ....
The best part about this mobile content is the volume of advertising coming into the space is funding a better user experience, and with tools like Amethon Mobile Analytics users analytics information and a solid roi can be demonstrated against this advertising spend.
Am I sad to see Mowser go, yes - Will Russell bounce, for sure - one of the smartest pioneers in the mobile business, Do I think USA consumers are a little behind eastern consumer patterns in mobile content consumption - YES but that has more to do with carriers and handsets than personal desires and usage patterns.
The mobile space is just taking off, with all the fallouts and successes that there was in the desktop browser wars in the 1990's.
Watch this space and get in early......your customers are waiting.
Regards,
Dean Collins
www.Amethon.com
it's really good that SUCH A BAD site gonna close because i tried to load there one webpage and it was really awful! new Opera Mini 4.1 - and full web will come to your cellular!😉
Since opera mini appeared, who really cares about "mobile internet"...it just went and joined Wap in the grave...
Opera Mini is not going to kill the mobile internet, on the contrary it will grow it. Mini is excellent, but still gives a site with a user interface designed for PCs and is far heavier on data than a built for mobile site, even with Mini's compression. Saying mobile internet is headed for a grave with WAP is just typical ignorant nonsense. WAP is nowhere near dead - try the 3rd world where WAP thrives with many millions of users. Mobile internet will on the contrary rise and rise and become the driving force behind website owners providing customised versions for mobile users. This is inevitable due to the UI constraints over PCs, and also leads to greater efficiencies in using a website.
I think the real cause of the failure of mowser is that it wasn't marketed properly. The service wasn't even advertised in countries like India where mobile internet is available for a monthly flat fee and thousands of users like me do most of their browsing/email straight from their mobile phone. You can also Read my comments on this issue on my blog here