W3C announces new mobile web standards

Telecomworldwire, July 31, 2008

TELECOMWORLDWIRE-31 July 2008-W3C announces new mobile web standards(C)1994-2008 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http://www.m2.com

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) announced on Wednesday (30 July) new standards that will make it easier for users to browse the web on mobile devices.

Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, published as a W3C Recommendation, is understood to combine the experience of many mobile web stakeholders into practical advice on creating mobile-friendly content.

Consumers who want to use mobile web reportedly face several challenges, including hardware and software diversity, device constraints, and bandwidth limitations. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 helps content authors face those challenges and develop content that works on a wide range of mobile devices. Authors and other content producers will find practical advice for managing user experience challenges such as data input and page scrolling.

Another challenge for content developers was the variety of mobile markup languages. With the publication of the XHTML Basic 1.1 Recommendation, the preferred format specification of the Best Practices, there is now a full convergence in mobile markup languages, including those developed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). In addition, the W3C mobileOK checker (beta), when used with the W3C validator, helps developers test mobile-friendly web content.

In addition, the Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) Working Group published on Wednesday (30 July) the first draft of the next generation of guidelines, Mobile Web Application Best Practices, aimed at mobile web applications. While the original best practices document focused on traditional web browsing, the new guidelines will focus on the use of web applications and widgets for user interaction opportunities on mobile devices.

No financial details were disclosed.

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