Web

The open web is about to cross a point of no return. Here’s why that mustn’t happen and what we can all do about it.

On the 24th February Google launched AMP. Announced last October, AMP is an open source platform that aims to improve user experience of the mobile Web by reducing the possible complexity of Web pages.

This week we divert from looking at recent mobile websites to take a look at an older offering. Eurostar launched a version of its website optimised specifically for mobile devices over two years ago. Like other websites with mobile offerings it will automatically detect mobile users and redirect them to the appropriate m.eurostar.com site. I journey through this mobile offering to see how this older experience has stood up to the test of time.

With Over the Air 2013 coming to a close last Saturday, I took some time to reflect on some of the more memorable talks given over the two-day event. Mobile and web performance guru Jon Arne Sæterås' presentation was particularly informative, and inspired me to write a quick summary for people that did not get the chance to see it live in person.

If you don't have a web site designed for mobile phones, you don't just risk frustrating your customers when they visit you online. You're also likely to drain their smartphone batteries. That's the message from a research team based at California's Stanford University.

The researchers published a paper entitled “Who Killed My Battery: Analyzing Mobile Browser Energy Consumption” at the World Wide Web 2012 conference last week. They used an Android handset to browse a variety of popular web sites, measuring the phone's energy consumption as it loaded and rendered web pages. As well as analysing each page, the team also measured the energy needed to render individual web elements such as images, JavaScript, and CSS.

Enabling your website for mobile visitors doesn't just improve the consumer experience. It also makes commercial sense.

The latest organisation to produce figures that prove what we've known for a long time is UK-based search marketing agency Mediarun. It's found that ‘bounce rates' from mobile devices are around 40%, which is about 10% higher than on desktop browsers. The company says this means 5.6% of all mobile traffic is being lost by online retailers... and that's a significant amount of lost sales.

New figures from smartphone owners in the USA show that retail websites are still more popular than stand-alone apps.

Nielsen's detailed analysis of smartphone usage reveals that retailers' mobile websites are more popular than their mobile apps, with Amazon having the most popular retail mobile website of all. The top five retail apps and websites combined - Amazon, Best Buy, eBay, Target and Walmart - reached nearly 60% of US smartphone owners.

The research also revealed that shoppers preferred retailers' mobile websites over mobile apps, although consumers who used retailers' mobile apps tended to spend more time on them.

If I see a street sign that says The Close, I'd expect the road to be a cul-de-sac. If it's called The Crescent, I'd expect it to be curved. The Boulevard may well have a central reservation. And the High Street will probably have shops. Not always but often.

This year's CES event in Las Vegas promises to be the biggest yet. But it's not just the event that's getting bigger.