My latest UB column is now available in the February issue as well as online: “Websites Gone Mobile: More institutions exploring—and succeeding with—mobile web”
In this column written last December (so many new mobile websites have been launched since then – I’ll post even more examples in the coming days), I provide a few examples of mobile websites developed by higher ed institutions – including West Virginia University’s mobile website developed in 19 days by Dave Olsen – along with some traffic data.
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If you’re interested in taking a look, we created a mobile version of The University of Alabama’s top-level home page back in the fall. Our mobile site includes separate versions for iPhone and other devices, which were developed in-house using open source tools. Our main institutional home page now runs a detection script that routes users who access it on a mobile device to the most appropriate version of the mobile web site (they always have the ability to return to the main home page if desired, for a more fully-featured browsing experience). We have also provided our code to the rest of our campus for those interested in developing their own mobile sites. The mobile site is located at http://m.ua.edu. More on the process here: http://webtide.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/announcing-the-launch-of-ua-mobile-web-beta-version/, and here: http://webguide.ua.edu/mobile.html. Thanks!