W3C Agrees on Mobile Web Practices

by Ed Oswald

The W3C said Tuesday that it had released a set of best practices for mobile Web pages, based on a broad consensus from all parties involved. Representatives from 30 companies joined to create the standards, including AOL, Google, Nokia, Opera, Vodafone and others.

The group says the document took into account the experience in the field of those firms. It includes what to avoid, such as page scrolling and pop ups, and provides guidance on how to build effective mobile Web sites.

"There are many devices, but one Web," said Daniel Appelquist, chair of the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group. "Practical guidelines on how to create content once that can be delivered to the plethora of devices saves developers and organizations time and money, and has the added benefit of not breaking the Web."

Much like the W3C's other services, which check for compliance with standards on traditional Web sites, the group is also releasing an alpha of an application that would check for compliance with mobile best practices. Additionally, a wiki has been launched to collect suggestions and techniques for implementing the documentation.

Those involved applauded the process. "Nokia believes the use of the Web via mobile browsers will be the next big step towards making information and content available globally to everybody, including billions of people for whom their mobile phone will be their first and only means of Internet access," Nokia vice president Timo Ali-Vehmas said in a statement.

"To achieve this it is important to provide the Web community with the right set of tools to make it easier to deliver information and content in mobile-friendly way."

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