I don't see that the issue with the Vodafone/Novarra is the actual content adaptation - it has many valid use cases. The issue is the removal of the user-agent.
Well- there is an underlying philosophical issue here as well. Do you, as an adaptor, assume that the mobile version as created by the content provider, is what the user wants, or should it assume the adapted desktop experience is to be sent.
Does any user want the FULL internet on their phone or do they (by definition of being a 'mobile' user) just want... the facts. As it were. Just the info. Do I care for colours or transcoded contentt? Or do I just want the information that that URL can provide me with?
@dka - re your philosophical question. What about those sites where the use case is dependent upon your device. In that case u must always leave the content alone. A perfect example is flirtomatic
To me there are two key differences between automation and authoring with mobile in mind: (1) you can UAT the mobile version of a site in advance to ensure context, look and usability (witness the lovely iPhone/iPod Touch version of YouTube). An automated general adaptation engine can't do this. (2) the PC version may have its structure adapted for mobile, but not the content. It is impossible to apply an algorithm to adapt the content so that only that which is mobile context-relevant is rendered, since the page building process at the server may have already filtered that out.
9 comments so far
'Don't be evil.' :)
2 years, 2 months ago by dka
I don't see that the issue with the Vodafone/Novarra is the actual content adaptation - it has many valid use cases. The issue is the removal of the user-agent.
2 years, 2 months ago by pashazade
Well- there is an underlying philosophical issue here as well. Do you, as an adaptor, assume that the mobile version as created by the content provider, is what the user wants, or should it assume the adapted desktop experience is to be sent.
2 years, 2 months ago by dka
Well put Dan.
2 years, 2 months ago by whatleydude
Does any user want the FULL internet on their phone or do they (by definition of being a 'mobile' user) just want... the facts. As it were. Just the info. Do I care for colours or transcoded contentt? Or do I just want the information that that URL can provide me with?
2 years, 2 months ago by whatleydude
does any user want the choice?
2 years, 2 months ago by GeekYouUp
I don't think users want to choose. They want to be automatically given their preferred option :)
2 years, 2 months ago by pashazade
@dka - re your philosophical question. What about those sites where the use case is dependent upon your device. In that case u must always leave the content alone. A perfect example is flirtomatic
2 years, 2 months ago by pashazade
To me there are two key differences between automation and authoring with mobile in mind: (1) you can UAT the mobile version of a site in advance to ensure context, look and usability (witness the lovely iPhone/iPod Touch version of YouTube). An automated general adaptation engine can't do this. (2) the PC version may have its structure adapted for mobile, but not the content. It is impossible to apply an algorithm to adapt the content so that only that which is mobile context-relevant is rendered, since the page building process at the server may have already filtered that out.
2 years, 2 months ago by MinuteFong