W3C mobileOK Helps People Create and Find Mobile Friendly Content
W3C Tool Allows Automatic Verification of mobileOK Content
http://www.w3.org/ -- 13 November 2007 -- Today, W3C provides new means for people to create and find mobile friendly content. W3C invites Web authors to run the alpha release of the W3C mobileOK checker and make their content work on a broad range of mobile devices.
"Making a Web site work on a mobile device is easier once you have the right tool," explained Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, W3C's Mobile Web Initiative Activity Lead. "Now is the time to reach more people by making your site W3C mobileOK."
Tim Berners-Lee will discuss how mobileOK fits into the W3C Mobile Web vision in his Mobile Internet World keynote "Escaping the Walled Garden: Growing the Mobile Web with Open Standards" (14 November in Boston, Massachusetts, USA).
Tool Helps Authors Follow Mobile Web Best Practices
The W3C mobileOK checker runs the tests defined in the W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 Candidate Recommendation. The tests themselves are based upon W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, published as part of W3C's Mobile Web Initiative. The Best Practices describes how to reduce the cost of authoring and to improve the mobile browsing experience. Any tool that implements the Basic Tests can verify automatically whether content is mobile friendly.
The W3C mobileOK checker is the latest addition to W3C's popular and successful suite of validation services. As an integral part of the W3C standardization process, W3C invites mobile Web experts and the community at large to review the checker and the mobileOK Basic Tests.
W3C mobileOK Content Easier to Find in Search Engines
With Web sites which conform to the W3C mobileOK content guidelines, search engines can better tailor results for a mobile environment, benefitting authors and their audience alike. Sean Owen of Google will be talking about how he and other Working Group members developed the checker with search engines in mind at the Mobile Web Standards Seminar, on 13 November at Mobile Internet World.
Industry Leaders Already Implementing, Seek Feedback
The following W3C Member organizations and MWI Sponsors participating in the Mobile Best Practices Working Group developed W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 and the W3C mobileOK checker: Afilias; Akmin; ANEC (European Association for the Co-ordination of Consumer Representation in Standardisation); AOL; AT&T; Bytemobile; Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC); Citigroup; Deutsche Telekom AG; Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI); elmundo.es; ERICSSON; Family Online Safety Institute; France Telecom; FSTC (Financial Services Technology Consortium); Fundación CTIC; Fundación ONCE; Go Daddy.com; Google; HiSoftware; HP; Indus Net Technologies; Infraware; Institute of Informatics & Telecommunications (IIT), NCSR; International Webmasters Association / HTML Writers Guild (IWA-HWG); Microsoft Corporation; mTLD Top Level Domain; NeoMtel; Nokia; Novarra; NTT DoCoMo; Openwave Systems; Opera Software; Reuters; Samsung Electronics Co.; Segala; Sevenval AG; SK Telecom; Telecom Italia SpA; Telefónica; University of Helsinki; Vishwak Solutions Pvt.; Vodafone; and Volantis Systems.
About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the Web. Over 400 organizations are Members of the Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in Japan, and has additional Offices worldwide. For more information see http://www.w3.org/
- Contact Americas, Australia --
- Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613
- Contact Europe, Africa and the Middle East --
- Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94
- Contact Asia --
- Yasuyuki Hirakawa <chibao@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170
Testimonials
Deutsche Telekom | dotMobi (mTLD) | Family Online Safety Institute | Fundación CTIC | MobileAware | Vodafone
Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG, Products & Innovation is delighted to see mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 achieve Candidate Recommendation status within the W3C. Through this singularly important event mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 in combination with the W3C checker will give the content author and the content provider community a quick and easy means to ensure the structural quality of content intended for mobile devices. Deutsche Telekom AG will continue to support the efforts of the W3C and the specifications produced by the Mobile Web Initiative's Best Practices Working Group.
-- Kai-Dietrich Scheppe, Manager Portal Services, Deutsche Telekom AG, Products & InnovationdotMobi
dotMobi is a strong supporter of the work that the W3C's Mobile Web Initiative has done. We've made that work the basis of our recommendations for .mobi sites, so seeing mobileOK Basic going to candidate recommendation is exciting because it will help make the mobile internet experience even better for users around the world.
-- Trey Harvin, CEO, dotMobiFamily Online Safety Institute
The Family Online Safety Institute is delighted to see the advancement of mobileOK. We believe it will make a significant contribution to the goal of making it easy for end users to find the content that is most appropriate for them, whether that's defined in terms of their device characteristics, interests, age or tastes.
-- Phil Archer, Chief Technical Officer, Family Online Safety InstituteFundación CTIC
Fundación CTIC thanks the Mobile Web Best Practices working group for the release of the mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 document as a means to develop the One Web on mobile devices. TAW, our free tool to validate web resources against different criteria, uses the mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 to check whether resources can be enjoyed with a functional experience in the majority of mobile web-enabled devices. Our compromise is to keep on participating in the group in an active way, helping users accessing the One Web with any web device. This Candidate Recommendation is a clear example of how to help achieving that goal.
-- Carlos de la Fuente, Technology Manager and W3C AC Representative - Fundación CTICMobileAware
The mobileOK Basic Tests are a welcome addition to the growing collection of resources to support the mobile Web. These tests will provide valuable feedback to authors and developers that we expect will improve the quality of mobile content and services. We intend to reference the mobileOK Basic Tests in future tools and technologies, to draw attention to the new benchmark for the evaluation of mobile Web sites. We are happy to have the opportunity to support the W3C MWI in its important mission.
-- Dr Rotan Hanrahan, Chief Innovations Architect, MobileAwareVodafone
Vodafone congratulates the W3C on the publication of mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 as a Candidate Recommendation. This important milestone was reached through the considerable effort of industry partners coming together to support the concept that Web content made for mobile is of signifigant value. Together with the mobileOK machine-readable quality mark, this work will help to raise the overall quality and quantity of mobile-friendly content on the Web.
-- Reinhard Kreft, Head of Standardisation & Industry Engagement, Vodafone Group Technology / R&D