Head on to www.tipb.com on your iPhone to view.

blogged on the move from my iPhone

Some people are sick of hearing about the iPhone, so TUAW now offers a news feed without iPhone news.

I noticed an interesting thing on my Gmail account today : You are currently using 1557 MB (31%) of your 5040 MB.. Over the past year, I have not paid any attention to this statistic, since Gmail offers infinity+1 storage, i.e., unlimited storage for your emails. I have been using Gmail every day since June 2004, and I now have almost 10,000 messages in my account.

It’s simply amazing how much has changed since the first webmail services were introduced. I remember HoTMail offering 2MB of space. Now Gmail, a free service, has as much to offer as commercial email services : POP & IMAP access, mobile versions, Java applications, and much more.

Gmail, Email

My Treo 680 smartphone comes with Blazer, a pretty good (but not fantastic) web browser. It works with most web sites, but Blazer really shines with sites made specifically for mobiles. Here are the top 10 mobile web sites that I use regularly.

1. Gmail (mail.google.com)
One of two email services that I check on a daily basis. I prefer the Mobile web version compared to the Java Gmail client or even downloading email directly to my Treo 680 via POP/IMAP. This way I don’t have to keep track of what I have or have not read, and I also have the ability to search through over 9,200 messages.

2. Yahoo Mail (my.m.yahoo.com)
Yahoo’s Mobile Web mail is quite fast and easy to use.

3. Google Search (www.google.com)
Still my favourite search engine.

4. Google Docs (docs.google.com/m)
I can view and edit word processing and spreadsheet documents without downloading to the Treo 680.

5. Flickr (m.flickr.com)
I can view my own photos as well as those of my friends and family. Unfortunately, there’s still no way to upload photos directly from the Treo, so I upload to Flickr via MMS instead.

6. eBay Mobile (m.ebay.com)
Search, track auctions and bid online. I bought my Treo 680 via the eBay Mobile interface.

7. eTrade Mobile (wireless.etrade.com)
I don’t do any trading, but I do transfer my Paypal money to an eTrade account. I use the mobile version to check my balances.

8. Facebook Mobile (m.facebook.com)
I use this to update my status (as in, “Azizi is … busy writing a blog post“). Facebook Mobile is also great to check on the latest updates from my friends.

9. YouTube Mobile (m.youtube.com)
There’s always something entertaining on YouTube Blazer’s integration with the Kinoma Streaming application makes it easy to view videos.

10. Google Reader (www.google.com/reader/m/)
Google Reader has a great mobile interface. You can easily navigate using the number keys to jump between articles. It also remembers what you have read, starred or shared.

Bonus Mobile Web Site :

11. TreoToday Mobile (www.treotoday.net)
Of course, I have to plug my own blog. TreoToday Mobile shows the latest blog post and links to the previous 10 posts, as well as to the complete archive.

After compiling the list above, I noticed that 4 out of 10 are Google owned services. Google really has embraced the mobile web in a big way; I look forward to more companies following their lead.

So, what mobile web sites do you find useful?

Once you complete this process, all of your pictures will be safely saved on your computer.

Palm Mobile Blogging Smartphone

Yesterday, AOL unveiled the latest version of their AOL Mobile Search engine. It has some whizz-bang features (i.e. tabbed results) for Windows Mobile powered phones, which I won’t be able to show (since I have a Treo 650). However, I will compare the AOL Mobile Search with the 3 major search engines : Google, MSN and Yahoo.

Why is Mobile Search important?

Ten years ago, it was very rare for someone to have a mobile phone. Nowadays, the reverse is true — you’d have to think long and hard to pinpoint someone you can’t call on a mobile phone. Over the years we have seen the growth of two separate Internets: the mobile Internet (WAP) and the fixed (broadband) Internet. Newer technologies, more powerful phones and faster mobile data speeds have caused the lines between these two Internets.

Just as we expect to have a dial tone on a fixed line phone (remember those), we now tend to expect Internet to be available everywhere on our mobile phones. Search (more specifically, mobile search) helps us sift through the noise to get to what we want : instant results of relevant content.

How the testing was done

All the screenshots shown were taken directly from my Treo 650. As a test search term, I used the seafood restaurant made famous by the iPhone commercial, Pacific Catch. The objective is to find the address and phone number of a Pacific Catch restaurant. I set my location as “San Francisco, California, USA”. Apparently, there are other towns/cities named San Francisco elsewhere in the world, a fact I learnt from the MSN Live preference settings.

1. AOL Mobile Search

The initial results from AOL Mobile Search were disappointing. The first results were local results, however none were Pacific Catch restaurant. The first result was Hotel Nikko, which is obviously wrong. Although they could serve perfectly decent seafood.

After the Local listings are some News headlines, which are also not relevant. So, on first impression, AOL Mobile Search didn’t know what we meant by Pacific Catch. However, the next results are Images, which include the interior and the layout plan of a Pacific Catch restaurant.

The final listings are Web search results, and the first result is the Pacific Catch website. AOL needs to put a bit more work on this. We shouldn’t expect users to have to scroll all the way down to get to a relevant result.

2. Google Mobile Search

Google Mobile Search does a better job than AOL. The first results are immediately useful, with addresses and phone numbers of the nearest Pacific Catch restaurant.

The next results are Web search entries, with the first being the Pacific Catch website.

Google does not include Images in the main results page, but adds links to Images and News results instead. One thing I discovered while playing around with the Google Mobile Search is that you can set for google to automatically format the linked web pages for your mobile phone.

3. MSN Live Search

MSN Live Search also found the nearest Pacific Catch restaurant immediately. I found that if you do not set your local location in preferences, the first results to come out will be Web results.

MSN also shows Images in the main results page. Interestingly enough, Web search results are a separate link, along with Maps, News and the social networking Spaces results.

4. Yahoo OneSearch

Yahoo’s search results were the most comprehensive, however we don’t see the local information immediately. The first results are Web results, with the first entry being the Pacific Catch website.

The next level is the Mobile Web search results.

The third level is Photos, followed by News Headlines (which were not very relevant, by the way).

Finally, we get to the fifth level of search results, which is Nearby Businesses. This is where we finally find information on the nearest Pacific Catch restaurant. Do note that you need to sign in using your Yahoo ID in order to make use of your location information, otherwise it will skip this category altogether.

Since all this information was in one single page, Yahoo’s search result was the longest to fully download and render.

Conclusions

Google and MSN gave the relevant result first, with MSN doing the better job in formatting and presentation. Yahoo gave the relevant result, but put it at the very bottom of the results page. AOL failed to provide the relevant information in the first results page.

Obviously, this is a non-scientific analysis, covering just one simple comparison of a single search term across 4 mobile search engines. I hope the visuals would give a good impression of what each search engine will look like on your phone.

I believe all the 4 search engines are still in beta. This is also reflected by the fact that it’s not easy to find these search engines. Each one has a unique and non-intuitive URL.

Mobile search is still growing up and has a long way to go. Usability is still iffy — there’s a very delicate balance between getting enough useful information in your small screen and too much data. With a global audience, defining “local” is certainly a large challenge enough on its own.

Palm Mobile Search Smartphone

Memeorandum is a blog headline aggregator, built using a software agent and the coverage is driven by a mix of industry insiders, passionate independents, and established journalists. If you follow Memeorandum, now there’s a mobile-friendly version that you can now view better on your Treo. Mini-Memeorandum is faster to scroll through, simplifies larger story clusters and it also puts the most recent items first.

There are also mini versions of Techmeme, WeSmirch and BallBug.

Treo Mobile Web Memeorandum

Basecamp is a great collaborative web-based project management tool from 37Signals. It has many useful features such as managing group to-do lists, file sharing, time tracking and milestone tracking. Now you can use Basecamp on your Treo smartphone, thanks to Phonified.

Phonified Basecamp is an application that allows you to access your Basecamp account from your mobile phone. You can download a copy of your To-do list to your phone and update information without having to use a computer. You can also check milestones and configure an alarm on your phone when a milestone is upcoming. Phonified Basecamp lets you read and edit messages and comments, and even upload and download attachments all from your phone.

You can sign up with Basecamp for free (it’s free for one project). Monthly fees range from US$12-149.

Treo Mobile Web Basecamp