Mobile
Platforms and Resources
by Gary Price
Co-Founder and Senior Editor
INFOdocket.com and FullTextReports.com
WebSearch
University
October,
2011
Washington, DC
This Page is Online at: http://j.mp/websearchDC11
Key Terms and Discussion
- Vocabulary
- Feature phone
- Smartphone
- Wireless carriers, different versions of the same
phone
- Tablets
- Tether
- The Challenges of
Discussing and Demonstrating Mobile Info in a Group Setting
- Three major platforms (Perhaps four?)
- Web Apps (for a Specific
Platform) vs. Native Apps
- An app might be available for iPhone/iTouch/iPad
- An app might be available specifically for the iPad
- An app might be available for Android but not Apple
products
- Available for BlackBerry and iPhone but not for
Android
- Plus, what's not available today might be available
tomorrow
- Useful App Discovery and
Directory Tools
- Our Focus Today: Web
Apps
- Nothing to Download, Will Work on Most Mobile
Browsers
- Native Apps vs. Web Apps
Usage Statistics
- This Does Not
Mean That Platform Specific Apps Aren't Selling Well
Resources
- Mobile Web Apps
From Libraries are Part of the Explosion
- Many Offer
Access to OPAC While Some Go Further
- A company named
Boopsie provides services
for a number of libraries
- They offer a
multiplatform approach
- Type Ahead Prediction Feature
- Budget Issues
- Which platform to begin with if you can only choose
one
- Tools to convert a traditional web site into a mobile
web site
- Mobile version widget(s) available for Wordpress
- Worldcat.org
Mobile
QR Codes in the Catalog
- QR=Quick
Response (A Interim Technology before True Camera
Phone Searching)
Mobile Versions of Well-Known Database Providers
Mobile Health
Mobile Law
Mobile Search from
Google, Bing, and Yahoo
In Most Cases No Need to Type in Mobile URL. Why?
Autoredirect.
U.S. Government Mobile
News
Multimedia
Social Media
- Mobile is a key reason for the social media boom
- Greplin Mobile
(Social Aggregation)
- Productivity Resources
- Convert Just About Any Web
Page Into a Mobile-Friendly Version: Instapaper Mobilizer
- Text is realigned and
images and graphic removed, focus is on fast load times
and
easy to read document on a small screen
- You can make type larger
or smaller at top of page
- Especially useful if
there is no official mobile version
- Example: Author
Guidelines for ONLINE
magazine vs. Regular
Version
- What About
Google's Mobilizer?
Late Additions