I got a new mobile phone back in August which means I’ve at last got a quick enough mobile connection to surf on the move. It’s a Sony Ericsson W890i which packages up everything I need: a mobile, a half way decent camera, an MP3 player and mobile Internet.

Mobile web is reaching a proportion of the population that just can’t be ignored - the iPhone has reached 0.30% of global web traffic which might sound like not a great deal but as a new medium it’s a massive increase. You’ve also got to remember the different use of web browsers on a mobile phone - behaviour is very different to when using a browser on a computer.

I’ve found the w890i to be very good for the mobile web and recommend Opera Mini as an excellent mobile browser. It just means I can access information quicker but I only tend to skim information rather than doing more in depth searching / reading. This shows why even if the mobile browsers can render standard websites you should consider a separate mobile website.

Mobile websites should be really cut back to exactly what people will want on the move. Forget pages of text explaining your service just give them the ability to search quickly and get the information they want. For a lot of companies a location search and location details is going to the core of a website. Think out of box a bit here - you might even have features that just wouldn’t work on the standard website - how about a hand reference guide?

So start thinking mobile - even the glacial-paced W3C have a best practices document.

The outcry at Facebook “imposing” its new design on usershas surprised me. After all I thought people using the system might be pleased to see improvements. It would seem however that the usual fear of change you see in the general populous is pretty virulent in the Facebook community too. There are Facebook groups against the new layout and even online petitions.

Lets assume this is just a visual redesign - I’d still take Facebook’s side it’s their website to do as they wish. Why should they keep the overhead of running two designs that can mean maintenance and upgrades are more difficult?

But deep down the new layout isn’t just about visual appeal (although I much prefer the cleaner look) it’s all about usability and they’ve done a good job. Everything is still easy to be found but the tabbed interface stops everything growing out of control.

Applications and application spam for me and many others has been the bane of Facebook but they’ve handled it well. I can block applications permanently and even all application requests from certain people who I know are a bit free and easy will adding anything and everything to their profile (and sending it to all their friends at the same time) - you know who you are!

Now the new interface means the applications are moved to a separate tab so I no longer need to go onto friends pages and wait for the hundreds of applications to load or scroll for approximately 900 miles down the page to find their wall!

So what are the downsides of the new design? Oh yeah you might have to spend 5 minutes looking around to find where everything is. Five minutes is an exaggeration to be honest as everything is in a very logical position.

If these people got their way we’d still be living in caves.

I posted a little while back about Google’s better support for Flash movies. At the time I was more worried about the potential for abuse by black hat SEOs however an article dissecting in more detail about what Google can and can’t see in Flash movies has reassured me slightly and what’s more it backs up my belief that if you want to be listing in search engines relying on Flash isn’t going to help.

The biggest thing that I noticed involved where JavaScript is used to embed a Flash movie into the page. In these cases it is unlikely Google will be able to access the Flash movie and therefore your content is again worthless. So if you’re using the fantastic standards compliant swfobject make sure you include backwards compatible object tags to ensure Google sees your movies! Or better still only use Flash where you can’t do the same thing in HTML and CSS.

Some people think applications in Facebook are great - I’m of the opinion that in the majority of cases they are a complete waste of my time. I welcomed the opportunity to block a particular application forever with open arms - no more do I have Funwall requests 50 times a day!

Since then it’s now even possible to block application requests from a particular friend - it’s always the same people. You know who you are!

However there are some useful applications out there and I do wonder if I’m sometimes missing out. This leads me to occasionally accept a request just to see what the application does. Quite a lot of the time it seems for an application to work I’ve got invite all my friends to use the application first. So application spam on Facebook has become very common.

Of course this is just application developers being inpatient about spreading their applications - good apps will always float to the top it just takes time so stop using spammy techniques!

However Facebook are now to provide a ranking system for applications - basically marking good apps as “Great apps”. Excellent saves my time - I won’t be trying anything out without this seal of approval from now on.

This also covers various other issues such as the use of personal details so hopefully this will roll out as quickly as possible - developers can have their applications vetted from September.