Mobile Ready Your Blog
Never in my wildest dream that the world of mobile technology will reach its present status now. Making a wap site before is like an ego booster… a hobby… an outlet… a lifestyle. Today, mobile users accessing wapsites using their handheld device is still growing especially after the launch of iPhone 3G err… that’s mobile lifestyle indeed.
Wapsites before such as wap forum, moblog (mobile blog), download portals among other wapsites tend to plagiarized contents from websites, web forums and blogs. The good thing is PageRank applies to wap using Yahoo and Google wap search. Technically, if the websites are indexed by search engines with PageRank, no problem with that except for duplicate content. We still enjoy traffic from mobile users.
From the mobile users point of view, if a person go to a website loaded with images, widgets, chances are the mobile browser will be closed because of limited cache compared to PC capability. Sometimes, it would never stop from loading. Looking at their limited needs including myself, this is the main reason why I use a simple template. Although there’s no guarantee that if the site loads faster in the computer it would do the same on wap sites. And remember that wap users have limited visibility because of their mobile screen. But either way, the template would help.
The good thing with wordpress as my blogging platform, there are plugins we can use to mobile ready our blog. Basically, wapsites are XML and wordpress is PHP codes, plugin handles the script. The image below shows how my blog would look like using WordPress Mobile Edition plugin. No need to make a separate wapsite with same content. Remember, duplicate contents are penalized by Big G. It is also possible to earn from wap visitors by making our wordpress blog a mobile ready blog.
We are doing our best to make quality content, I heard it somewhere that “quality is king.” I thought, what’s the use of quality blog if its hard to read or not accessible on mobile phones, iPhone, PPC, PDA and other handheld devices regardless if you’re not a tech blog or mobile related blog. My blogs are WAP ready or should I say mobile ready wordpress blogs. How about yours?
G-Blogs 2.0 Still In Beta
G-Blogs is where I started blogging in 2004, it was a moblog or mobile blog. Due to many glitch of the old g-blogs system, there are rampant hacking of blogs just to prove their worth. Was it worth it? That’s a long story but without g-blogs, I maybe not here blogging. I still love g-blogs even if I did got tired of the old system. If not, I will not be blogging about it now.
Just a short recap of the old system. Old g-blogs can be access to any built in browsers before, it was possible to moblog using third party browser such as Opera, Opera Mini, Netfront etc. Legitimate bloggers can download images, audios, videos from other moblogs for Php 5 per file. I did forgot the rates already. To some, they can upload and download other files such as mobile applications, virus, ebooks and other unsupported files for FREE.
Those were the happy days until the Globe Telecoms numerously changed the system from time to time and our moblogs are always unavailable. Good thing that they decided to use wordpress to their recently launched g-blogs.
What’s with g-blogs 2.0?
G-Blogs 2.0 is built to give you a refreshing experience in personal blogging. Powered by the powerful open blogging platform, WordPress MU, G-Blogs 2.0 is equipped with new and exciting features that enhance the way your life’s moments with your friends online.
This is a giant step forward on blogging considering that I, myself experienced blogging at g-Blogs before. Indeed a wise decision but the normal mobloggers are waiting to access the site using their built-in browsers just like the old g-blog days. Globe Telecoms temporarily disabled G-Blogs’ SMS/MMS and WAP blogging service, as they prepare for the enhancements which they will be launching soon.
G-Blogs 2.0 is still in BETA – fresh out of the clinic after a thorough beauty makeover. This means you may still see a few bumps, scars, unwanted moles or hairs – things you would want us to tweak a bit, or probably even get rid of, here and there. If ever you do encounter any, do send us a note at gtg-blogs@globetel.com.ph and we’ll gladly tidy them up for you.
After recovering my old g-blog, I access the page for my old entries retrieval. They said wait for 24 hours to export my blog blog to new blog. That was 4 days ago and still nothing happened. Since I already knew wordpress, I hope they add more widgets (and plugin if possible), add page feature and more template choices. As of now, there are only two available template.
G-Blogs is built on WordPress MU. Should you need an extra know-how on advanced coding and features, feel free to visit their FAQ section.Technically, no need to hack for free download anymore just like the old days… The site can be access using Opera using Inet connection on mobile.
Why Moblog?
In the Philippines, moblog or moblogging are provided by the leading mobile network providers such as Globe and Smart Telecoms. There is an estimated of 40 million mobile phone users to date out of estimated population of 80 million Filipinos.
As of this time, there are 41,144 moblogs registered to G-blogs. I doubt if all of them are active in mobile blogging since there are many bloggers stopped updating their blogs, including me and some bloggers I know. Why?
There are many reasons why people blog, there are many kinds of bloggers as well. I blog because it was sort of my daily diary, rambling about anything I observed and experienced from my daily life. It was sort of an outlet from my stressful life. Until I got interested on mobile ebooks. I’ve learned, shared and moblog about mobile ebooks. There were times that I became feature blogger. Traffic! That time, I don’t care about traffic simply because I don’t want to get noticed by moblog hackers. My moblog had been hacked many times by hackers who wanted to be popular. I’ve emailed my network provider, requested not to feature my blog anymore citing my reasons.
After three years of regular moblogging, I woke up one morning feeling tired and exhausted of moblog. What do I get from moblog? Lots of friends and the good feeling that I’ve helped unselfishly. But I’m not contented with my network provider’s services. There are still many rooms for their improvement and I can’t stay waiting for such.
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