Frequently Asked Questions

Worldwide in 2011 more people will access the web from a mobile device than a computer. Basically, if you want to talk to your customers or attract new customers, you need one.

Research shows that if customers visit your wired site on a mobile device and have a poor experience (long load time, zooming around with a magnifying glass, missing flash videos or animations, etc) they are very unlikely to return.

Screen sizes vary from 124px to 480px. If your mobile site doesn't automatically adjust to accommodate the wide variety of handset sizes customer experience will be poor.

Websites that are designed to be viewed on desktop or laptop expect a broadband connection and a large processor. The mobile web does not have such a luxury. Download speeds are variable and typically very slow often slower than dial-up Internet access. IN addition mobile devices have smaller processors than PCs. Your mobile site needs to be optimized for slower bandwidth and smaller processors.

Compatibility: The number of mobile devices used to browse the mobile web grow everyday. Devices vary with different processors, different screens, different browsers, different operating systems. A mobile website needs to take these differences into account for the best user experience possible.

Document Type: Mobile websites need to adhere to XHTML-MP, which is a subset of XHTML. It is based on XML which has strict syntax; much more strict than loosely coded HTML.

Browser/Device Limitations: Mobile websites need to address the limited functionality of mobile browsers. Quick to load with no client-side scripting like JavaScript. See Mobile Browser Limitations below for more info.

Smaller Screen Size: A mobile website must be designed to accommodate smaller screen sizes.

Audience: Mobile visitors expect to find information immediately. A mobile website should address this issue by providing only the most pertinent information in the fewest clicks possible.

Limited JavaScript support: Only certain devices can support JavaScript; others may not be able to read the page at all if JavaScript is used. It is best not to use JavaScript until it is more widely supported.

Flash: Only a few devices support Flash Lite (none support Flash) at this time, so it is best not to use Flash at all on a mobile website until it is more widely supported.

Speed: Connection speeds are slower than wired connections and processing power is reduced on mobile devices. Webmasters must keep this in mind when building a mobile website.

Browser Windows: Mobile browsers do not support popup or new windows. Some newer devices support multiple windows in a browsing session, but the majority do not.

Tracking: Almost all wireless carriers set dynamic IP addresses to all customers, which means IP addresses can change frequently. Any tracking software that tracks by IP address will produce invalid results when referencing return visits.

Segmented Viewer Base: If you build an app, you will only be able to communicate with your customers who have the corresponding mobile device. For example, if you build an iPhone app, then you can only have relationships with your customers who have iPhones, which is a very small percentage overall. Do you know what kind of mobile phones your customers have? What if they don't have an iPhone? What about every one else? Apps can be very useful in creating a manicured customer experience, however, they also have the potential to exclude a very high number of customers. Having a mobile site should almost always be the first step because mobile sites can be viewed by any mobile device with web access. In addition, the mDefinite identifies all the mobile devices that visit your site. That way you can see what kind of phones your customers have in case you want to supplement your mobile website with an App.

High Cost: Apps can be very costly and rely on third party developers to build and make updates.

Hard to Find: For most people, it is very time consuming to browse through catalogs of apps.

User Download/Install: App users must download and install the app on their mobile devices. Mobile websites use the pre-installed mobile browser; nothing extra to find or download.

The bottom line is you need a mobile website to reach all existing and potential mobile customers. Apps seem to get a lot of praise, but realistically exclude a high percentage of mobile web surfers, take a long time to build, and have high costs.

Absolutely. You can use a top-level domain name like "mybusiness.com," or a subdomain of your wired site like "m.mybusiness.com." The extension doesn't have to be .com, it can be .net, .mobi, etc. To use your own domain name, enter it in the "Domain Name" field upon checkout.

Absolutely. For those who do not have or do not want to use their own domain name, you can use a "website slug" of your choice based on www.mobilelobster.com. For example, www.mobilelobster.com/m/my-business-name/. Upon checkout, leave the "Domain Name" field blank and check the "I do not want to use my own domain name" checkbox.

Absolutely. Our layout functionality gives you control over styles (fonts, colors, etc) and placement in order to match your business' branding. Using layouts allows you to make global changes to colors, fonts, ect. in one place rather than on every page. You can even use different layouts for different pages or sections of your mobile site.

For those who do not have a layout in mind, our Website Wizard has many different layouts to choose from.

Very easily. The mDefinite platform has a rich-content editor (WYSIWYG) for those who are familiar with rich-text or HTML editors. It is as easy as typing an email.

For those who do not have a layout in mind, our Website Wizard has many different layouts to choose from.

Very easily. The mDefinite platform has a rich-content editor (WYSIWYG) for those who are familiar with rich-text or HTML editors. It is as easy as typing an email.

For advanced users, the rich-content editor can be switched to an XHTML-MP source code field where XHTML-MP code can be entered.

mDefinite provides reporting on visits to your mobile pages. Properties like Device Vendor, Device Model, Screen Size, Date/Time of visit, Date/Time of last visit, and Referrer are included in the reporting.

The reports are available in the administration section. An XML version can be delivered automatically to your web server for use in any existing reporting structure that allows XML uploads, or can be parsed and directly entered to your internal database.