Deepfish, desktop to mobile again

Microsoft’s Live labs announced their new Mobile web browser for Windows Mobile enabled Smartphones and Pocket PCs, named Deepfish. While this comes after iPhone’s webkit integration in the upcoming iPhone, MS has taken another step in competing with iPhone with this step supporting their upcoming ZenZui.

Deepfish bring the desktop experience to the Mobile, exactly how Steve Jobs demonstrated the integration of the Webkit on iPhone, nothin’ more, nothin’ less. Which I’m completely against. Why?

• Why do we need the same exact layout that works on desktop high resolutions on mobile? We ain’t got space! Nor should we be downloading all those big images nor we gotta’ wait for a server-side application to do the optimization and then bring us a version that we can zoom in and out, why not just have optimized websites?

• These steps by Apple and MS will slow down the development of the Mobile Web standards, allowing for the current websites to work while they are expensive to browse and use.

• Bringing desktop experience to Mobiles is just like bringing luxurious BMW’s interiors inside a Formula 1 racing car, you ain’t got enough space to control the vehicle nor have enough time to enjoy it or better yet use it!

• All zoom and all the bells and whistles while you have keypads and need to click a number of shortcuts and menu items, why the hassle? Just gimme’ the damn information and what I need, not the desktop feel while on the move!

• While having the pages in interactive manner is nice, I believe Mobile Web is more about getting info when you need it, the entertaining/impressing bits are cosmetics if you will!

Why these browsers will succeed?

The amount of Mobile-Optimized websites are way too narrow, although it’s looking up, these browsers will make a huge space for fighting for the real Mobile Web development and guiding developers and site owners. The quick answer would be, well, Deepfish and iPhone’s browser support our websites, so?

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Corporate blogs, why not?

It is important to let out, get your human face showing on top of the corporate commercial face. Better yet, interacting and showing how it’d be to work with you and what your people think about industry related matters. A free to air and interactive spokes-page if you will. While the social/personal blogs are all around, it’s rare to find an organization of a big size blogging in the Middle East, why is that so?

Resources, time, people, well, these are all resources again, but why not face the reality, if everyone’s blogging, why shouldn’t corporates do that, everyone can interact with them and have a good touchbase point.

It’s hard to please everyone? Is that the hard part? It might be. Imagine Etisalat having a blog where they announce and talk about their happenings and how/why they block sites and talk back to the angry customers who are left out on their own blogs screaming loud, “Why is that site blocked?”.

It is part of being responsive, a quick response is better than 10 late press releases or magazine interviews. A quick response could be checked through a feed reader. We ain’t got the need to search for everything all the time, if du is to get us on track with new enhancements about their coverage and signal strength why not mention it on a blog instead of having angry customers who waited long untill a press release was made?

It’s a big circle, a big singing-dancing operation for a big corporate to get a word out in form of PR or an Interview or a News release, it’s just a click away posting that article in a blog!

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Souq makes you feel AdWords is for free

Souq.com, until the date is advertising an event that was done and gone on 23^rd of March, Just five days ago, but yet it seems that they are still selling Shakira’s Concert tickets on Souq, makes sense at all? Does that mean that AdWords is for free to advertise on? Or is it that Souq’s advertising budget is way too much that they could give away a little bit of it for free?

Okay, it’s one of these two. It’s either they’ve forgot to stop the ad campaign on AdWords, or they’re trying to get more visits using an Artists name for a dead event. The ad sends users to Souq’s homepage, so which one do you think is the one?

Check it out for yourself before its gone, here’s a search query that brings in some Souq’s Shakira Ticket ads.

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EmiratesMac AppleTV Event

On 29^th of March, that’s two days from now at 18:00 EmieratesMac User Group will hold the launch of AppleTV event in the Duabi’s Knowledge Village main Auditorium.

EmiratesMac User Group (EMUG) invites you to a very Special Event on March 29 2007. A demonstration of the AppleTV will be given by an Apple engineer and our sponsors will be showcasing their latest products.

Register here or download the brochure.

Luckily I’ll be in Dubai on that day so I’ll be hopefully attending the event. You coming? Drop me a line if you’re coming, I’d love to meet you there.

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One big Middle East Feed

I’m trying to make a big Pipe, having most of the feeds of the Middle East that are related to Media and Advertising into one big feed, including press releases and images from Flickr(blocked, but just give it a shot).

Check it out, just a playfull trial, see if you like it.

Here’s the feed check it out and let me know or better yet check out the Pipe itself and chip in with some more feeds and stuff if you’d like to.

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ITP.net? Anyone?

Am I the only one getting this? I’ve been trying to access ITP.net’s feature section for a month now. Everytime I click on a link in my RSS reader all I get is the {Advertisement} page which by the way “Skip Advert” does not work but refreshes the page instead. The skip time is 60000 milisecons(60 seconds) as I figured out but instead of taking you to your page it just keeps on refreshing! That’s waste of Ad Impressions first, and secondly annoying users!

Try accessing this URL and see for yourself. Please let me know if that works for you.

Update: It’s just an IE7 problem, works fine everywhere else.

Update: Not only IE7, but IE6 as well!

ITP, get this fixed or most of the Advertisers’ impressions money would go down the IE bugs.

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On Art and being a Persian

Tololy posted a great number on Iman Maleki’s realism art and gallery online. When I read the post, there was two kinda’ mixed feelings that I had. One, I’m ashamed that I’ve never heard of the Artist even though he’s Persian, second, I’ven’t gone for galleries and art exhibitions for years.

I don’t want to post about a post or repost about a topic, so head to Tololy’s post for info about the Art and the artist.

While browsing Iman’s website

A great feeling, once I turned the site in the Farsi version it felt so good to navigate and read all in Farsi. I haven’t had this experience before on a Microsite as Iman’s. It’s a great feeling. Ease of understanding on the first nature, not the second.

Other than that, I haven’t read anything in Farsi for long long time, cool thing, thanks tol.

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Okay, but how much?

Two weeks ago I posted about the amount of bad written CVs and unsolicited job applications I was receiving. A gentle man commented(which I didn’t let his comment go on) “Okay, how much are you offering?”. I’m saying unsolicited applications, that means this is not a Job offer or a vacancy announcement. Funnier it gets. I receive another e-mail saying I read your advices on how to apply to web jobs, so can I send you my CV? (sorry, I had to mention this)

The aim for writing that article was to give you an insight of how it feels to receive such emails and CVs. My goal was to express the need for clear communication and clarity and directness.

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An angry follow up

My name is “Thomas somename” I met you the other night at the “xyz” event, switched business cards and had sent you an e-mail offering you our insurance services. “This is the follow up(with a bullying tone!) So?”, he says!

Now picture this, I was writing an e-mail while talking to my colleage on mobile and all of a sudden this telemarketer calls. Without asking if it was the right time or not, with a “bullying” tone saying “So?”. I said “I actually haven’t looked at your offer yet to be honest”. “So you don’t think we’re important enough for you?” he says. I was like man! “Can you call later?”, I said. He answered, “Can you just say if you want it or not?”. I said “No” and hung up!

First of all all the insurance people are generally hated, I don’t know why, but that’s the perception. Second, offering a service and following up on a potential client should go friendly, don’t they get the fact that it actually is unsolicited so they’ve gotta’ win our hearts first? Dumb, that is.

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Flash site and HTML site

Another old way of putting websites together, having a Flash version of a site and another HTML version of the same site. Usually these kind of websites have a homepage that gives you the “two” choices to choose from–HTML site and Flash site. Again, just like the Intro ideas, a misleading and to be exact it’s the designers perception that everyone should know what are the differences between Flash and HTML!

Why should you have two versions of a website at all?

Now I’m not against having multiple of versions of a website, but really if a website is not an interactive website that comes into different bandwidth sized for Media downloads then why bother making more that one version and to be exact once again why should you make a Flashy website just when you can do your flashy magic in synergy with HTML?

Why assuming that everyone knows what Flash or HTML is?

Not every person who browses the web is a web designer or developer! Such titles are jargons for most, once again, the first rule in communication: do not use jargons related to your own industry in public, unless they are universal and well known.

People are looking for the info, if they’re visiting a business’s website they are after a service or a product or plain info, it ain’t the right time to show off how good you are in designing websites by offering two different versions and showing off on the homepage with two buttons!

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