How to Build a .MOBI Website
With the proliferation of Internet-enabled wireless devices and the growing reliance on the Internet, it is no surprise that many people are designing websites specifically for display on personal mobile electronics. Because the screen on these devices is considerably smaller than a computer screen and may operate at different resolutions, special considerations must be kept in mind when building a mobile (.MOBI) website. This article will explore how to properly build a site for display on a mobile device.
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Instructions
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Create your Mobile (.MOBI) Website
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Register a .MOBI domain name. Since the .MOBI designation tells your website visitors that your site is designed specifically to work with their mobile device, it is important to register a domain name with this extension. Popular domain registrars like GoDaddy and Network Solutions allow quick, simple registration of domain names with this extension.
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Create a new Extensible HTML (XHTML) or Wireless Markup Language (WML) page. Depending on your web programming experience and familiarity with these languages, create a new web document using either XHTML or WML. If you are completely unfamiliar with either of these languages, most mobile web browsers will also read basic HTML. If you are using a graphical user interface (GUI) web design package like Dreamweaver or NetObjects Fusion, simply click "Create a new..." and select "XHTML document."
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Keep graphics to a minimum. Mobile web browsing technology has not yet reached a point at which large graphics can be quickly transferred across wireless connections, so speed the load time of your web page by omitting as many graphics as possible. If graphics, such as logos and pictures, are necessary, minimize their size using a graphics editing program. The W3C, a World Wide Web Consortium that sets standards for web page design, recommends that mobile web pages not exceed 20 kilobits (20k) in size; this constraint includes all text and embedded graphics.
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Design your page to be no wider than 120 pixels. While pages designed for larger computer monitors are often quite wide--sometimes as wide as 1024 or more pixels--mobile browsers are generally limited to a much narrower screen. For this reason, the W3C recommends creating mobile (.MOBI) websites to be no wider than 120 pixels.
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Use easy-to-read standard font sets. Visitors to your .MOBI page will likely be surfing the Internet on tiny screens and may be using their mobile device under any number of environmental conditions. Make your page easy to see and read by avoiding scripted or elaborate fonts and sticking with UTF-8 encoded standards like Courier and Times New Roman.
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Upload your site to a web server. To make your website publicly accessible, it must reside on a web server that can be accessed over the Internet. A number of web hosting companies offer hosting service for relatively inexpensive prices, or you can set up your own using a spare computer on a high-speed (broadband) Internet connection. When your page is uploaded, log in to your domain registrar and update your "nameserver" settings to point to your new web page. (if you are unsure of your web host's name server location, contact your host's technical support line.) Your .MOBI website is now active and ready for visitors.
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Tips & Warnings
Before advertising your .MOBI website, subject it to a mobile web browser compatibility test; a free compatibility test is linked from the "Resources" section of this article. A comprehensive list of recommendations and explanations regarding .MOBI websites is available in the W3C "best practices" document; this document is also linked from the "Resources" section of this article.
