The Skweezer Blog

An interesting perspective from Mike Dano over at FierceWireless… I think it continues to make the case that a need for a quick-access, streamlined view of web content will always be needed in a highly fractured device—and standards—marketplace.

A begrudging farewell to WAP

As the world rushes toward a smartphone future, I find myself a little wary of the rich multimedia of the Promised Land. After all, WAP is actually pretty great, when you think about it.

But let me start from the beginning. WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol, and it was invented in the early 18th Century (yes that’s supposed to be a joke) as a way to give Neanderthal cell phones with grayscale screens a taste of the Internet. See, phones from the Stone Age couldn’t download huge images or complicated HTML layouts like the newfangled ones you kids use today, but they did have just enough processing power and bandwidth to access small amounts of information stored on the ‘Net. The solution? WAP, which is essentially a scaled down version of the Internet that supports tiny screens and mostly text-based content.

WAP was touted as the second coming because, after all, it was the Internet on your phone! Incredible! Amazing! What a useful, sure-to-be-profitable technology. Of course, when people actually tried WAP they discovered it was the Internet circa 1981 on your phone, which isn’t really the same thing. Nonetheless, millions of phones shipped with WAP browsers, and at least a dozen websites launched WAP versions of their desktop offerings.

Then along came the iPhone and other high-powered smartphones, and–poof–regular websites are now available to cell phone users. You no longer have to pay the WAP tax to visit the Internet! How wonderful! Further, according to various analyst projections, all phones will be “smart” in a few years, so there won’t be a need for WAP versions of regular Internet sites–and everyone will be happy. Right?

Well, maybe. I’ve been a traveler on the wireless Web since the days of mMode on the original AT&T Wireless (remember that?). I’ve perused WAP sites from The Onion to The New York Times, and plenty of stuff in between. And I have to say: WAP is not crap.

In fact, I would argue with only a little bit of sarcasm that WAP is in some cases better than the “real” Internet. Why? Because you don’t get all that extra nonsense–no enormous banner ads that move when you mouse over them, no huge lists of links to random sites that may or may not be scams, no popups and no trickery. There’s just no room for it. Instead, what you get with WAP is just straight up information. You get the text of a story or post, possibly one small picture, and maybe a banner ad. And that’s it. And since no one actually pays attention to WAP, you can sometimes get free stuff: Did you know that the Wall Street Journal’s WAP site (http://mobile2.wsj.com) is not locked down?

Further, I would argue that the WAP tax actually keeps the riffraff from clogging up the scene. When I search the wireless Web, I don’t have to wade through millions of results–mainly because there aren’t millions of results. Most WAP searches turn up relevant and legitimate results because only the entities with useful content are venturing onto the wireless Web in the first place. It’s like natural selection, without the killing and eating part.

Indeed, I’ve grown accustomed to browsing the WAP sites of publications like The Washington Post or The New York Times. In some cases I prefer them to the desktop equivalent; they’re straightforward, no nonsense, and very easy to navigate.

Obviously there’s a clear benefit to being able to access the full Internet while mobile, but I’m going to miss the simplicity of WAP. Perhaps the Web designers of tomorrow will take some cues from the wireless Web–do more with less. Make it simple and clean. No tricks. The website of The Raconteurs is a good example. Press space bar to continue, indeed! –Mike

Posted and commentary by Kevin Perkins

Skweezer on the iPhone

I was just reading an article on FierceMobileContent that announced that mobile Web access is slower than Web access from a desktop computer. This, I must say, was not a terribly earth-shattering revelation for those of us who frequently use our mobile devices to browse the Internet.

According to the study referenced in the article, mobile Web access is 30% slower than the average Internet connection used from a desktop computer. This seems a bit optimistic to me. Most of the people I know have DSL in their homes (3.5 Mbps appears to be the norm these days here in L.A.) and I don’t get anything like two-thirds of that when I’m out and about with my iPhone. This is probably why the YouTube app, App Store access, and other cool iPhone features only work when connected to the Net via WiFi. A wise call on Apple’s part, as slow network speeds would suck all the coolness right out of these apps.

All this is to say that waiting for sites to load on your phone can be slow and tedious. And this is the reason that Skweezer is still a great product, despite the proliferation of high-end handsets that promise the World Wide Web at your fingertips. Yes, your new phone might have a great browser and gigabytes of memory… but that won’t matter if the sites you visit take forever to load. Skweezer makes Web pages load faster and easier to read on any mobile device—from Paleolithic circa-1998 flip-phones to the iPhone 3G. And it’s completely free. Check Skweezer out at www.skweezer.com and see for yourself if it makes browsing on the mobile Web easier and better.

Posted by Mark Sieve

The days after Christmas see a dramatic increase in mobile Web activity.

IRVINE, Calif., December 28, 2007—Greenlight Wireless Corporation today announced that usage of its Skweezer mobile browsing service has dramatically increased since December 26th, which appears to support industry speculation that mobile handsets were a popular item under the Christmas tree.

Aggregated mobile Web traffic data from the Skweezer portal and Skweezer Private Label implementations indicate the following:

– An average month-to-month growth rate of 11% between January and November 2007
– A 21% increase in worldwide traffic from December 25th to December 26th 2007
– Traffic from North America experienced the highest post-Christmas increase in traffic at 28%
– Mobile Web traffic from Blackberries, iPhones, Blackjacks, and other “smartphone” devices increased 19%, indicating that high-end handsets received as gifts may be responsible for the increased mobile Web usage

While Skweezer traffic has been growing steadily month-to-month, this year’s post-Christmas spike is the most dramatic increase on record. Past years have seen a similar yet more modest average increase of 17% in Skweezer page views immediately following the holidays. While usage historically corrects itself after the initial spike in traffic, 71% of post-holiday traffic is maintained after the second week of January.

Greenlight Wireless has been accumulating and analyzing demographic and behavioral data from Skweezer users in over 175 countries since 2003 and there is historical evidence that trends uncovered in Skweezer closely mirror trends in the overall industry.

Skweezer is a free service that optimizes Web pages and searches for use on PDAs and cell phones. Mobile Internet users access Skweezer by visiting www.skweezer.net, then use the portal as a “wireless gateway” to browse and search the Web. Skweezer compresses and reformats content being downloaded, so that it loads faster, looks better, and is easier to navigate. Skweezer has introduced many mobile browsing innovations and has won several awards in 2007, including a Gold Star in the Mobile Star Awards and Best Web Compression Service in the Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine Best Software Awards. Skweezer is completely platform-independent and can be accessed from Pocket PC, Palm, MS Smartphone, Blackberry, iPhone, Symbian, PSP2, and WAP 2.0 compliant devices. Skweezer is also available as a “private label” solution for wireless carriers, search engines, and content providers.

About Greenlight Wireless:
Greenlight Wireless is a leading innovator of wireless technologies, providing mobile solutions for enterprise-level businesses, Web portals, and wireless carriers. Greenlight Wireless’ consumer-oriented Skweezer service optimizes Web content for handheld devices, providing a richer browsing experience and adding value to wireless data offerings. Greenlight’s Advertizer product is a cutting-edge advertising program for operators, search engines, and publishers who want to monetize their content in the mobile environment.

On the Net: Greenlight Wireless site: www.greenlightwireless.net
Skweezer site: www.skweezer.net

Posted by Monica Sato

Skweezer users prefer mobilized versions of desktop content to made-for-mobile versions of content created by publishers.

IRVINE, Calif., July 25, 2007—Users of Greenlight Wireless’ Skweezer service, which dynamically optimizes Web content for use on cell phones and PDAs, have expressed a clear preference for mobilized versions of desktop Web content over versions of the same content created specifically for use on mobile devices.

The latest incarnation of Skweezer, version 4.0, was launched on June 18th and included a feature that passed through a user’s mobile device “user agent”. Previous versions of Skweezer “presented” the user as a desktop user agent, which was done so that Skweezer users could access normal desktop content and not be automatically redirected to made-for-mobile versions of the content. The change in policy to pass through the mobile user agent was made in response to several publishers’ requests to have Skweezer users redirected, along with the rest of their mobile traffic, to mobile-specific versions of their content.

Feedback from Skweezer users was overwhelming once this change was implemented, with users claiming that the mobile-specific versions of content that publishers redirected them to were less useful, less informative, and less functional than the “Skweezed” desktop content they had grown accustomed to. This feedback, from hundreds of Skweezer users worldwide, challenges the assumption that creating made-for-mobile versions of Web content is the best way to provide a satisfactory mobile browsing experience. As a result of this user feedback, Skweezer will once again present as a desktop browser by default, but users can now override this setting with a new preference that passes through the correct mobile user agent.

Skweezer is a free service that optimizes Web pages and searches for use on PDAs and cell phones. Mobile Internet users access Skweezer by visiting www.skweezer.net, then use the portal as a “wireless gateway” to browse and search the Web. Skweezer compresses and reformats content being downloaded, so that it loads faster, looks better, and is easier to navigate. Skweezer has introduced many mobile browsing innovations, including the first: pagination system that splits large Web pages up for viewing on cell phones, mobile Web page translation feature, “find in page” search, and portal-based mobile RSS reader. Skweezer is completely platform-independent and can be accessed from Pocket PC, Palm, MS Smartphone, Blackberry, Symbian, PSP2, and WAP 2.0 compliant devices. Skweezer is also available as a “private label” solution for wireless carriers, search engines, and content providers.

About Greenlight Wireless:
Greenlight Wireless is a leading innovator of wireless technologies, providing mobile solutions for enterprise-level businesses, Web portals, and wireless carriers. Greenlight Wireless’ consumer-oriented Skweezer service optimizes Web content for handheld devices, providing a richer browsing experience and adding value to wireless data offerings. Greenlight’s Advertizer product is a cutting-edge advertising program for operators, search engines, and publishers who want to monetize their content in the mobile environment.

On the Net: Greenlight Wireless site: www.greenlightwireless.net
Skweezer site: www.skweezer.net

Posted by Monica Sato

China, India, and Latin American countries are the fastest-growing Skweezer markets in 2006.

IRVINE, Calif., November 20, 2006—A recent study of the geographical distribution of Skweezer users indicates that a growing number of new Skweezer users are coming from China, India, and Latin America.

The percentage of new Skweezer users from Latin America climbed steadily from 5% during Q305 to 12% by the end of Q306. The most dramatic growth in new Latin American Skweezer users occurred in Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua, and Argentina. During this same period, the percentage of Skweezer sign ups in India and China grew more dramatically, from 2% to 6% and from 1% to 4% respectively. Consumption of Skweezer on a per-user basis has also increased in these markets, with the average number of page-views per user nearly doubling in the last 12 months.

“Our internal analytics support the widespread speculation that Latin America and China are the next big markets for mobile data,” said Mark Sieve, President of Greenlight Wireless. “Years of accumulating and analyzing demographic and behavioral data from Skweezer users in over 175 countries indicate historically that trends in Skweezer closely mirror trends in the overall industry.”

Skweezer is a free service that optimizes Web pages, searches, and e-mail for use on PDAs and cell phones. Mobile Internet users access Skweezer by visiting www.skweezer.net, then use the portal as a “wireless gateway” to browse and search the Web. Skweezer compresses and reformats content being downloaded, so that it loads faster, looks better, and is easier to navigate. Skweezer includes an e-mail client, RSS reader, address book, site directory, and other useful features designed specifically for the mobile environment. Skweezer is completely platform independent and can be accessed from Pocket PC, Palm, MS Smartphone, Blackberry, Symbian, PSP2, and WAP 2.0 compliant devices. Skweezer is also available as a “private label” solution for wireless carriers and content providers.

About Greenlight Wireless:
Greenlight Wireless is a leading innovator of wireless technologies, providing mobile solutions for enterprise-level businesses, Web portals, and wireless carriers. Greenlight Wireless’ consumer-oriented Skweezer service optimizes Web content for handheld devices, providing a richer browsing experience and adding value to wireless data offerings. Greenlight’s Advertizer product is a cutting-edge advertising program for operators, search engines, and publishers who want to monetize their content in the mobile and desktop environments.

On the Net: Greenlight Wireless site: www.greenlightwireless.net
Skweezer site: www.skweezer.net
Advertizer site: www.advertizer.net

Posted by Monica Sato

Social networking sites like MySpace are now among the most frequently visited by Skweezer users.

IRVINE, Calif., August 21, 2006—Skweezer users are visiting social networking sites with increasing frequency, displacing traditional Web portals and search engines among the list of most visited sites.

According to Greenlight Wireless, MySpace is the first social networking site to appear among the top five most highly visited sites by Skweezer’s mobile users, which was determined by a weekly traffic report generated for the first week of August. Similar sites that allow users to share information and meet online, such as Flickr, del.icio.us, and Friendster, have also experienced rapid uptake by Skweezer users in recent months. As a result of the growing popularity of link sharing services, Skweezer has a new feature that allows users to save browsing favorites to del.icio.us, Furl, Simpy or BlinkList from their cell phone or PDA.

“In the last quarter, we’ve partnered with a number of search, bookmarking, RSS, and shared media sites to mobile-enable their content,” says Kevin Perkins, CEO of Greenlight Wireless. “When combined with Advertizer, our mobile advertising solution, these social networks can now effectively monetize their free content onto the third screen.”

Skweezer is a free service that optimizes Web pages, searches, and e-mail for use on PDAs and cell phones. Mobile Internet users access Skweezer by visiting www.skweezer.net, then use the portal as a “wireless gateway” to browse and search the Web. Skweezer compresses and reformats content being downloaded, so that it loads faster, looks better, and is easier to navigate. Skweezer includes an e-mail client, RSS reader, address book, site directory, and other useful features designed specifically for the mobile environment. Skweezer is also completely platform independent and can be accessed from Pocket PC, Palm, MS Smartphone, Blackberry, Symbian, PSP2, and WAP 2.0 compliant devices.

About Greenlight Wireless:
Greenlight Wireless is a leading innovator of wireless technologies, providing mobile solutions for enterprise-level businesses, Web portals, and wireless carriers. Greenlight Wireless’ consumer-oriented Skweezer service optimizes Web content for handheld devices, providing a richer browsing experience and adding value to wireless data offerings. Greenlight’s Advertizer product is a cutting-edge advertising program for operators, search engines, and publishers who want to monetize their content in the mobile and desktop environments.

On the Net: Greenlight Wireless site: http://www.greenlightwireless.net/
Advertizer site: http://www.advertizer.net/
Skweezer site: http://www.skweezer.net/

Posted by Monica Sato

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of MySpace by now, and how popular it has become. Personally, I fall in the “out demographic”, so yeah—it was hard for me to “get it.” At first.

Last week, my nephew Steve came out from Pennsylvania to visit. He’s going to be a sophomore at Penn State next year, and is clearly in the “in demographic” with his MySpace/Facebook accounts, his huge texting bills (that his parents pay! ), and his non-stop obsession on the opposite sex. Combine that with an old friend who I heard was trying to link up with me again via MySpace… I thought it might be time to check it out, and see what it’s all about.

What’s interesting is MySpace is so outwardly lame in terms of its usability, the barrage of blinking adverts, and the auto-play music on garish member pages. I remember the first time I ever stumbled across one of these pages, I was looking up referring links to Skweezer that someone had put on their MySpace page. Upon trying to find the link on the page, we were one of this guy’s “interests” in his bio next to a section of “friend comments” posted in recent order.

At the time, none of it made sense to me. Why would you put all your info out there, in many cases sensitive/private info, to have a series of strangers comment and contact you about being a “friend”!? I have friends! I like my privacy! Whatever!

But then after hanging with Steve, I get it now. We are in the midst of a significant cultural shift in how we meet people, communicate, and interact socially. Seana Mulcahy from MediaPost made mention of this when she went on holiday to Nantucket. Her comment about boys asking out girls via text message—that were literally 50 yards away—says it all.

So, in order to link back up with my friend, and to see what MySpace was all about, I created my own MySpace page. As I alluded to earlier, this was a royal pain in the ass. The UI to do this was not as easy to use as Yahoo! or Flickr. Their search to find people, was okay. It was extremely frustrating that I had to hop through as many pages to upload my photo… but it’s all part of the Grand-Master Plan of showing you adverts.

Once I figured out how to set up my profile, I now had to decide what content I was going to put on there. I’m happily married, I’m not trolling for youngins, and I certainly want to use the profile to create more spider-driven relevancy with the Search Engines. But you’re not cool on MySpace if you’re creating just a purely business profile.

So, I uploaded my picture, filled in my profile with the basics… and *bleep* “What was that? ‘Derka-derka wants to be your friend. Click here to visit their page.’” I hadn’t even finished my profile when I started to get people wanting to cross link profiles with me.

Buzzzzzzz! “What was that? Someone just sent me an SMS. From whom, I wonder? ‘Amber wants to be your friend. Logon to MySpace and visit their page.’” Whoa. Wait a minute. I’ve been on MySpace for, oh, 15 minutes, and I’ve got two people—whom I’ve never met—wanting to be my friend. Interesting. I’ll play.

So, in viewing their pages… these people were just normal, non-whacko’s just reaching out to people with things their interested in. Or proximity to where they live. Or because I know someone they know. Or whatever.

And now that I’m getting contacted—again, with no agenda whatsoever—I can see why people get hooked! One immediately feels part of a community that is, arguably, the trendiest thing going right now. Since I already have a couple of professional blogging outlets, I think I might start using MySpace for more of my personal stuff. I used to be a comedian during the 90’s and I always liked making humorous, Photoshopped pics. There is quite a thriving community of musicians, comedians, and so forth. So maybe it’ll become my “creative outlet”?! To boot it’s not all just a hook-up scene. There are a number of  married and “older” folks (it’s relative) looking to connect platonically with friends. So I’m sure that it’s not all just about Steve’s demographic, entirely!

Anyway, I get it now. And I’ve changed my original “Whatever!” position to whatever in terms of the connectedness and possibility that sites like MySpace bring.

Posted by Kevin Perkins