ZOOM ZOOM: Industry tests easier ways to access content

Mbile software developers are coping with the headaches of the small screen by-strangely enough-cramming it with as much information as possible.
Instead of forcing users to scroll through seemingly endless lists and drill through more layers than an archeologist could manage, developers are packing the screen with widgets and other gizmos. They’re hoping to deliver as broad a menu as possible, allowing users to zoom in to launch an application or access content with just a click or two.
Microsoft Corp. and Nokia Corp. are among the latest to join the bandwagon. Nokia last week said it will use widgets on its S60 platform, providing one-click access to mobile Web sites through the icons. And Deepfish, Microsoft’s new mobile Web browser, customizes Web sites for smartphones by transcoding them into thumbnail segments.
“The interface lets users zoom in and out on the parts of a Web page that interest them in an intuitive way, making it easy to use these large-screen formatted pages on a mobile device,” Microsoft executive Gary William Flake said in an interview posted on the company’s Web site. “On current mobile browsers, it can typically take up to a minute or more for a Web page to render, however the Deepfish architecture only loads the user-specified portion of the page, providing much quicker page-load times, as detailed information is only retrieved as needed or in the background.”
ZenZui, a Microsoft spinoff that emerged from stealth mode last month, offers a downloadable application that features customizable “tiles”-clickable icons that can be used to access content or navigate to a wireless Web site. The application can display an astounding 36 widgets that serve as portals for content partners, and the company hopes to offer 1,000 tile choices in the coming months, allowing users to go online to pick their favorites and personalize their handsets.
ULocate Communications Inc., a Framingham, Mass.-based startup, has launched a widget-based, GPS-enabled application that delivers local content. Like ZenZui, uLocate is hoping consumers will use computers to go online and provision their handsets themselves, effectively creating their own decks by deciding which content providers get space on the screen.
“Browsing from a mobile device on the Web is a totally miserable experience,” said John SanGiovanni, founder of ZenZui. “We had to think about all the moving parts, about consumption, flow, the device, and we had to wrap it up in this architecture that was iconic and unique. We spent a ton of time thinking about this.”
Flurry Inc., a San Francisco-based startup, is attacking the same problem from a very different angle. The 8-employee company offers free mobile access to e-mail, news and other content via a downloadable application for phones running Java. The offering delivers users directly to their e-mail inbox, allowing them to “back out” of that window to access other content instead of giving users a top-down view with a host of options.
“Like any mobile company, we face two challenges: one is to provide a useful service, and the second is to compensate for the short comings of these devices, which are ridiculously pathetic” platforms for consuming content and surfing the Internet, said CEO and co-founder Sean Byrnes. “If I’m on the phone and I’m reading an RSS article, and I click on it to read more, the chances that my phone is going to be able to read it with a built-in browser are pretty much nonexistent.”
Flurry recently raised $3.75 million in Series A financing and has accrued 150,000 users since its service came online in January 2006. And while it has yet to see any revenue, Byrnes said the company is experimenting with interstitial ads and other marketing vehicles the company can monetize without irritating consumers.
But while Flurry’s approach may differ from that of ZenZui and other zoom-based user interfaces, Byrnes said the wave of outside-the-box thinking can only help spur uptake of mobile data offerings.
“I’m glad to see innovation finally happening at the device level,” Byrnes said. “I’m excited. Personally, I think the market is finally taking off. Mass consumers are finally asking the question about what they can do on the phone.”