Digital immigrant

OK. So Google has Goo.gl, Facebook has Fb.me, there’s TinyURL, Bit.ly, and there’s WordPress’ wp.me. And there are 5478 other URL shortener services available to choose from. So here’s my question: when are the big mobile browsers going to enter the battle? When’s Opera going to do something similar?

There are a few mobile URL shorteners out there: QuickTr.im for iPhone and Android devices; there’s Mobile Tiny URL for keypad phones; and there’s Delivr.com.

I do not have an iPhone nor do I have an Android phone so I tested out Delivr.com and Mobile Tiny URL. Delivr.com works well but it still doesn’t have the functionality that I’m looking for — shorten a URL with one tap of my stylus or one tap of a key. And it needs to be integrated into the phone’s software so that I can copy the URL onto the clipboard and send it to friends via sms messages or as part of an email. I can only use Delivr.com with Opera Mobile, not with Opera Mini.

It’s not enough that I can shorten and simplify a complex URL; I want a mobile URL shortener service that will allow me to press a key on my phone that shortens the URL while I’m viewing that particular page. It needs to mimic how one would use a URL shortener service on a computer, but it also needs to cater to the many phones that cannot use copy and paste (yet). The user would overcome this liability by writing down the — simpler! better! faster! — URL on a piece of paper and then sending it to a friend.

While Mobile Tiny URL is cute, it is much more beneficial to a user whose phone has a keypad. The service assumes the user has to tap a key several times to get to the specific letter they want to use: 3 times to get to the letter ‘c’, for example. But this isn’t always the case. Some phones   allow you to select the exact letter you want without having to tap the ‘a’ key 3 times.

So the perfect mobile URL shortener service would need to do the following:

Be compatible with the phone’s software

Opera Mobile gets this right — I can copy and past a URL into an sms message and vice versa. But not all mobile browsers allow this — Opera Mini 5.2, which is one of my favourite mobile browsers, doesn’t –  and not everyone has a Windows Mobile phone.

It should be easy to use

Users shouldn’t have to fiddle with the browser’s advanced features to enable the function. It could even be an app that the user downloads onto their phone.

Compatibility

Whether it is a website or an app, it needs to be compatible with a myriad of mobile browsers as well as a myriad of WAP-enabled cellphones. This might be a challenge but I’m confident that there are plenty of clever developers out there who can build superb applications.

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