After posting yesterday about the issues surrounding mobile phones and smartphones, I saw the following story on ReadWriteWeb.
HP Labs India have developed a method, called SiteonMobile, that allows any mobile phone user to surf the Web using either SMS text message or voice commands.
The cloud-based technology is designed to broaden access [to] the Worldwide Web to those whose only “connected” device is a mobile phone without a built-in Web browser – as is the case in most of the developing world.
SiteonMobile requires a website publisher to Web-enable their site’s content using something called “tasklets.” These widget-like tools encompass the steps one would perform on a website to complete a particular task. For example, a publisher could create a “tasklet” for booking airline tickets or getting a daily horoscope. (The Web via SMS can be fun, too, right?) Designing these tasklets requires “little or no programming experience,” says Sudhir Dixit, director of HP Labs India.
Once the tasklets have been created, users can send a text message to a particular number to get the information they desire returned to their mobile phone, thanks to these tasklets which reside in HP’s cloud. Or they can dial another number to receive voice-based information via an interactive voice response (IVR) service.
Currently the service is invitation only, but appears to be an excellent response to some of the issues caused by the move to mobile.
