Facebook and MySpace Are Mobile!

(This may be old news. In my absence I kind of lost track of which popular websites still had not launched a mobile, off-portal version.)

For you kids out there that can't get enough of Facebook and MySpace in the many hours you spend in front of your computer, you can now get your fix on your mobile phone. MySpace can be accessed at http://m.myspace.com and Facebook at http://m.facebook.com. As I don't reside in the demographic sweet spot for these social networking sites, I can't really tell you much about what you can or can't do on the mobile sites that you can do on the regular websites (Sorry!). I can tell you that Facebook prompts you to update your status as soon as you log in, so all of your friends -- real and imagined (like my readers) -- can know what you are doing when you are mobile. This makes a lot of sense. I imagine the stereotypical user makes plans with his/her friends on these websites before they head out to the bars and night clubs, but what happens if plans change once everyone is out and about? That friend with the night class that was going to meet up later gets left behind unless you have access to a computer, which is not likely in a bar.

I'll stop pretending that I know how today's teens and twentysomethings use Facebook and MySpace. It's just making me sound old. I would like to make the observation that the "m.domain-name.com" format appears to be winning out as the standard address format for mobile websites. I'm glad. It really makes the most sense to me. Most companies already have a ".com" domain. They shouldn't have to buy a ".mobi" domain as well. It also makes it easier for consumers to check if a company has a mobile website. All you have to do is replace the "www" in the company's web address with an "m" to get your answer. The "m" is also short, which is great when you are on a mobile device. Who wants to type the longer ".mobi" suffix -- or worse -- an address with a slash and even more letters and numbers beyond that?

Okay, I am way off on a tangent now. I need to go to sleep.

LinkedIn Launches Mobile Website

Okay. So I discovered a while back that LinkedIn (the leading social networking site for professionals) had a mobile version of their website at m.linkedin.com, but I couldn't figure out why it wouldn't accept my email and password. Now it makes sense. Apparently, they hadn't officially launched it yet. The Guardian has reported that LinkedIn launched their mobile service this past Monday after six weeks of testing.

I have not had the opportunity to explore it extensively yet, but it appears that it has all of the basic functionality that one would want out of a mobile LinkedIn site, including access to your own profile, contacts and recent updates, as well as the ability to search for contacts and even invite co-workers and business partners to your network.

Free Your Photos From Their Cameraphone Prison!

According to research from mobile imaging provider Ontela, over 90% of cameraphone users are interested in a service that lets them upload pictures to their PCs. Despite this interest, 75% of users failed a test to see whether they could transfer photos from their cameraphones to a popular online photo-sharing service. If you are one of the many people who have taken photos on your phone but can't seem to get them out of your phone, you will want to check out radar. Once you sign up for a free account, all you have to do is send your photo to a designated email address via MMS (picture messaging) or your email client, if your phone has one. Your photos are instantaneously posted on your own page on Radar, complete with a title (if you included one in the subject line) and date and time you sent each photo. If you want to make your photo private, all you have to do is precede your title with a "p." How easy is that? Granted, you still need to know how to send an MMS or an email from your phone, but it's obvious that Radar understands how to make a complex process simple.

I'm All A-Twitter!

Twitter lets you broadcast what you are doing to anyone who is interested anytime and anywhere. As a member of Generation X, I think I'm a bit older than the target market for Twitter. I've heard that John Edwards uses Twitter to update potential voters on his whereabouts, but I can't imagine there are too many people who want to know what I am up to RIGHT NOW...or RIGHT NOW...or RIGHT NOW. My life is just too boring, and all of my friends are too preoccupied with their own families to worry about what I am up to. But based on the level of addiction my step-kids had/have with instant messaging, Facebook and MySpace, I can see the attraction for those of you younger that me. Try it out on your mobile phone at http://m.twitter.com.