Learning2.0 : Journey to about2findout.com

Here is what I wanted to share on making the limited mobile web version of the site:

- There is a special domain extension available for mobile sites: .mobi . As my normal registrant that I use for .com and other domains (directnic.com) did not offer .mobi domains, I registered it very cheap on godaddy.com . Godaddy.com is probably one of the biggest or the biggest web domain registrant and they offer a lot of add-on services. In fact, they are so commercially oriented it's very hard not to just buy what you wanted without anything more :-). I redirected the about2findout.mobi site to a subsection of the existing site, as it is in fact just part of the same asp.net web application. (www.about2findout.com/mobile)

- It was hard to choose what to implement and what not. So far it is a very limited site compared to the full web brother, but I hope just enough for mobile phones and their limited bandwidth and screen size.

- I wanted to make it look a little like iPhone applications. Apple does have a SDK (Software Development Kit) for the iPhone, but I didn't find my way in it immediately, and besides I have no time to learn yet another platform or programming language. As far as I know there are no 'iPhone button generators' on the net available, so I ended up making the buttons on the well known mycoolbutton.com, and adjusting them manually for size.

- If you want to test how your site looks like on an iPhone Safari browser, go to iphonetester.com .

- Windows Mobile devices and the provided Pocket Internet Explorer have a lot of issues with an asp.net Ajax enabled web site. The CSS style sheets don't always behave in the same way as on a computer, and for example the ProgressPanel didn't behave well. So I removed a lot of ajax functions in the end. It is possible to run limited Asp.net Ajax functionality on Windows Mobile version 6 or higher, but I just didn't want to figure out what works and what doesn't. If you have that time however, you can start with this excellent video tutorial on MSDN.

- If you make your mobile site with ASP.NET 2.0 on Visual Studio 2005, you will need to update the browsercap files, so that your site would recognize the Windows Mobile 6 platform. There is a good article on how to do that here (Jim Wilson).

Labels: .mobi, about2findout.mobi, ajax, asp.net, mobile

A first draft of the mobile version of about2findout.com is online now. Just like its big brother, it is a web-based quiz site, but in a stripped down version. It is multilingual English and Dutch, allows you to log in with your about2findout.com userid, has a high score section, has limited profile information, and allows to do random questions. At this point in time, only multiple choice questions are available on the mobile version.

Here is how it works:
- With your iPhone or other mobile phone, browse to http://www.about2findout.mobi
- The home page has buttons for random question, log in or out, changing language, viewing your profile, the hall of fame with high scores, and an about button. You cannot register for a new account with the mobile version, but you can use the one you created on the about2findout.com site here. You can always go back to this page via the link on the top of the screen.
- Push the button random question (pink button) to get a choice of 3 random questions. If you want one of the questions, click the arrow button next to it. Or push the refresh button to get 3 new choices.
- You can only do multiple choice questions at this time. Select the appropriate answer via the a, b, c, d, e or f button and get feedback. (You cannot get links or more information, just basic feedback.)

So far I got it to work on an iPhone emulator and on my own Windows Mobile 6 device, but it needs a lot more testing. Let me know how it works out!

Labels: about2findout.mobi, iphone, mobile

About2findout.com is over 800 questions big now. Number 800 is part of the 'Yet another science quiz'. There are over 200 people and 70 quizzes now.

Thanks to all the people who contributed questions and quizzes so far, and please keep 'em coming.

Labels: about2findout.com, science

Last night I added a quiz on one of the most popular things around: the iPhone. I don't own one, but I played with it when I was in the US last year. One day I hope to find the time to write a mobile version of the about2findout.com site, that you can view on the iPhone or other mobile devices. One day...

Labels: about2findout.com, apple, iphone, quiz

So how did the site do in the last month? As always, an update on the latest numbers, brought to you by the free Google Analytics service.


- The site visits went up again to 3776 visits, for 7.85 pages per visit on average. That makes almost 30.000 page views. 83% are new visits.
- The top day was 25 March with 373 visits. That day the site was listed on the Museum of Modern Beta blog.
- Top 5 countries are United States, India, Italy, United Kingdom and Belgium.
- Most popular quiz was the one on Confusing Words.
- 15 new quizzes, 84 new members and 139 new questions were added to the site.
- 59% internet explorer, 38% firefox

So March was a good month, but I wished I found some more time to bring you new features. April looks busy too, but I'll do my best.

Labels: about2findout.com