Chennai: If you have a new phone, it is most likely you have one with a colour screen that can access the Internet. Many people who have Internet access on their mobile phones just stick to the "free" sites that their telecom operator allows and spend time (and money) downloading ring-tones and picture messages. More serious people sign up for proper mobile Internet access to check their email accounts on the go. A few use mobile Internet access to check on news, their friends' blogs or even check into work at their corporate extranets.

However, if you find email a compelling reason to subscribe for mobile Internet access, it should be easy for you to move the next level easily enough.

Most people who use the mobile phone browser for the first time find it difficult to cope with reading off a small screen. And to make it even more difficult, finding one's way around a page, with all those distracting pictures and ads, in such a small screen is frustrating.

But help is at hand: You can use any of four tools that are listed in this article for a fairly smooth web experience on your mobile phone.

Basic service

First up is skweezer (www.skweezer.net) . This service not only optimises a web page for comfortable viewing on the mobile, but also offers you some additional features if you sign up for a free account: you can add websites to your skweezer account's favourites; and you get a free email account. Skweezer can also translate pages into several languages. You have the option to view a page with or without any images.

Next up is IYHY (www.iyhy.com) , a plain vanilla optimiser that offers only one additional feature: if you sign up, you can bookmark your favourite websites and can access them through your IYHY account at any time. This service is so basic that it does not even offer you the option of displaying the images in the web page.

More friendlier

Microsoft's MSN Mobile Search (http://mobile.msn.com/search/) can make web pages friendlier on the mobile, but has one major drawback: you can access web pages only by searching for them. For instance, if you want to access The Hindu website, you would have to search for "The Hindu" and then click through to the page from the search results. And, you have to remember to click on the mobile version. The MSN service does not offer the option to hide or show images in the web page you are viewing.

Works well

The last in the list is Google's so-called "mobilizer" (www.google.com/gwt/n) , only because it is a product that is not named even in its page! Like most google services, it looks basic but works well. This service also allows you to view a "no images" version of the web page you would like to see.

Adding a "mobilized" web page to your favourites is not an option, but the functionality of this site will be overtaken by the mobile Google personalised page. You can add news feeds from your favourite sources as well as check your Gmail account, all from your personalised Google Page.

Of course, services like these will become unnecessary in a while as more and more content publishers will start putting up mobile-friendly websites and services, but until then, these sites should keep you on the go and connected.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail