RE: URLs and access issues

This missed the list for some reason - investigating.


________________________________

	From: Ray Anderson [mailto:ray@bango.net] 
	Sent: 10 August 2005 21:49
	To: marcus saw; Nicolas Combelles; public-bpwg@w3.org
	Cc: Tim Moss
	Subject: RE: URLs and access issues
	
	
	Actually, the reason that Japanese advertisers have to publish 2
URL's on posters is due to a flaw/feature in the original spec / design
of iMode
	
	Since i-mode accept-type (sent by the browser) was simply
text/html, it was extremely tricky to distinguish from "big browsers"
that also use text/html.  To provide one site that supported iMode
phones and browsers required some pretty complex rules for these, based
on User-Agent.  (WAP as used by KDDI did not have that problem, but most
phones were i-Mode).  Our expert  tells me the O2 iMode phones send
through an O2 imode identifier as part of the user agent.  But this
can't be relied on across the board.  And for the worst case, we just
have to maintain a device list and work from that.  Pretty messy.
Unfortunately the MIME type is identical for chtml and html.  
	
	On the other hand, the little "phone picture" you see near URL's
is indeed a clue to try it on your mobile.  Thats what I'm suggesting we
encourage content providers to do with their sites, once they have set
them up to provide content for phones.
	
	ray
	
	At 03:05 10/08/2005, marcus saw wrote:
	

		Just to give you an idea of how this problem is
currently solved in Japan. 
		 
		It is quite normal to see posters on the trains and
metro system here in Tokyo which display two URLS: one for the 'normal'
website' and one, usually with a small mobile phone logo next to it
showing the URL for the mobile site.  The most common form of mobile URL
is to use a 'mobile' sub-directory for example: http://something.jp/m/ ,
sub-domains, eg: http://m.something.jp/ are less common.
		 
		There is already the definite distinction in Japan
between 'website' and 'mobile phone site' and the public know what to
expect from each type of URL advertised.