Skweezer
Type of site | Mobile HTML Transcoder |
---|---|
Owner | Skweezer, Inc. |
Created by | Skweezer, Inc. |
URL | http://www.skweezer.com |
Registration | Not required, Free |
Skweezer is a Mobile HTML Transcoder for users of handheld devices such as personal digital assistants and mobile phones. Skweezer reformats and compresses web content in order to reduce a web page's file size and makes the downloaded content easier to view on a small screen [1]. Skweezer was developed by Skweezer, Inc. (f.k.a. Greenlight Wireless Corporation) and initially released in 2003. Skweezer's technology is used to mobilize Web content service by search engines, Web portals, and wireless carriers such as IAC/InterActiveCorp [2], Bloglines [3], and Orange SA [4]. Currently Skweezer is available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Japanese languages and serves customers in over 175 countries worldwide [5].
Mobile browsing innovations
Skweezer has introduced several mobile browsing innovations since its inception, including the first:
- Portal-based transcoding engine: Skweezer (2003)
- Globally distributed mobile advertising platform: Skweezer Ads (2004)
- Pagination system that splits large Web pages up for viewing on cell phones (2005)
- Mobile Web page translation feature (2005)
- Portal-based mobile RSS reader (2005) [6]
- "Find in page" search that carries Web search keywords into search result pages (2007)
Controversy
In 2004 Skweezer became the subject of controversy in the Blogosphere when blogger Jason Calcanis objected to advertisements being placed by Skweezer on transcoded versions of blog content [7]. A debate ensued over the legality and propriety of proxy-based services such as anonymizers and transcoders placing ads against other publishers' content and the scope of coverage under "fair use" copyright protection. While this is a subject that is still under debate, Greenlight Wireless stopped placing ads on transcoded content in early 2005. As of June 2010, the such ads were being displayed again.
Awards
- 2008 Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Best Software Awards: Winner - Pocket PC Internet: Web Compression Service
- 2007 MobileVillage Mobile Star Awards: Gold Star - Consumer Software: Mobile Web Content Aggregator / Portal
- 2007 PDA Friendly Website Awards: Winner - PDA Home Page category
- 2007 Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Best Software Awards: Winner - Pocket PC Internet: Web Compression Service
- 2006 MobileVillage Mobile Star Awards: Gold Star - Personal Software: Mobile Web Content Provider category [10]
- 2005 MobileVillage Mobile Star Awards: Gold Star - Personal Software: Mobile Web Content Provider category [11]
- 2005 Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine Best Software awards: Finalist - Browsers & Web Utilities category [12]
Competitors
- Wubiquo Weaving the web for Ubiquity. Position your business for the mobile economy
- Microsoft Bing with "optimize web pages for your phone" enabled in "search settings"
- Google Mobilizer
- BareSite
- Mowser
- IYHY
- MobileLeap Inc.
- EzSurf by InfoGin