Go mobile or go home

While we’ve been working hard getting idibidi packed full of the best mobile content on the net, we’ve also had a little extra time available to create a Facebook Fan page! We’ll be updating the site with anything that looks cool in the mobile world and not just mobile website related. So, if you want to keep an eye on some of the more exciting developments around such as what’s happening with the Google Nexus One, Apple iPhone and even futuristic augmented reality then head over to Facebook and become a fan.

After many months of effort, the idibidi mobile website directory has launched today!

The Directory

We’ve compiled our initial list of the best the mobile Internet has to offer, packaged things up, taken mugshots and listed them in one convenient directory so you can find them with a simple click on your phone. idibidi is available to any mobile browser which supports xhtml of which some of the more notable ones are Mobile Internet Explorer, Opera Mobile, Opera Mini and Skyfire. In terms of devices, we think idibidi looks best on the HTC Touch Diamond and Pro, and of course, the ever appealing iPhone.

So why another web directory? Well, in short, we thought there was a need to take the website directory concept and give it a new lease of life. Sure there are loads out there, but with idibidi, you can take directory entries and add them directly to your own personal idibidi home page. Set your idibidi home page as your initial startup page in your mobile browser and you have readily accessible bookmarks to quality content as soon as you start surfing the web. Also, a lot of website directories simply “collect links” to sites rather than vet them for quality first. In idibidi, we check out each and every submission to make sure it has compelling content and that it displays effectively in a range of mobile browsers.

(Nokia N95 screenshot)

Click Once For Quality

idibidi is a mobile website directory designed for use on mobile devices or desktop computers. Containing moderated listings with screenshots and reviews for news, sports,entertainment, social networks, jobs, travel and much more, idibidi is not full of junk. When you are mobile, navigating the Internet is still largely a pain so being able to trust a good source to take you to high quality content quickly is important. That’s what idibidi provides. A one-click trip to quality content.

Customise!

Register for a free accountand you have the ability to add listings to your own mobile home page so that it’s even easier to get to your stuff. Simply click the ‘add’ link on any directory listing and it will appear on your homepage. Set your idibidi home page as your mobile browser home page and you really are one click away from your favourite mobile websites. You can also manage your account details and favourites or access the idibidi blog through your mobile too.

Get Recommendations

idibidi will provide website recommendations it finds in the directory based on your chosen favourites meaning you don’t have to go looking for interesting websites, they will come to you! Find out more about idibidi from your phone at idibidi.mobi or from more desk bound locations at idibidi.com.

idibidi. You need to get out more.

Here in the UK it’s been a great couple of weeks for summer sport! A marathon final in the men’s tennis singles at Wimbledon between Federer and Roddick will surely go down as one of the greatest ever.

In cricket, the Ashes test series began with a nail-biting finish in Cardiff with England holding on to draw with a superior Australia. Across the channel, the fantastic Tour de France is underway.

At idibidi we’ve been trying to find time (between preparing to go live, watching TV and listening to Test Match Special) to discover the pick of the bunch for mobile websites providing live coverage some of our favourite sports.

Wimbledon Mobile

We we’re impressed with Wimbledon mobile which provided not only great coverage and live scores but also detailed player information. The site itself is simply designed providing broad compatibility across devices but quality has not been compromised. Visually, the familiar green and purple Wimbledon colour scheme makes the site feel like a true extension of it’s big brother .org. Use of images was again simple and not overdone giving some nice eye-candy without forcing you to download large sluggish pages. Overall we liked Wimbledon mobile but would have liked to have seen some element of personalisation provided. The ability to follow your favourite players for example would have made the site even more compelling.

For cricket fans the world over, there doesn’t seem to be much competition out there at the moment for Cricinfo . A very simple site providing news and scores for all major internationals. The content on the site is rich and fresh and combined with the mobicast downloadis enough to keep cricket fans up to date with every ball bowled. Design and presentation however is definitely lacking presumably to make the site compatible with the maximum number of devices. On higher end phones such as the HTC Touch Diamond or Nokia N95 the basic text fills about 40% of the screen horizontally while the adverts fit nicely. This is disappointing. Come on Cricinfo! We love cricket, but we don’t love the design of Cricinfo yet.

Finally, the Tour de France. Possibly the greatest, most famous cycling race in the world. Why then, in 2009 can we not find a decent mobile website covering it? The official site for le tour is fantastic! Oh how we pine to have some of that excitement, pulse racing, yellow jersey hero addiction on our phones! We did take a look at Velonews but as the content is predominantly text we we left a little under-whelmed.

So, our first look at some mobile sports websites left us feeling a little hollow. Wimbledon definitely wins this round with a combination of great content and good presentation, but for Cricinfo and Velonews we would like to see a lot more. It seems these sites are aiming at broad reach at the expense of the capabilities found in more mid to high end phones. With a little more effort we don’t see why we can’t see more quality, rich content especially as doing so would likely see them cement their position as THE mobile destination for their respective sports.

First of all, hello, and welcome to the idibidi blog! idibidi is a new mobile website directory which we hope will become one of the best resources for finding great mobile website content on the internet.  The main site, idibidi.com is for use on your PC or Mac, but we’re more excited about idibidi.mobi which is designed for use on your mobile phone or pda. With loads of great mobile content organised into categories and tagged, finding interesting websites while you’re out and about is a snap. Register for a mobile idibidi account and we’ll give you your own mobile home page where you can add your favourites, get mobile website recommendations and more.

We’re just putting the finishing touches to our site now and putting it through it’s paces to make sure everything is running smoothly, then we’ll be cutting the red tape and venturing out into the world wide web. So much to get through but exciting times are ahead!

idibidi. Go mobile or go home.