blob: fde5c3f3721150ed4e1b62537ce10dc6b4b0876b (
plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
|
ZenZui, a newly formed company that crawled out of the Microsoft technology research program, has [launched a new zoomable mobile web browsing interface][1]. Using what amounts to a widget platform, Zenzui aims to make web browsing through mobile devices a more user-friendly experience.
Instead of navigating through a traditional web browsing experience, which pretty much anyone will admit sucks on a mobile phone, the ZenZui system creates pages of clickable tiles. Clicking on a tile then zooms to that page, feed or other service.
It's somewhat difficult to explain clearly so I've embedded a demo movie of ZenZui in action (complete with an awful soundtrack) after the jump.
However, to say that ZenZui let's you browse the web from your phone is something of an exaggeration. The truth is that ZenZui lets you browse a subset of the web. The Zenzui site is currently down, but when it comes back there's a [chart showing the ZenZui content partners][2] which is extent of ZenZui's interpretation of the web.
The first thing most people will notice in the demo video below is that ZenZui bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple's iPhone interface, but ZenZui doesn't necessarily use a touchcreen interface, there's keypad navigation as well.
And ZenZui isn't so much a platform as a series of widget-like elements strung together by a unifying interface -- zoomable widgets from specific service partners are not the web.
However ZenZui is offering to split ad revenue with widget developers as a means of encouraging developers to build widgets for ZenZui. High-minded developers can also release ad-free widgets which will display promotional messages non-profits.
Still I can't help agreeing with Techcrunch's Nick Gonzalez who [writes][3] that, while ZenZui is a step in the right direction since it removes more content control from mobile service providers, it still leaves much to be desired. "mobile phone platforms should move in the direction of open standards, which have benefited desktop computing platforms so much."
As it is ZenZui fails to do that and remains little more than yet another advert-laden widget service for your mobile device.
<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/r12eUXJNbl8"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/r12eUXJNbl8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
[1]: http://www.zenzui.com/ "ZenZui"
[2]: http://www.zenzui.com/images/contentProductsDiagram.png "ZenZui widget chart"
[3]: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/27/zenzui-on-mobile-browsing-the-microsoft-way/ "Techcrunch on ZenZui"
|
