Going for on the go: A look at websites serving mobile users

Keeping up with the phones is vital for any business expecting to succeed with mobile customers. Some are doing a great job, while others fall far short of meeting customers' needs.

The best sites for the Anywhere Web were announced recently by the Yankee Group (yankeegroup.com), a Boston-based technology research and consulting group. Its third annual survey of mobile websites rated the top shopping, transportation, technology and mobile phone carrier sites.

Scoring was based on site availability, download speed, content, design and effectiveness. Only 16 of the 48 sites surveyed received passing scores of 70 or higher. The categories surveyed changes each year.

The top scoring mobile shopping site was Walmart (walmart.com), with an overall score of 75 out of a possible 100. Judges said the site was the clear winner, featuring limited links, a good store finder and excellent search and product information. The site auto-detected the type of device accessing the site.

The Walmart site also worked well on "feature phones." These are phones that fall below the smart-phone category.

Best Buy (bestbuy.com) came in second with a 68 and Amazon (amazon.com) was third at 67.

Three sites tied for first place in the transportation category with scores of 73 -- JetBlue (jetblue.com), Amtrak (amtrak.com) and Bay Area Rapid Transit (bart.gov).

The New York Metropolitan Transit Authority site (mta.info) was a close second, with a 72. Third went to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (mbta.info) with a 71.

Google's mobile site (google.com) took top honors in the technology category. It also was the highest-scoring site across all categories with an 81. Judges liked the streamlined simplicity, mapping and click-to-call phone numbers.

Second went to Bing (bing.com) with a 70. AOL placed third with a 69.

The national wireless carriers category was the most surprising, as none got a passing mark. Sprint (sprint.com) stood out with a 59. AT&T (att.com) and Verizon (verizon.com) tying for second with scores of 15. T-Mobile (tmobile.com) took third, with 14.

Judges were critical of sites that were accessible only by smart phones, which includes all the entries in this category except Sprint.

Yankee Group senior analyst Tole Hart said top mobile sites share several traits, including full functionality, excellent back-end performance, device detection and location-based services.

"Best-in-class sites have emerged on the Web. The sites figure out what device you're on and deliver a custom experience," the Yankee Group's Carl Howe said. "It's a remarkable evolution of programming and content. Businesses that don't publish to the mobile Web ignore their clients at their peril."

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