The rise of smartphones and other mobile handheld devices has increased the importance of optimizing websites for smartphones and other mobile devices. There are three core aspects that need to be taken into consideration. The size of the display which is often a lot smaller than standard desktop display resolutions, the technologies supported by those devices and the bandwidth which often results in slower connection speeds and as a result page loading times.
MobiTest is a free online service that webmasters can use to test the performance of websites on mobile devices. The service is completely free and requires no registration.
Webmasters find the options of the screenshot above on the frontpage of the service. All that it takes to run a test is to enter a website url into the form on the start page. The remaining options are completely optional. They include a menu to select a specific mobile device for the test (several iPhone and Android models mostly from Canada but also the Netherlands and United States), the number of runs, video capturing of the loading and whether the results should be made public or private.
Tests are then started with a click on the Run Performance Test button. The service will add the speed test to the end of the queue. Information about the test’s status are always displayed on the screen.
The developers suggest to bookmark the unique page address to come back later if a lot of websites are listed in the queue.
Each test result highlights several important information. Among them a screenshot of the website and how it is displayed on the selected mobile device, the page loading time and the total size of the page in Kilobytes. MobiTest grades each tested web page and displays a waterfall chart that highlights all connections that were made during the test.
Especially the ability to create a video snapshot of the page loading time on the selected mobile device is handy. As are the different locations and devices that webmasters can choose from. An option to run tests with all supported devices would have been handy.
Webmasters who want to test their website’s mobile performance can head over to the Blaze MobiTest website to do so.
© Martin Brinkmann for gHacks Technology News | Latest Tech News, Software And Tutorials, 2011. | Permalink |
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Post tags: mobile devices, mobitest, page speed, webmaster, website performance
