Transcoding sites for a mobile can be tricky

I've been talking with folks about transcoding for a long time, and it's slipped into and out of my thoughtstream many times, mainly because I thought transcoding to be leading our thinking down the wrong path.

Transcoding is the re-rendering (through some proxy server) of a Web page into something that looks good and works well on a mobile. One fine example of transcoding is Google.

If you do a Google search from your phone, Google recognizes that it's a phone searching and gives you a results page that is slightly different from what you would see on your PC browser. Then, when you click the link, Google serves you a text-only page that works on a mobile browser.

I guess that's Transcoding 101 for you.

But, the simplicity is misleading. If you try to save the bookmark of the page Google served up to you, it will have a Google proxy address, not the direct address to that page. Also, some simple items like text boxes, say, for a site search, do not show up (this is actually the problem that set off this nano-rant). And finally, to add to (my) frustration, there is no way to view the page natively - while there are some helpful links that Google puts at the bottom of the pages they served, there is no way for me to get out of the Google transcoding.

So, while Google transcoding of all sites that you Google search for with your mobile can be very helpful, it highlights the pitfalls of transcoding - proxy issues, level of lost info, etc. - I am still not won over by the transcoding believers.

If you want to explore this topic further, search for 'Google' 'transcoding' 'mobile'.