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Mobile Ebooks, Self-publishing, Digital Storytelling

Which Links Shared on Twitter Are Mobile Friendly?

A mobile friendly version of the Mashable article

Recently Mashable published interesting numbers showing that Twitter users are likely to share a story without actually reading it.

In my opinion, one of the major reasons is that users are afraid of opening links on their mobile phones. And as much as 37% of users access Twitter via mobile devices as this infographic shows.

Compared to Facebook, where every link was clicked on average more than three times, Twitter received only 0.38 clicks per tweet.

Are you in a group of tweeple who share content without reading? I have to admit that I do it from time to time -  when I know a post has been published on a blog with no mobile theme. I usually read it later, via Instapaper or Readability.

So, if this is such an issue, is there a way to find out which links are mobile friendly before clicking them?

Most popular url shorteners, bit.ly or t.co, don’t give a hint what kind of site will be opened. There are many shorteners, however, which are a guarantee that you’ll easily open a page in a browser of your mobile phone – and enjoy reading it.

http://tumblr.com

Native url shortener of a popular blogging platform. Every newly published post is shared with tumblr.com short link.

http://post.ly

Similar to Tumblr, all posts from Posterous are shared automatically with post.ly right after they are published.

http://wp.me

Links to WordPress.com blogs, which are mobile friendly by default. However not all the links may open mobile interfaces as wp.me shortener can be also used, via plugins, by users of self-hosted WordPress blogs.

http://amzn.to

Links to Amazon sites. Opposite to microblogging services, where in most cases photos or short notes are shared, this short link can lead to a Kindle book you can start reading in a few clicks. Read a full article about it.

http://rdd.me

Link shortener from Readability, a service which turns web pages into a reading mode. When you click on rdd.me you’ll be redirected to a distraction-free and mobile-friendly version of the article, even if it’s published at a blog with no mobile theme.

* * *

Popular news or tech sites use their own shorteners and have mobile versions as well, so you can also be sure to open the right kind of link:
Mashable – http://on.mash.to
Engadget – http://engt.com
ReadWriteWeb – http://rww.to

Most of photo, video and localization platforms also use mobile friendly links, naming only three of them:
Foursquare – http://4sq.com
Gowalla – http://gowal.la
YouTube – http://youtu.be

Things change fast. More and more sites are launching mobile versions. So, next time, when you’ll be scrolling through Twitter stream on your mobile phone, just remember – now you have much more chances to open a link and read the article.