[uf-discuss] Mobile browser with support for microformats

[Mr. Meitar Moscovitz]

On Jan 7, 2009, at 5:01 PM, Aleksander Kmetec wrote:

> Hey, everyone!
>
> I was hoping you could give me some feedback on my proof-of-concept  
> mobile bowser which is called Mosembro.

Hi Aleksander,

Hearing about Mosembro is *the* reason I downloaded the Android  
SDK. ;) So at least in concept, my feedback is purely positive. I like  
this idea a lot. It's one I might call "brilliantly obvious in  
retrospect." (A compliment.)

> It is meant to demonstrate how taking advantage of embedded semantic  
> metadata (in this case microformats) can help us build a more user- 
> friendly browser for mobile devices. Since mobile devices are much  
> more awkward to use than full size computers, even simple things  
> like automating a task which would otherwise require you to copy  
> some text from one app to another, can make a huge difference.
>
> You can have a look at it here:
> http://lexandera.com/mosembro/
>
> Regards,
> Aleksander

I'm curious, do you describe or document the microformat that Mosembro  
uses to provide its "consistent site-wide search" functionality  
anywhere? I'm having a look around and playing with Mosembro in  
Android's emulator now, but I can't seem to find mention of this idea  
anywhere on the Microformats wiki or the mailing list archives, and my  
Java knowledge is way too poor to efficiently go code diving into  
Mosembro's sources. I also tried to locate the address of the  
"Mosembro Demo Page" to see if I could view the source, but alas, I'm  
not seeing an option or that.

(Note that it's very possible I'm simply overlooking something, as is  
this is the first time I've ever seen Google's Android interface.)

Moreover, the idea of extracting a consistent search interface  
(perhaps with a standardized microformat) is appealing to me since  
many sites provide their own search forms but their locations and  
visual appearance varies wildly from site to site (and even between a  
single site's redesigns). On a mobile interface, it is often a  
nuisance to try and find the search functionality for each site.  
Therefore, a consistent UI presented by the user agent itself is  
preferable, as long as it can plug the entered text from the UI to the  
web site's own search field (which I am assuming is the point of what  
you describe possible in Mosembro, yes?).

Has there been discussion about a search microformat for functionality  
such as described above before? If so, is someone able (and willing)  
to point me in that direction so I can read up?

Thanks very much!

Cheers,
-Meitar Moscovitz
Personal: http://maymay.net
Professional: http://MeitarMoscovitz.com