Will the web of the future be customized to what language you speak AND what device you use to go online???

iphone.facebook.com
digg.com/iphone
iphone.ebay.com

Thoughts???

A really bad thing.

The idea that sites will maintain simple, lightweight versions of their content as alternatives to their normal flash-javascript craploaded sites is good, but the idea that they'd tie the URI to a device is bad.

But when the lemmings of the world jump on to something like an iPhone, the people who need to make a living have no choice but to follow along & try to profit.

It's only happening with the iPhone because it's the latest fad. It'll go away.

I think the approach should be more generic, because this one limits your audience.

eg, mobile.ebay.com... palmtop.ebay.com... handheld.ebay.com...

I think devices should support the internet we've got. That's one of the things that drew me to the N800. It has it's issues on the web, but, overall, I don't know of a device that does better at that price point.

I love the facebook iphone friendly link...so good on the N800.
hey you should check out my thread iphone friendly sites. lotsa links.

zerojay I doubt its just going to go away.
itouch will encourage more site admins, to go the iphone friendly route sooner than later.
if it was just the iphone, I think yeah maybe it is a fad.
With the itouch alot of people come next year are not going to be purchasing ipods anymore, and are going straight to the itouch.
sites will go itouch friendly.

I hope that <device>.example.com is not the way we're headed. Wasn't that what http://, etc... were going to solve? We already have a wap:// for mobile devices (yes, it's pathetic, but maybe that just means we need a new service type).

Apple shouldn't allow this kind of stuff to happen. The iPhone and iTouch have the most advanced web browsers for mobile devices and should be able to handle the REAL internet. All of these iPhone optimized websites imply that the iPhone's web browsing is inadequate.

Actually, I think the reason for these sites is not Safari but AT&T's edge network and poor screen resolution.

The winning standard is almost always the most practical and 'cheapest' (time & cost) to implement.

Any site operator is a fool if they don't try to invite these iphone owners into their userbase. Depending on your camp allegiance (a.k.a 'religion' to some) iphone owners are either a). fools or b). savvy and trendy audience. Either way they've shelled out the chunk of change to get into the latest fad and they should a). be foolish enough or b). be rich enough to spend some more cash on your site too, whatever it is you're peddling directly or indirectly through your site.

So, with no clear and easy to implement 'portable web' standard guaranteed to work on all mobile devices (css stylesheets? hah, you try work that crap out.. there's enough problem just between desktop IE x.x and firefox, not to mention opera and the multitudes of mobile browsers), if I were a web developer I would be more than glad to have a 'reference platform' of sort that contains a desireable audience to program for.