Playing around with the new Yahoo Go 3 application got me to thinking that most of my mobile Internet needs do not really require a browser. As I blogged here, Go 3 is Yahoo’s new mobile developer platform, designed to facilitate the creation of mobile applications by independent software developers. On your mobile phone, Go 3 is a single icon that serves as a browserless widget container (Yahoo calls it a carousel), where the widgets are software applications created by third parties such as Ebay and MTV. According to Yahoo, the carousel format is optimized to present information effectively on a mobile phone screen.

I have owned more than a dozen Internet ready phones with almost as many different mobile browsers. But, much as I like having access to the Internet on my phone, I rarely use it for browsing because it isn’t worth the hassle. The fact is that mobile browsing stinks. Even the best mobile browsers (Apple’s iPhone Safari and Opera Mobile) leave much to be desired. It’s not the browsers’ fault. The mobile phone form factor is inherently difficult to work with. People, including myself, tacitly accept this as an inconvenient fact of life. But, like spotty cellular coverage, one that is still better than any of the alternatives.

It was a minor revelation, then, when it occurred to me that the mobile browser may not be as indispensable a part of the mobile web as most seem to assume. If you think about it, a person’s browsing habits while on the go differ from their browsing habits when in front of a PC. In my case, it’s access to specific bits of information – such as a restaurant review or the latest sales stats – that makes a mobile browser handy. I seldom find myself wanting to aimlessly meander around the net while in my car or on the street, the way I am wont to do when at my desk. While the latter certainly requires a browser, the former lends itself to specific purpose-built widgets particularly well. I know that I would access the mobile Internet much more frequently if I had a few browserless widgets that provided the bits of information I want when mobile.

If my opinion is representative of others, it means a lot for the thousands of developers that are rushing to put their apps onto mobile phones. The main challenges in developing mobile applications are:

• Less memory than a PC – Users can only install a limited number of applications, so application developers must compete for space on the device.
• Slower CPUs than a PC – Users can only run one or two applications at a time, so application developers must compete for space on the active task list.
• Multiple Operating Systems – With no fewer than six popular operating environments (Windows, Blackberry, Palm, Symbian, Apple and Android) and many many more that are lesser known but still in use, application developers must struggle to ensure that applications work on every one.
• Limited battery life – Use of the device CPU must be minimized in order to conserve battery, so application developers must try to move all heavy processing to the server side.
• Smaller screens – The averge mobile desktop can only display 15-20 icons, so mobile developers must compete for 1-click access to their applications. They must also format menus and such to conserve screen real estate.
• No mouse – The standard point-and-click mousing paradignm is not available, so application developers must adapt to scroll wheels or trackballs.

To date, mobile developers have looked to solve the first two limitations by creating web-based applications. That only half works however, due to the last three limitations. Notably, the best feature of Web 2.0 – Ajax type browser scripting – is not practical on a mobile browser due to the heavy local processing tasks. The result is all too evident in the mobile web we all live with today. Until advances in hardware technology overcome these limitations, mobile application developers will not be able to replicate the PC web-browsing experience in any real way.

But there is an alternative it seems, and Yahoo has found it. By providing a single application environment with potentially viable answers to all of the hardware limitations mentioned above, Yahoo takes much of the headache out of mobile application development. All things equal, it means that more developers will port more applications to more mobile phones, more quickly. The result would be a more useful and user-friendly mobile web. Bravo to Yahoo for identifying the challenge and taking it on.

Of course, whether Yahoo can execute on the strategy remains to be seen. For one it would require mobile application developers to embrace Yahoo’s browserless widget container format, and create widgets for it. For another, it would require users to adopt different behavior when using the mobile web. The first is a much more significant challenge than the second, but neither are any mean feat.

And, if my premise proves correct, and mobile applications thrive in browserless widget containers, then you can be sure that others will follow Yahoo’s in their footsteps. After all, being the company behind the dominant browserless widget container would put Yahoo in the catbird seat. Certainly Google will not sit by idly while this happens.

The good news for Yahoo is that they have first-movers advantage, and a large user-base that will make it easier to encourage user adoption. Additionally, few others are positioned correctly to pull it off. Because the widget container must work seamlessly with all operating systems, the dominant operating system providers would be at cross purposes if they attempted a similar strategy. Could you imagine Microsoft promoting a widget container that made it easier for programs to run on Linux? Me neither. (Google could likely pull it off though, despite Android).

Only time will tell if the factors in its favor are sufficient to get Yahoo’s browserless widget container to the tipping point. But, its a meme worth keeping an eye on. And for that reason, so is Yahoo.

____________________

More: New York Times