TechSpot's mobile site refresh, over 200k visitors monthly

Julio Franco

Julio Franco

Posts: 9,097   +2,048
Staff member

When we launched TechSpot's mobile site (m.techspot.com) ten months ago our goal was to mirror the experience and many of the features we offer on the main site. I'm glad to share today the response has been overwhelming. The site's usage has grown exponentially in such short timespan, and this past December we received a record 230,000 visitors!

Our smartphone-friendly destination is now serving thousands of readers daily who come to read the latest happenings in tech and personal computing. According to our stats, iPhone and Android users dominate access with a roughly even share of 44% users coming from either platform.

Today we are announcing a small refresh to the site, adding a few visual tweaks including a new drop down menu which let's you more easily browse the site and the different sections. A majority of TechSpot's content is available whether it's news, reviews or forum discussions. The site is fully functional meaning you can login to post a comment or reply to a forum thread, and content is searchable as well.

We are adding the Product Finder to the mix, so you can look up and research devices and tech products while on the go. Kudos once again to our front-end developer, Mario Estrada who came through with such a nice revamp.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/47101-techspots-mobile-site-refresh-over-200k-visitors-monthly.html

 
I noticed this late last night, Very nice update! I use the mobile site every single day on my 4S, loads fast, has never failed me except on logging into the site to post stuff, for some reason it just says that the login details are incorrect? but if i leave it say half an hour it works? Apart from that little niggle, very good website. Nice to see the product finder now in there. Keep up the good work!
 
When you click on the link in a thread reply email, it loads up the homepage instead of the discussion thread. I use Atomic as my default browser so it identifies my iPhone as a desktop so it doesn't affect me... but just some food for thought.
 
First time I have checked the mobile site on my HD7 since it was first launched. I stopped using it because it didn't render properly and I couldn't access the comments section of the site.

Very dissappointed that after 9 months the site still doesn't work on Windows Phone 7.
 
I was pleasantly surprised when I first visited m.techspot.com several months ago. It feels well designed, rather than thrown in as an afterthought. It led to me to add TechSpot as a bookmark I hit daily, both from my phone and from my PC.
 
I am not able to fully utilize the mobile version because I don't use a webkit-based browser; I own a WP7. :(

However I have accessed the site recently from an iPhone 4S, and you guys have done a great job. Although I won't use it often...

I still access the regular desktop version of the site from my WP7 though, and it works like a charm.
 
Thanks for your feedback guys. I didn't realize we were having issues with WP7, even when the full site is working, we will look into this very soon.

If you are having any other issues please post here, PM me, or write directly to my email address.
 
When we developed the site the only major browser engine was webkit and some might say it still is, so this was our primary target for mobile.

I think WP7 is a very interesting platform and we'll look into adding support for it, although it might need a lot of refactoring since most mobile JS libraries are exclusive to webkit, like Zepto, that we used instead of jQuery, to keep the website size small.

Anyways thanks for the feedback, we'll keep working on improving it.
 
The mobile version lags on my SGS Fascinate when scrolling (fully loaded pages), and the desktop version doesn't. I'll stick with the desktop version.
 
Same goes for me. It was reported in the launch thread that comments do not load on the mobile version for Wp7. As such, I use the desktop version on my titan(and then quantom) daily. I'd liked to have helped make that number bigger. :(

The problem is,after hitting the load comments button, the site refreshes as if it had done something but nothing actually happens. It'd be nice to have it fixed, but as I said, I'll get along just fine with the full version.

Care to update us if/when you fix it?
 
Hmm, after looking back, the admins actually responded to and acknowledged the wp7 issues. You guys probably just forgot. Wp7 was, and probably still is, pretty insignificant. Undeservedly imo but still true and understandable. No hard feelings.
 
So the mobile site does work on WP7, and you can read everything but the comments don't load?
Is the layout working fine or are there also discrepancies with the way it's supposed to look (screenshots above)?

If it's only the loading thing maybe we can find a quick workaround and thus avoid a major rework of the code.
 
Well for me that would be the only feature I'd need to use it regularly. Mainly to read others opinions, as I feel that's a very natural extension to the article. I haven't used mobile since you first released it,but just now checking it there are actually a ton of differences between those pics and what I see. I'll play with it side by side with my sisters iphone 4s and pm all of the issues.
 
slh28 said:
When you click on the link in a thread reply email, it loads up the homepage instead of the discussion thread. I use Atomic as my default browser so it identifies my iPhone as a desktop so it doesn't affect me... but just some food for thought.
Click to expand...
I experience this same problem from my Samsung Galaxy S II. If i check email and click the link in the reply thread i get the mobile home page.

Any recommendation for a fix or work around?
 
The mobile site seems very choppy and laggy on my htc evo 3d though. This doesnt happen to me on any other site except here at techspot. Can you guys look into it and maybe see if this is just something affecting android users? Thanks
 
Unfortunately the mobile site renders completely incorrectly. The body loads/renders fine but the whole top section is messed up/missing (i.e. u cannot navigate).

I understand that WP7 is not a supported platform due to it being 'the new kid on the block'. Here's hoping for some kind of solution but I suppose loading the full site (which renders perfectly) is not the end of the world.
 
LookinAround said:
I experience this same problem from my Samsung Galaxy S II. If i check email and click the link in the reply thread i get the mobile home page.
Click to expand...

Now that's service. Thanks!

I happened to try from my phone again this morning, this time the link in the email worked and took me to the discussion thread :)
 
Okay guys, thanks for responding. I could have poked you to get it fixed, will do in the future. Of course one thing that has meant its not been so much of an issue is how well the main site renders on my wp7 but it would be good to have the option. Still check and read every day from many platforms so its no deal breaker :)
 
Add an edit feature to the mobile site please, it gets annoying to go to the desktop version just to edit my comments
 
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