DeepFish launched by Microsoft

Microsoft isn't just sitting idly by, while competitors Yahoo and Google launch their own mobile browsers. This past week, the company launched DeepFish, an online browser that mimics traditional web pages.

by Kristina Knight

Rather than a browser that offers text online, the DeepFish browser allows users with Windows Mobile phones to use sites that are more like those seen on PCs and laptops.

According to the DeepFish blog the offering is "aimed at preserving the rich layout and full form of documents on mobile devices while providing novel ways of effectively navigating that content on small screens."

At first glance the browser may seem like any other, offering thumbnails of mobile sites. But then, it allows users to zoom into that thumbnail, pulling a traditional-looking website onto a mobile phone or PDA.

For marketers, a mobile browser that acts like a traditional browser could be the key to creating more mobile users. According to studies, consumers have been slow to switch to mobile offerings because of price and connection issues. As those issues are worked out, more consumers will flock to mobile web pages, but if those pages are hard to navigate or don't include options similar to traditional webpages, the users likely won't be back.

Mobile web visits last in average 10 minutes. By including features that are similar to traditional websites, marketers could lengthen those stays and possibly impact revenue.