OnSwipe, an internet startup, has big plans for the mobile web. Its plans would allow users to consume content through their mobile Browser just as they do through applications.
Users are currently required to download applications for almost every function on their mobile phones. What OnSwipe wants to do is to change this and create a way in which users need not download apps anymore — the browser will enable them to do all they can with apps.
With browser based navigation, which would have an app-like feel, readers will be able to swipe from one page to another and save pages so that they may be read later.
According to OnSwipe, even existing content would seamlessly transform into the new format without the publishers having to bear any extra costs.
The presence of location-based features means that there would be location-based advertisers also, indicating a lucrative business proposition.
For publishers, this means they can avoid the application model and create HTML5 websites, which would give an App like feel to web content.
Publishing an app is difficult for content creators as they are also required to optimise their content for more than one operating system.
HTML5 is the standard language for publishing content on the internet, across all devices. For users, websites appear more magazine-like, just like apps currently appear.
OnSwipe provides a social sharing tool which allows users to bookmark the sites they want to visit time and again, and see what their friends are reading. The company intends to make money through the advertising sold on such websites.
Publishers are expected to welcome the platform because they would have to design one site and it would work across all the software platforms.