"Skweezing" the Internet

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.skweezer.net/' target='_blank'>http://www.skweezer.net/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Mobile Internet users can access the free version of Skweezer by visiting <a href="www.skweezer.net">www.skweezer.net</a> from any wireless data-enabled handset. Skweezer is essentially a Web portal, such as Google or Yahoo!, that enables visitors to browse the Internet with Skweezer's optimization technology. This technology compresses and reformats Web content being downloaded to the user's device, so that it loads faster, looks better, and is easier to navigate. Since the Skweezer portal dramatically reduces a file's size before it's sent to the device, users who pay wireless data charges on a "per-kilobit" basis save money when they browse with Skweezer."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20041214-Skweezer.gif" /><br /><br />Greenlight Wireless have just released a free service for mobile users called <a href="http://www.skweezer.net">Skweezer</a>. By optimising the downloaded content, Skweezer will essentially help save users a lot of money when accessing the internet on a wireless data plan. Users can also create a Skweezer account for free. This allows you to save favourites, access Plaxo contacts, customise the Skweezer homepage, and gain access to the free Skweezer Mail services. I think this is a great service provided by the company, and I think you will too. Happy Skweezing!

[Paul Martin]

This is pretty cool. Thanks!!

[Brad Adrian]

Is this the same service that for the past couple of years Greenlight's been charging people to use? If so, it does help with some of the formatting problems we always see with mobile devices.

[emuelle1]

So far, not bad.

[Darius Wey]

If so, it does help with some of the formatting problems we always see with mobile devices.

From what I've seen so far, it works quite well. It renders everything to a somewhat optimised form. Of course, not ALL websites can be "skweezed" the way you would want it to, but for the benefit of reducing wireless costs and the loadup times, I think it works well. The good thing is you do away with having to install additional software on your Pocket PC as it all works remotely off the Skweezer web engine.

[Paul Martin]

Is this the same service that for the past couple of years Greenlight's been charging people to use?

Brad,

Looks like Skweezer has now morphed into 2 versions, a free ad-supported version and a "pro" version (http://www.greenlightwireless.net/products/skweezer_pro.aspx) that claims to have:

No ads
Unlimited e-mail support
Faster performance
The pro version runs $14.99 per year.

[Silencer]

Works really great, that's a cool service!

[johnm]

MultiIE has an option of viewing any page in Skweezer by using a pull-down on the 'go' button. I've found that multiIE does a pretty good job of forcing most web sites to fit on the screen, and for those that don't - just running them through skweezer usually does the trick.

[powder2000]

Works good on my trusty old eg-800. Pages also load fairly quickly.

[fishfuzz]

Greenlight Wireless have just released a free service for mobile users called Skweezer (http://www.skweezer.net).

Skweezer has been available for a loooong time. The recent "release" was the free portal through skweezer.net. This service used to be subscription based (now the pro version).

[kennyg]

Doesn't work on the smarthphone! And I was so looking forward to this!

Kenny.

[poqeteer]

Doesn't work on the smarthphone! And I was so looking forward to this!


Works on my SMT5600. Doesn't seem that much faster but the format makes reading sites much better.

[miterb]

I have been using it extensively for 6 months of my wireless viewing of about 1/2 hour/day on my Tosh e740. No more having to use the bottom scroll bar if Skweezer can format it. Otherwise, you have to revert to IE. I had trouble accessing the NY Times. Sent my password to Skweezer support and they fixed the access overnight. It is great for lengthy Blogs I visit daily. Can't imagine living without it now.

Brad

[Darius Wey]

Skweezer has been available for a loooong time. The recent "release" was the free portal through skweezer.net. This service used to be subscription based (now the pro version).

Yeah! I remember using having a stab at it a while ago, but decided to set the scene by announcing it was now a FREE service. :) Of course, those who want maximum customisation can opt for the Pro version.

[Darius Wey]

Doesn't work on the smarthphone! And I was so looking forward to this!

According to GWC, it is compatible with smartphones and XHTML-enabled phones. More information here (http://www.greenlightwireless.net/skweezer/default.aspx).

[Menneisyys]

The text formatting capabilities aren't bad. I've also written a proxy for converting the most widely used forum engines (phpBB, uBB etc) to a much more PDA-comprehensible form (http://menneisyys.freeweb.hu/mwc). I know it's quite a bit of work to make especially forum engines readable on a QVGA screen through an external, middle-layer proxy. Fortunately, the service is pretty good at this.

I wish it (in addition to the page reformatting) not only had GZIP'ing of text/html responses (when the client sends the Accept-Encoding: gzip header - incidentally, there're other services that do this, e.g. WebWarper (http://webwarper.net/)), but also some kind of (configurable) JPEG recompression with a much lower quality (meaning much less size). What I miss is the (optional) picture compression, as opposed to standalone tools like ziproxy (http://ziproxy.sourceforge.net/) and RabbIT (http://rabbit-proxy.sourceforge.net/ ), or, that of some GSM providers like Vodafone (Europe). Some kind of on-the-fly image compression would also help a lot, in addition to the more PDA-friendly rendering of pages.

Note that I haven't tested the Pro version because I don't want to pay 15 bucks for something that I may never use - I prefer running a HTTP zipper proxy wit my own forum converter add-ons on my own PC at the office that I connect to from my PDA via GPRS.

[Menneisyys]

The text formatting capabilities aren't bad. I've also written a proxy for converting the most widely used forum engines (phpBB, uBB etc) to a much more PDA-comprehensible form (http://menneisyys.freeweb.hu/mwc). I know it's quite a bit of work to make especially forum engines readable on a QVGA screen through an external, middle-layer proxy. Fortunately, the service is pretty good at this.

I wish it (in addition to the page reformatting) not only had GZIP'ing of text/html responses (when the client sends the Accept-Encoding: gzip header - incidentally, there're other services that do this, e.g. WebWarper (http://webwarper.net/)), but also some kind of (configurable) JPEG recompression with a much lower quality (meaning much less size). What I miss is the (optional) picture compression, as opposed to standalone tools like ziproxy (http://ziproxy.sourceforge.net/) and RabbIT (http://rabbit-proxy.sourceforge.net/ ), or, that of some GSM providers like Vodafone (Europe). Some kind of on-the-fly image compression would also help a lot, in addition to the more PDA-friendly rendering of pages.

Note that I haven't tested the Pro version because I don't want to pay 15 bucks for something that I may never use - I prefer running a HTTP zipper proxy wit my own forum converter add-ons on my own PC at the office that I connect to from my PDA via GPRS.

In the meantime, Skweezer has really been upgraded. Now I can only recommend this service. Please read http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=40469 on how it fares against the competition.