A user on HowardForums’s tipped me about the Minneapolis StarTribune’s mobile site. The site’s really designed for PDA’s but usability scales down to typical phones fairly well. There are links to about 35 breaking news stories on the front page. A top level menu links to other sections including a section for each of the area’s pro sports teams. The section pages each link to about 10 stories so there is a lot of content on the mobile StarTribune.

The entire site is text only except for the masthead logo. Page sizes average around 5KB, small enough to load on even the most memory starved phones.

There is a minor usability issue on phones with the Motorola Internet Browser (MIB). Lines run together rather than breaking where they should. This is caused by the use of xhtml-style closed <br/> elements on a html page. The pages are still readable but don’t look as nice as they should on phones with this popular browser.

For Twin Cities residents, a mobile browser bookmark to the Star Tribune means they always have the daily paper in their pocket.

The StarTribune is linked from the Yeswap.com portal under News/US Local by State/IN – NV

Minneapolis StarTribune cHtml

Ratings: Content: Usability: