Mobile KTVU.COM

 Mobile KTVU.COM San Francisco’s local Fox network TV affiliate KTVU Channel 2, home of the most popular TV news broadcast in the San Francisco market, has launched a mobile news site at wap.ktvu.com.

Mobile KTVU.COM is notable in a couple of areas. The site uses browser detection to adapt output to the capabilities of different browsers. Image size varies from from 96 to 236 px wide to fit the screen width on most devices. The site delivers wml and .gif images to browsers that can’t handle xhtml-mp or .jpgs. The other area where KTVU stands out especially among mobile local news sites it’s extensive use of images. Virtually ever page has a picture. There are also several weather radars – although the most important one – the local short range one wasn’t current when I checked it, showing clear conditions as heavy rain fell. Unlike other local news sites which generally use a service like mDog or Crisp to create a mobile site from RSS feeds, KTVU’s seems to have been custom programmed for the station.

Of course the content of site is local TV news copy. KTVU does some good investigative reporting. Local news has a strong emphasis on crime reporting, typical of local news coverage. There is also ample coverage of local sports, an entertainment news section and local traffic incident reports from sigalert.com. Yeswap.com users can find Mobile KTVU.COM in the News/US Local by State section.
KTVU Mobile: xhtml-mp/wml
Content: **** Usability: ****