More retailers would be wise to optimise their websites for mobile browsers, according to new figures. For a recent survey by Complete has found that more people are increasingly using their smartphones for “local search”.

The research found that almost a third of smartphone owners has called or stopped into a local business after finding it using a local search application.

In the first quarter of 2010, one-in-three Android and iPhone users found at least two new businesses that they previously were not aware of after using local search applications.

A spokesperson for Complete is reported as saying: “With the increasing popularity of local search, retailers should ensure their sites are optimised for mobile browsers.

“Making it easy for consumers to discover businesses via their devices opens local companies up to a whole new customer demographic, and savvy businesses should make sure they’re maximising this opportunity.”

If you want to find out more about optimizing your website for mobile browsers then speak to your web designer. WebCreationUK can offer advice in this area, and many more.

A new app for iPhone, iPad and Android devices will now allow anyone to accept credit cards via their mobile phone. Of course, it was only a matter of time before this development occurred and it seems that Square, whose CEO is also one of the co-founders of Twitter, have got themselves in on this particular act. And if you need a credit card reader Square will send one out for free.

Be aware, though, that Square can’t handle refunds or delete transactions, but no doubt this facility will not be long in happening too. This app development could be very useful for businesses, such as contractors who are mobile themselves.

As we’ve said in these blogs before, one of the fastest areas of web growth is browsing the internet on mobile phones. Now there is further evidence of how popular mobile web use is becoming as Apple release Opera as a browser maker for iPhone. Within 24 hours the free app had been downloaded more than one million times pushing it to the top of the download charts.

While Opera Mini is not the first alternative to Apple’s Safari to be developed for the iPhone it is the first well-known PC browser to become available on Apple’s hugely popular mobile phone.

Apps have to be written specifically for mobile phones – and to suit each model so most come with a set browser. Now thanks to Opera, iPhone users have a choice of web browser. Apple also say that Opera will work on iPad.

eBay’s PayPal has reported that its new PayPal Mobile iPhone app has been downloaded one million times in less than three weeks.

The PayPal Mobile iPhone app, launched in March, allows users to split restaurant bills, collect money for events, set reminders for repeat payments, donate to causes and manage various PayPal accounts.

Osama Bedier, PayPal’s vice president of platform and emerging technology, is reported as saying: 
”One million downloads shows just how ready people are to live a cashless and card-free culture with their wallet living safely in the cloud.”

What is an Internet Browser? And for that matter, what difference does it make?

For the uninitiated, the Internet Browser is a program used to access web pages, and if you’re not familiar with this term then chances are you’ve just been using the default Windows Internet Explorer which comes pre-loaded on all Windows PCs. This browser has been the dominant standard for the past 5 years.

It seems that only a short while ago, Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) had won the browser wars and the corpse of Netscape was finally laid to rest, however, there are now a number of new challenges to IE.

Firstly is Firefox, an alternative browser which has made massive gains in the last couple of years. Firefox is our browser of choice due to it’s speed and a number of pioneering innovations which were lacking on IE.

Secondly is the resurgent Apple Safari . Apple uses it’s own Safari browser in it’s computers and it’s recent success in laptop sales in particular has seen a marked increase in it’s browser share. The browser is also available on the PC.

Thirdly is the manner in which websites are accessed. Increasingly mobile devices are being used instead of home PCs and these use a number of different browsers to access the web. These in themselves are re-defining how the internet is viewed and used, and the iPhone / iPod touch in particular is a growing figure on website statistics.

Later this week I’ll be discussing why this matters, and how your website can benefit from these changes, but for the moment I’ll leave you with the statistics from our own website. As our site is technology-focused, one would expect a higher usage of alternative browsers from the mainstream but it is still an interesting change from the 80%+ dominance we used to see for IE.

Internet Explorer 60%
Firefox 29%
Safari 6%
iPhone 0.39%
Others ~4%