I discovered widsets early last year and found it a really enjoyable interface to access my favourite news feeds. It’s been out of beta since last November and has since been polished up well. What impressed me most yesterday was the ease in which I could create a new widget for this bemoko blog and get it published. I had 20 subscribers to the widget within the hour. Many thanks to those early adopters (and of course the Widset developers for making it so easy).

An alternative approach is the WordPress mobile plugin provided by Andy Moore. As with all WordPress plugins the installation is easy beyond belief. 5 minutes and our blog was optimised for the mobile. Andy does a stunning job in the mobilisation – all in one php and a great light weight device detection. Do take a look at the PHP code that does it all (wordpress-mobile.php) for a little inspiration.

So how would I access mobile feeds? I’m not too sure whether I prefer the Widset approach or delivering direct to a standard mobile browser. They both have their strengths. The Widset UI is smooth, looks impressive and is responsive, but it does require the user to download and launch another app. The browser route is more lightweight, accessible to more users without an installation and gives extra flexibility to the service provider – you’re not confined by the Widset box. I’ll try both for the next few months and let you know what works for me both as user and a service provider.