W3C today announced new standards that will make it easier for people to browse the Web on mobile devices. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, published as a W3C Recommendation, condenses the experience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating mobile-friendly content.

These recommendations will help mobile content developers deal with the challenges of designing Web content for a variety of mobile devices – i.e., not just the iPhone or other proprietary platforms. Rather, the W3C is focused on building the long-term infrastructure of the mobile Web by providing guidelines for the development of industry standards that transcend today’s currently fragmented mobile landscape. In addition to standards documentation, the W3C also released a mobile Web code checker that allows developers to test mobile-friendly Web code.

"Mobile Web content developers now have stable guidelines and maturing tools to help them create a better mobile Web experience," said Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, W3C Mobile Web Activity Lead. "In support of the W3C mission of building One Web, we want to support the developer community by providing tools to enable a great mobile Web user experience."