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Going Mobile with Blogging – Part 4

It has been one year since I upgraded my blog to be mobile friendly. This was mostly as an experiment. I haven’t received any complaints so I’m guessing that’s a good thing. I’m getting about 700 unique mobile visitors monthly averaging just over 4000 page views and that’s a decent average of just under 6 pages viewed per visit. and it’s slowly trending upwards. I knew from my website analytics that mobile visitors are just a small percentage of my blog’s overall traffic. Before I researched the mobile stats, I had expected it to be a larger percentage given how much time people spend on their smartphones. But I’m guessing most people spend the vast majority of their time either playing games or messing around on facebook and other social media rather than reading technical blogs. That makes sense.

The vast majority of the mobile traffic is from smartphones, with tablets and iPads representing a very small minority of visits. That really surprised me as I figured anyone who is blog surfing would be using a larger device.

Here’s a rough breakdown of operating systems and versions for the last month:

Apple 41%

71% iOS 6
29% iOS 7

Android 59%

99% Android 4.x
33% Android 4.4!

7 tips for safe surfing while traveling

I’ve been asked many times how do I safely use the internet while traveling. Here’s a summary of my notes that will significantly reduce the possibility of having your identity, credit card info or online credentials stolen. None of us are 100% vigilant and fool-proof especially during the haste and confusion of modern day travel. These are all simple suggestions that can provide you with peace-of-mind.

No free Wifi. Avoid free Wifi if at all possible, period. Being cheap can end up costing you a lot. In my humble opinion, the risks of free Wifi when you are traveling simply aren’t worth it. For more details keep reading and I also offer suggestions to protect your online presence if you have to use free Wifi.

Use 3G or 4G. Instead, I recommend you use your cellular data plan, tethering or buy a cellular hotspot. Generally speaking, 3G and 4G is more secure than Wifi because the equipment to crack it is significantly more expensive and heavily regulated. If you travel to a foreign country you can also buy phones with short term rental contracts, or if your phone uses a SIM card you buy one of those with a data plan. This may cost less and provide a greater amount of data allowance than having your existing provider activate international roaming.

Verify Wifi SSIDs. If you have to use Wifi, have hotel staff or restaurants/coffee shops write down the SSID number of their free Wifi. That way you are sure to log in to the correct network. The fastest way to get virtually compromised is to accidentally log into an increasing number of fake networks specifically designed to steal credentials. If you aren’t an expert in network security, and that’s the vast majority of us, then you may not know this happened until it’s too late.

Use a VPN. Considering using Virtual Private Network or VPN software. Most companies offer these to their business travelers. Consumers can use these as well, and an example of that is proXPN which has both free and paid options: https://www.proxpn.com. A VPN encrypts your traffic and helps to double protect user names, passwords and content. Look for VPNs that protect not just internet traffic but instant messaging and any other software you may be running such as Skype. The proXPN paid version protects all traffic on web clients and mobile devices, where the free version only protects basic internet surfing. Paid versions also typically provide better surfing speeds than free versions.

Use Tor. Check out the Tor browser for general surfing as it provides you with a decent measure of security against criminals snooping your email or online purchases. If it’s legal for the country you are in, consider installing Tor: https://www.torproject.org/. Recent versions work on Android devices, as well. And, Tor can be used along with some VPNs for even greater levels of security. Not every online vendor that you use is practicing 100%, up-to-date perfect security practices.

Verify HTTPS. Make sure your email connections are using HTTPS. Most browsers have indicators or lock symbols that indicate a secure connection, the most important thing to look for is HTTPS in the URL of the website. In some circumstances this may not protect your username and password but it’s better than no encryption. It will help to protect the contents of your email. Without HTTPS everything you send will be in clear text for bad guys to easily read as a road-side billboard.

Use pre-paid credit. Use a pre-paid credit card for any online transactions while your traveling, for example MasterCard offers these. Doing this can help protect your main credit card for emergencies. If you have to pay for something via the internet it’s much safer to use a pre-paid credit card that has a finite amount of money that you can lose.

Last Words

The good news is that new forms of authentication, such as two-step authentication, are being increasingly used and definitely help reduce the possibility of account hijacking. Having your credit card number stolen while surfing, however, poses immediate challenges unless you happen to carry around a ton of cash with you all the time. Employing the methods above while you are away from home easily provide an extra layer of security to make sure you get home safely and on time with as little disruption and stress as possible.

Simplification is innovation

Simplicity is a beautiful thing. Making things simpler and easier to understand or use can be one of the hardest things to do. It’s human nature to overcomplicate things, to embellish, to add on. Some of the most beautiful things such as sunsets, beaches and mountains are singular in the powerful emotion they invoke yet infinitely complex. And so it is with software that it may do one thing really well but we have always have to add more features, more functionality and shift the primary focus onto them rather than on core goals. My problem is many software vendors often lose sight of user interface simplicity and simplicity is what really sells most things in the commercial retail marketplace.

Simplicity sells in spite of the fact that every single customer demands enhancements for their own unique requirements. Apple followed this simplicity model through a combination of hardware and software and for a time recently became the largest company in the world by share value. Google is an advertising company that for now is sticking mostly to its roots and that focus has helped drive their share price to over $1000 dollars recently. To quote the Pareto principle, also known as the 80-20 rule, I believe they’ve focused well on the 20% of things that many of us want 80% of the time.

On the other hand, I can barely use the websites for my bank, for my cell phone provider, and for my satellite TV. These are sites that I have to use every month to pay bills and monitor my accounts. I literally cringe whenever I get an email from them about new features being rolled out. Some of these sites barely work as it is, and many of them have navigation menus that resemble NASA’s command and control systems for a space launch. I always have to wonder how many more customers they would have it they took a simplification approach rather than endlessly adding features upon features rather than consolidating and redesigning.

Take Firefox for example. In the latest iteration of their website home page they showcase eleven built-in features, then they mention becoming an expert in five easy steps and they also include at the bottom of the page a video about “Browsing Basics.” In comparison, the Chrome team simply introduces their browser without any embellishments whatsoever. I believe the Chrome teams internal motto is probably something like “focus 100% on what people do more than 80% of the time: surf the web as quickly and painlessly as possible!”

Let’s back up briefly and consider the fact that some of the greatest technological innovations in the last ten years have come from simplification. Consider the mass distribution capabilities of eBooks today as compared to the mechanical printing press. Consider that an individual can now communicate instantly to millions using Facebook and Twitter as compared to creating and executing a mass emailing. How about the fact that you can use a search engine from your living room couch to search billions of pieces of information as compared to driving to the library and then spending an afternoon sifting thru microfiche.

So, in conclusion I want to encourage key stakeholders to consider that simplicity is very powerful. Every one of us can understand and appreciate simplicity with very little explanation. Simplicity sells itself. Simplicity makes our lives easier and we almost automatically feel gracious when a task can be completed with little fuss. This doesn’t mean that what something does in simple, it means that how we go about doing it is simple. And that is an important distinction.