Skweezer 4.0 released; It’s faster, better!

In case you’re not on an affordable or unlimited data plan and for some reason you’re not using Opera Mini, you may want to try out the latest version of Skweezer, the free service that optimizes web for mobile use. The idea is to reduce (skweez) images so that they load faster on your mobile (GPRS?) connection.

According to Greenlight Wireless, the Skweezer 4.0 has been updated from top to bottom, and brings several improvements including better web search, find in page feature, dynamic image optimization and more. You can find out more on the official Skweezer site, or check out the full release after the jump.

IRVINE, Calif. – Greenlight Wireless today announced the release of Skweezer 4.0, the latest incarnation of its free service that optimizes desktop Web content for mobile devices, such as cell phones and PDAs.

Skweezer has been updated from top to bottom with one goal in mind: to get users to the content they’re looking for as quickly as possible. To that end, the user interface has been redesigned to reduce keystrokes and take advantage of “hot key” navigation that utilizes a phone’s keypad. Skweezer will now also use a robust, new search system to provide highly relevant Web searches across multiple mobile device platforms. Skweezer’s code-base and hosting infrastructure have been updated to provide the fastest Skweezer ever.

“Skweezer allows me to get my information fast, get off the device, and get on with life,” said Rey Flores, a Microsoft MVP and Skweezer Beta test participant. “No matter how limited browsing capability is on the mobile device I may be using, the technology behind 4.0 virtually turns slow or limited bandwidth connections into a non-issue.”

New feature spotlight:

New approach to mobile search:
Skweezer now utilizes a completely redesigned search system that provides highly relevant mobile search results. This new approach to search works by collecting multiple sets of search results from several top-tier search providers. The final results that get sent to the user are selected on a case-by-case basis, determined by mobile device type, the user’s location, and other factors. This “meta-search” is a sub-second transaction and provides multi-lingual results for Skweezer’s international customer-base.

Find in page:
Skweezer now includes an innovative “find in page” feature that allows a user to quickly jump to specific content within a Web page. For example, a search on www.skweezer.net for the keywords “Starbucks” and “London” will yield a page containing several search results. When the user clicks on a result, a link will appear at the top of the destination Web page that allows the user to search for “Starbucks” and “London” within that page. This feature is especially useful with limited-capacity cell phones, as it allows a user to jump straight to targeted information even if the content has been split into sub-pages for use on the device.

Dynamic image optimization:
Skweezer’s new image optimization technology dynamically recalibrates images for use on specific mobile devices by altering resolution, color-depth, and image dimensions. Skweezer users who browse with the “Show Images” feature on will find that the data footprint of the average Web page is now drastically reduced, which greatly accelerates page-loading speeds. The old version of Skweezer typically reduced a Web page with images to 35% to 55% of its original size, while Skweezer 4.0 reduces the same content to 4% to 8% of its non-optimized size.

Other new features:

• Improved device-recognition technology for more accurate page-splitting of content for low-memory cell phones
• Feature that detects mobile-friendly Web sites so they won’t be reformatted (though image, GZIP, and other optimization will still be applied)
• Completely updated multi-lingual directory of Web sites
• Preference that allows the user to over-ride Skweezer’s page-splitting feature
• Japanese language user-interface
• Skweezer now passes the mobile user-agent to sites that redirect mobile users to handheld-friendly versions of content
• Improved handling of frames, iframes, forms, scripts and other potentially troublesome elements

“We’ve re-thought nearly every aspect of our technology, from the user interface to the way the service is hosted on our network,” said Greenlight Wireless CEO Kevin Perkins. “Our approach while developing Skweezer 4.0 was to try to create an ‘iPod for the mobile Web’ by providing a simple, intuitive access to mobile content.”

Skweezer is a free service that optimizes Web pages and searches for use on PDAs and cell phones. Skweezer compresses and reformats content being downloaded, so that it loads faster, looks better, and is easier to navigate. Skweezer has introduced many mobile browsing innovations, including the first pagination system that splits large Web pages up into smaller sub-pages for viewing on cell phones with limited “deck sizes”, the first mobile Web page translation feature, and the first portal-based mobile RSS reader. Skweezer is completely platform-independent and can be accessed from Pocket PC, Palm, MS Smartphone, Blackberry, Symbian, PSP2, and WAP 2.0 compliant devices. Skweezer is also available as a “private label” solution for wireless carriers and content providers.