Just yesterday, we griped about Verizon’s universal software. A point was made in the article regarding Verizon’s sub-par Mobile Web application and its inferiority to something like Opera Mini. Verizon has taken steps to improve the application, having introduced Mobile Web 2.0 this week. Predictably, it still doesn’t pass muster. Basically, the only improvements were a few shortcuts: dropdown menus and one-click access to certain articles and links. One sentence in a story about the upgrade illustrates exactly why we hate the service:
Mobile Web 2.0 allows Verizon cell phone users to access email, news, weather forecasts, sports highlights, and information from numerous content providers, including USA Today, MapQuest, ESPN, and Bank of America.This, to us, is inane. Why should we be limited to Verizon’s content partners. It’s the freakin’ Internet! We should be able to roam about as we please. For example, as sports fans we loathe ESPN and their sensationalist angles to mundane stories. We prefer the blogosphere to get our news and insights. That won’t do us any good with Verizon, though, since we can’t check our favorite blogs with their Mobile Web. We certainly don’t use Bank of America for our financial needs — we like to save our money, not hand it to some greedy bank. Ooops…we’re out of luck with Verizon. The upgrade will likely appease a large section of Verizon’s subscribers, who don’t much care for what they can access via the Internet on their cell phones. We wonder if they even know it’s possible to explore the entire Web right from your normal, everyday phone. This isn’t a knock on Verizon subscribers; it’s a knock on the company itself and its subscriber-suppressing ways. We want our Mobile Web, and we want to freely roam. If Verizon is going to charge airtime for Internet access, the least they could do is not limit us. [Telecommunications Industry News]]]>
Posted in Verizon Wireless