The Guardian has launched a new, updated version of its mobile site, with an enhanced design, faster updates and a range of new features. The site, at m.guardian.co.uk, is ad-funded, free for mobile users to access on all handsets globally and, says Guardian News & Media, affirms its commitment to mobile. The site was designed in-house and developed by Mobile IQ.
New features include live football scores on the home page; a new look and feel, including redesigned article and gallery pages; faster updates and enhanced live coverage; bookmarking to provide quick links to favourite sections; more comprehensive content, mirroring the content of the full website; more optimisation for smartphones, including expandable navigation links; a searchable article and gallery archive; the ability to increase or decrease the font size; and the ability to scroll through entire articles, with no pagination.
The Guardian’s mobile site originally launched in March 2009. Since then it has become the number one UK newspaper mobile site (according to ComScore, August 2010 data) with an average of over half a million page impressions each day (ABCe, September 2010). This is more than double the number of page impressions the mobile site recorded this time last year, and means that over 5 per cent of Guardian News & Media’s global digital page impressions come from mobile devices. Guardian.co.uk is the first UK newspaper website to have its mobile figures published as part of the monthly ABCe report, because over 5 per cent of its digital impressions come from mobile devices. 
guardian.co.uk editor, Janine Gibson, says: “Mobile is a crucial part of Guardian News & Media’s digital strategy, and the statistics speak for themselves in terms of how important being able to access our content on the move is to our readers. The new mobile site – along with a number of other mobile products in the pipeline – demonstrates our commitment to this growing medium.”
Adam Freeman, director, consumer media at Guardian News & Media, adds that the new site is good news for advertisers as well. “The relaunched m.guardian.co.uk offers our advertising partners new opportunities to talk to a highly desirable audience on their mobile phones,” says Freeman. “Through our new high impact home page and channel sponsorship packages, were making it easier for brands to get involved in mobile advertising, whilst our creative teams have designed a wide range of innovative ad formats.”
