Connections that betray us at the last moment and the horror of limited data plans form a perfect storm designed to drive users crazy and completely ruin their web experience. Fortunately, mobile devices have changed the way we browse, forcing big names to create much lighter and more efficient versions of their services. The best part? You can access those alternative sites right now.
Why mobile versions are a game changer
One of the main complaints among netbook users (from the early days of the format to the present) was the low processing power inside. Such limitations were directly due to economic factors, but hardware has improved over the years, and what would now be called a netbook is actually a fairly capable system. Even so, with hardware advances come greater demands from the web and from site developers. The eventual abandonment of plugins like Flash is supposed to make everything faster and safer, but the magic of JavaScript and HTML5 can sometimes be a torture. Let's do an experiment: temporarily disable JavaScript and try to access a site. The result will be a much faster load, accompanied by a drastic loss of functionality and stability.
Browsing more efficiently not only optimizes our overall speed, but also reduces data consumption, a critical factor for thousands of users who must battle monthly with their providers for a handful of gigabytes. The key is to access the mobile versions of the most important sites. Facebook, Twitter, Google search, YouTube, Reddit, and many more serve alternatives to their classic portals, which under the right conditions can be far superior. The downside is that these sites and services enable access to their mobile pages based on the type of credentials (essentially, the user agent) that the browser presents. In some cases, just knowing the URL of the mobile page is enough, but in others it's necessary to modify the user agent.
How to access mobile versions
On the Firefox side, we find extensions like User Agent Switcher and User Agent Overrider, while Chrome offers three alternatives with the name User Agent Switcher: one that changes the user agent based on URL, another that switches the user agent globally, and a third one for specific requests.
What user agent should we use? The answer is simple: one belonging to a mobile platform like Chrome for Android or Safari on iOS. When the site sees this identifier, it presents its mobile version, and the rest is just browsing as usual. Unfortunately, there are exceptions to the rule. Some portals completely ignore the user agent condition, loading their desktop version, and others have problems to the point of being impossible to use. Exploring mobile sites has its share of experimentation, but I can say with confidence that it's worth it.
The first item on my list is Facebook. The world's largest social network is known for three variables: touch.facebook.com, m.facebook.com, and 0.facebook.com. The last address belongs to the Facebook Zero initiative, a reduced and free version available on various phone operators, but the other two work very well in low-consumption environments, especially m.facebook.com. You always have to be willing to lose a bit of functionality on mobile portals, but it's nothing that can't be solved in a couple of minutes.
Another particular case is Reddit. Its classic mobile site can be invoked via the address reddit.com/.compact, but as soon as we enter it will offer us access to the beta version of what will eventually become the definitive Reddit Mobile, with its address m.reddit.com. Personally, I stick with the Compact version, since the benefits in loading times surpass any inconvenience in general site navigation.
Google and YouTube
Finally, I must make a special mention of Google and its services. In this particular example, the intervention of extensions like User Agent Switcher is mandatory, and even then there are elements that cannot be accessed cleanly, such as Gmail (which throws many visual errors). On the other hand, the Google search engine and YouTube work wonderfully. The latest editions of Firefox and Chrome shouldn't have problems loading YouTube videos with the auxiliary mobile player.
It would be crazy to leave out sites like Wikipedia or Microsoft's Outlook email system, but one thing must be emphasized: The idea is to access mobile pages when the connection or the computer isn't helping, and not as a permanent replacement for normal portals. Each site requires a couple of minutes to adapt, but what you gain in time and data can be substantial. Good luck!
