Sprint Nextel updates mobile Web home page

Sprint Nextel Corp. overhauled its mobile Web service in an effort to deliver customized Internet content to subscribers.
Sprint Web offers an adaptive home page that uses technology from ChangingWorlds to deliver content based on previous usage – a subscriber who constantly checks baseball scores, for instance, might see sports news at the top of the home page, while someone who regularly seeks updates from Wall Street could see financial news. The new feature also allows direct access to Google Inc.’s search function.
“Sprint Web automatically learns what content the customer likes and puts it on their home page, along with Google search of the full Internet,” said Kevin Packingham, the operator’s SVP of product and technology development. “This allows Sprint customers to get the most from the Internet on their phones even faster, when and where they want to.”
The new offering is available on more than 40 Sprint Nextel handsets and follows the carrier’s troubled launch of OpenWeb, a technology from Openwave Systems Inc. that transcodes Internet content for mobile phones.
The technology debuted in March and was blasted by critics who said it prevented publishers from using device-detection technology to reroute surfers to sites optimized for handsets. Sprint Nextel responded to the flap by adopting a policy allowing publishers to request their pages be excluded from the service.