Right! This has been spinning around my head for weeks now and I have started to write this post about 5 times already only to give up because something wasn't quite there yet. The issue is this, while I like the idea of the "one web", I just don't know how practical it is and whether it is the right thing to be striving for in the evolution of the mobile internet.

What prompted this recent bout of thinking was the introduction of the iPhone. Now obviously I haven't been able to play with an iPhone because I live in London but it seems (and I stand to be corrected here) that even though this device has the best mobile browser ever implemented people still feel the need to create iPhone specific websites (Digg, Google, Leaflets) instead of using CSS client side browser adaptation. Doesn't that fly in the face of "one web" doctrine? Isn't that an indication that maybe the mobile internet is different from the normal internet and the two shouldn't be forced together?

I, for one, would love to see the exact same tools and markup used to create both the mobile and "normal" internet but I think the mobile internet needs a mobile specific markup language subset which allows developers to make the most of the unique features that makes mobile so special. Security considerations aside, wouldn't it be great if the mobile internet developer could reliably access things like PIM, file systems, device location, call logs, SMS, phone and other ubiquitous device features through a consistent and standardized API? Ah, now that's my real dream! The "one web" ambition is nice but I love mobile for everything that makes it unique and special and it's these features I want to see standardized and promoted and I just don't know how that is possible if the primary goal is to replicate the normal internet on phones.

Update: I added to this line of thinking here.