Netbiscuits, the cloud software service for cross-platform mobile sites and apps, has reported an increase in traffic on its mobile publishing platform of 100 per cent over the last six months. The platform currently delivers more than 8bn mobile pages per month for over 20,000 sites and apps.

Netbiscuits internal metrics show that the majority of all sites and apps recently built on its platform include touch-enabled features from day one. Netbiscuits CEO Michael Neidhoefer regards touch optimization to be the order of the day for any mobile web presence.

Netbiscuits HTML5+ Framework enables touch interaction on smartphones and media tablets, while also catering for sites on the long tail of mobile devices. To understand how customers take advantage of the companys HTML5+ Framework to enable touch and gesture-driven user interfaces, Netbiscuits ran an analysis across the more than 20,000 mobile sites and apps that are based on the companys mobile development and publishing platform. The results reveal that:

• 83 per cent of all sites and apps recently created with Netbiscuits utilize touch-enabled features from day one
• 20 per cent of all sites and apps based on Netbiscuits today include touch-enabled features
• 20 per cent of all new sites based on Netbiscuits go for a unified URL approach, adding tablets as an additional device class into their mobile web delivery concept, with a tablet- specific layout
• 3 per cent of all sites based on Netbiscuits are already developed and optimized for tablets
• 68 per cent of all touch-enabled sites based on Netbiscuits redirect tablets to smartphone versions of the site

“Today, almost every smartphone offers a touch and gesture-driven user interface. Consequently, touch optimization is especially important for mobile sites. Our growth rates show that touch and gesture-driven sites will set the standard for the mobile web in no time,” says Netbiscuits CEO, Michael Neidhoefer. “But smartphone optimization alone is not enough”, he continues. “A touch-enabled, app-like user experience for mobile sites and an optimized delivery to all mobile devices, including the long tail of feature phones, is vital. Couple this with a single platform to deliver sites and apps, and you have the key to implementing a true multi-screen strategy. This is what we deliver to our customers every day, to enable their success on multiple screens.”

To help customers to implement touch-enabled sites and apps in a fast and cost-efficient manner, Netbiscuits uses its HTML5+ Framework, which includes a suite of mobile site-building blocks that take advantage of the latest standards in HTML5, CSS3 and other technologies. These building blocks, known as ‘Biscuits’, enable swiping picture galleries, floating bars, overlay menus, and many other rich user experience features, and, says NetBiscuits, can be easily implemented.