5 Android Apps for Webmasters

Android has become an increasingly popular platform for smart phones rivaling Apple's Ipod in terms of users. Good applications are hard to come by. Google has done a good job promoting the marketplace. For those who are not familiar, the marketplace is akin to Apple's Itune Store. It's a collection of applications you can download and install on your mobile device. While there are many junk applications, there are a few gems that are a must for webmasters. The marketplace has an open comment and voting system that lets you sort, rate and decide for yourself of an app is worth installing. Here is a list of 5 essential applications I find that are essential for webmasters. Also be sure to pick up the barcode scanner to scan and quickly find these exact apps right from your computer screen! Go to the marketplace right now. Search "barcode scanner" and download it. It will make installing these apps much easier!

The default web browser that comes installed with your android phone is garbage. It works, and it gets the job done, but it is not that good. A great replacement of the default web browser is Dolphin Browser. Those familiar with tabbed web browsers will feel right at home with this one. My impressions of this browser, I thought it was well executed and it feels like firefox. If screen real estate is an issue with the tabs, you can double tap the tabs and it will toggle the tabs hidden. Android 1.6 and under does not support multi-touch zooming but it does support it for Android 2.0 devices. Navigation is simple, text is wrapped to fit the screen nicely and it works. Dolphin Browser is king until Firefox release their official browser onto android. Firefox is the first mobile web browser that supports addons. Those familiar with Adblock Plus will be happy when firefox arrives.

There is a Digg application available but its nothing that the mobile Digg website doesn't provide. Filling the void of empty tech new app, Tech Buzz delivers the latest technology related news straight to your mobile device. The great thing about Tech Buzz is that you can add the application as a widget on your home screen and preview the news before your open it. Tech Buzz feeds you high quality articles that will keep your webmaster mind relevant. Although this is the only good app available today, it isn't without flaw.

Side scrolling through different articles is very sensitive. Often times, when scrolling down, tech buzz will toggle through the next articles. They should have an option to change the sensitivity. Another annoying problem I have with this app is it's redundancy. Sometimes there are 3 articles on this app that are identical. The only difference is the source. One may come from cnet, another may come from techcrunch. It can get annoying scolling through articles talking about the same thing. Other than these faults, this app is great to stay in the know of the tech industry.

Most webmasters are affiliated with Google's Adsense program. DroidSense makes it convenient to check your adsense earnings. It is THE application for Adsense. If checking your earning is a must, you have to get this app. There are a few downsides. One, there needs to be an option that allows it to update your earnings when you launch the app. In order to do this, you have to click on the app, then click menu, the click "get new data..." I bet 99% of the people that have this app wants the latest, up to date info on their earnings. Another thing I would like to see is a more detailed report. I would like to see some data for seperate channels. What this application does is pools in the visitors and pageviews from all sources and calculates the CTR. The last thing that I must mention before I recommend this application is that it costs money. This app cost .99 euros which equates to about $1.50 today. There is a free version that offers less information but I believe this app is worth the price despite the shortcomings.

The same guys that made DroidSense offers DroidAnalytics for the same price. This application is great! It shows lots of information and it also displays the information in graph. What DroidAnalytics have that DroidSense doesn't is that it displays separate channels! I have a few blogs that I like to keep track of and it's a nice option especially for a paid app. I just wish it's adsense counterpart had that option. I'll mention it again, this app cost $1.50 and I believe it is well worth it. This is the best Google Analytics app on the marketplace today.

This is a slick little application. There are 2 versions. A free version and a paid version. I have the free version. Basically, this application allows you to use your phone as a USB tether. If you are in a location without wifi, you can hook your phone to your laptop/netbook and surf the web with 3G speed. It's pretty cool if you need internet on your laptop especially if you need the convenience of a physical keyboard. The paid version of this app allows for more access such as https protocols. Usually https:// sites are encountered when you need to purchase something or when a secured connection is required. For simple web browsing, the free version is fine and if by any chance I need the paid version, buying apps on my phone is easy with google checkout. You fill out your credit card information once and Google securely saves it for when you want to quickly purchase another app or product.

The market is always changing and new things are added and updated every day. Some apps that I was looking for is a wordpress application that syncs with your blog hosted on your domain. If someone can make such an app with quality, I'm sure people would gladly pay for it. Be sure to use the barcode scanner if you want to quickly find these listed apps. Enjoy your android!

It looks like wordpress released an official app in the android marketplace! Although it is very simple, it works and we can only hope that they will add more features in the future.