blog.msurveys.com

I recently added a new little BBC backstage prototype, letting you get "what's on now/next" information via SMS/mobile phone. This builds on the "now/next" Atom feeds I produce from the BBC TV-Anywhere data.

Details:

Text the name of a BBC TV station (no radio stations - yet) to 07781 488578.

This will send you back a text message with what's on now/next on the TV channel you selected. It also contains a link to a xhtml-basic page that shows you the programme information (synopsis), so if your phone supports clickable SMS messages you can click straight through to the programme details.

Programme details are served as XHTML or WML, depending on your device's preferred markup (thanks to the wonder of Wurlf), so should work on most handsets. Not tested extensively though, so feedback welcome!

If you'd rather access the site directly, enter this URL in your device's browser: http://x.menti.name/all

I noticed a sudden increase in the use of my BBC backstage IM bot over the weekend, and realised that as a result of a posting on technet the MSN bot had been mentioned on Microsoft Watch and BetaNews .

So far the MSN bot has had over a thousand new visitors in the last 2 days. I'll try and use the log information to improve the bot (I am aware that manouvering through its options isn't always ideal...)