I am writing this post from the family Wii. I am, of course, cheating and using a usb keyboard. It was very impressive that I was able to just plug in the keyboard and start typing. I didn’t even have to close the browser. So far, I have tested serveral sites and I can say that browsing the Net is functional. There are definitely some formatting issues that need to be addressed prior to this becoming commonplace.
For one, the input screen needs to be tied into the boxes on the webpage. For example, I am typing this post into a two-line box with the onscreen keyboard visible. An option would be to make the USB keyboard driver trigger turning off the on-screen when a keyboard is connected. One other way around this would be to work with the devlopers of the blog editors and make them work in the browser.
The second problem I noticed was streaming content support is iffy at best. YouTube works, but I get black bars in full screen mode. Other video sites do not work at all, demanding I have Flash 8 installed.
As a plus, Squirrelmail works wonderfully. It is text-based and very fast.
Myspace works, but it definitely needs formatting work. Google maps also could stand some customization for the interface.
To sum up my experience, Nintendo really needs to sit down and work some magic with popular website owners. The Wii appears to have the same problems mobile phones originally had. I will be doing some testing with my sites in the near future for compatibility to see how difficult it would be to get a Wii-friendly format without too much compromise on content. What I am hoping for is a WordPress plugin to format for the Wii. I may be developing my own code for this one.