Anyone else here hate it when a mobile version of a website loads versus the standard site?
Personally, I usually hate them and find the mobile version to lack content and require too many menus. Frankly, I don’t find the mobile version any faster than just zooming in on the regular site to access a button or whatnot. Again, it gets to be a PIA to click on a menu, let it load, click on another, let it load, etc…
So, anyone else dislike mobile sites?
I do.
I find it particularly annoying when these sites disable the pinch-to-zoom feature of modern phones. I am always zooming in on stuff if I want to look at a particular part of a website as opposed to the whole website. I often scroll to the bottom and click the particular website’s equivalent of ‘view desktop site’
What’s extra-annoying is when you click a link and the website realizes you’re on a mobile, and forwards to the mobile website… but then chokes when it comes to actually finding that article for you. Gee, thanks.
In b4 the link.
It makes me mad because it’s true. :mad:
I hate it when mobile sites strip functionality. Burger King’s mobile site is a spoof version of an iPhone menu, but it doesn’t particularly help me since there’s no way to get to the Value Deal menu which is what I actually want. And I wanted to search for an item on Walmart’s site but their mobile search is broken. I wish the iPhone had a way to spoof user agents without unlocking it.
I much prefer mobile versions. I don’t have the time or data allowance to wait for the full-fat versions of websites went all I want are the headlines or basics. To take a couple of examples:
oldhamathletic.co.uk - 2,377 KB vs 94 KB
BBC News - 966 KB vs 35 KB
The only thing I dislike is websites that don’t offer the choice of switching between the two.
I don’t know what kind of phone you’re using, but for the iPhone/iPad there is at least one alternative browser, “Atomic Web,” which allows you to specify the user agent— so when visiting websites, the browser will be identified as the desktop version of IE, Firefox, or Safari, and you’ll get the non-mobile site page. I use it to get around this exact problem (which I agree is highly annoying).
99 cents for the full version on the App Store. (There’s a free lite version too, but I don’t know if it supports this feature.)
Looks like Burger King’s site is Flash-based, so unfortunately Atomic Web probably won’t help in your case.
I hate the new Blackberry browser that installed with OS6, which has no column view. The old browser worked great on the SDMB and other forums, but now I have to zoom in and scroll left and right to read threads, no word wrap when zoomed in. What’s more, the old browser displayed the mouse over pop-up, but the new one does not. Viewing the whole page is pointless, as it would require a magnifying glass to read. Now I don’t even bother with non-mobile websites.
I use Opera Mini on my Blackberry and it kicks ass. I would highly recommend giving it a try.
According to a 2010 study published by Morgan Stanley, he predicted that by 2015, mobile web access will overtake desktop/laptop browsing. If you want to keep up with or outdo your competitors, you must tailor your website to work smoothly and fluidly on a mobile device. Outdated websites will fail to be profitable, at least for businesses, in the future if it can’t adapt to the changing media by which people browse the internet. Given that it has a long way to go to satisfying user experience but hey it’s only been a a little over a decade before mobile devices was the norm so there’s that.