3 ms·

The interesting thing here is that this appears to be done with intents. So it's quite possible the web re-direct is a side effect of a system wide re-direct t

The interesting thing here is that this appears to be done with intents. So it's quite possible the web re-direct is a side effect of a system wide re-direct that sends you to the Amazon app store whenever you would normally go to the Android Market. The author casts this as amazon re-writing web request when what probably happening is that web request is turned into an android market intent, which is in turn sent to the Amazon app store because the Android market is not supported on the Kindle Fire. I don't think it's as evil as people are making it out to be. Most likely amazon never even wrote the code that turns the web request into an intent in the first place.

ConstantineXVI 15y ago
The stock Android browser treats all URLs as Intents; this is by design so apps can catch URLs from their service. Normally, when you hit a URL that an app has registered for, you're prompted for what you want to open it with. Amazon's broken this behavior; any market.android.com Intents get bounced to the Appstore; other apps aren't given the chance to answer these intents. While it's true that one can't download Market-sourced apps on the Fire, blocking a website for any reason without communicating it is fairly shady. Also; market.android.com is the home of Google's music, video, and book stores; the first two I'm certain would work in the Fire's browser. They're blocking competition to their own stores; I don't think there's any way to defend that as a legitimate action.
- Game_Ender 15y ago
  Thanks for the details, I am not an android developer so I was not completely sure on how the intent system and URLs interact.
- fpgeek 15y ago
  > They're blocking competition to their own stores; I don't think there's any way to defend that as a legitimate action. If intentional, I agree. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they were also surprised by this side-effect of redirecting the Android Market intent. If so, I'd say the right thing to do would be to make sure their browser doesn't raise an intent for http://market.android.com http://market.android.com, side-stepping the issue.
fpgeek 15y ago
I suspect you're right. The easy way to test this would be to sideload a browser that doesn't raise intents (e.g. Firefox) and see what it did with market.android.com
jsight 15y ago
Is it possible that this is just set as the default activity for the android market intent? Ie, what happens if you clear the default intent handler from the settings menu? I suppose that may not even be possible, depending upon how much customization that they've done. Honestly, though, I don't think there is anything particularly nefarious going on here. I think they are just trying to make the experience more seamless, since I'm sure many users would be confused by hitting the Android market site and then being unable to use it from an "Android" device.

ConstantineXVI 15y ago

The stock Android browser treats all URLs as Intents; this is by design so apps can catch URLs from their service. Normally, when you hit a URL that an app has registered for, you're prompted for what you want to open it with. Amazon's broken this behavior; any market.android.com Intents get bounced to the Appstore; other apps aren't given the chance to answer these intents. While it's true that one can't download Market-sourced apps on the Fire, blocking a website for any reason without communicating it is fairly shady. Also; market.android.com is the home of Google's music, video, and book stores; the first two I'm certain would work in the Fire's browser. They're blocking competition to their own stores; I don't think there's any way to defend that as a legitimate action.

Game_Ender 15y ago
Thanks for the details, I am not an android developer so I was not completely sure on how the intent system and URLs interact.
fpgeek 15y ago
> They're blocking competition to their own stores; I don't think there's any way to defend that as a legitimate action. If intentional, I agree. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they were also surprised by this side-effect of redirecting the Android Market intent. If so, I'd say the right thing to do would be to make sure their browser doesn't raise an intent for http://market.android.com http://market.android.com, side-stepping the issue.

fpgeek 15y ago

I suspect you're right. The easy way to test this would be to sideload a browser that doesn't raise intents (e.g. Firefox) and see what it did with market.android.com

jsight 15y ago

Is it possible that this is just set as the default activity for the android market intent? Ie, what happens if you clear the default intent handler from the settings menu? I suppose that may not even be possible, depending upon how much customization that they've done. Honestly, though, I don't think there is anything particularly nefarious going on here. I think they are just trying to make the experience more seamless, since I'm sure many users would be confused by hitting the Android market site and then being unable to use it from an "Android" device.