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This is a great example of why mobile browsers suck. It is the job of the mobile browser to be able to fix these problems automatically, to resize and reflow te

This is a great example of why mobile browsers suck. It is the job of the mobile browser to be able to fix these problems automatically, to resize and reflow text so that it displays properly on the device.

moepstar 12y ago
^this. And: It pisses me off to no end that Google is in the position to decide how a site has to look like on $device. They announce that you will get a worse SERP if your site doesn't do X and everyone scrambles to please mighty G. If they decide that every site has to have a yellow background, starting next week, what will you do? Give in?
- jontro 12y ago
  Well, you only get worse SERP for mobile searches don't you? As long as google delivers good results people will use it, I am not that worried
- golergka 12y ago
  The whole business model of Google is knowledge about what users want to see on the web. And their judgements about it are context-specific: they are true for the current situation, when the mobile browsers work as they do. If Google is wrong, and users want the sites that are _not_ optimized for mobile, they will lose their market share. However, if they are right, and the users _do_ want to see sites optimised for mobile, it means that while you are right technically about how mobile browsers are supposed to work, and how sites are supposed to work, the real users just don't agree with you.
  - seba_dos1 12y ago
    What if my target audience is actually that 1% niche that doesn't care about mobile, or a niche that actually uses decent browsers and mobile platforms, so they're perfectly able to view my simple page even without stupid meta viewport tag? It seems easy to just add the tag and a few CSS rules - but what if this is a still useful page from 2005 which I have forgotten about?
    - golergka 12y ago
      Then Google sees that they don't use mobile devices when they search and your mobile unfriendliness doesn't affect search results.
- tobyhinloopen 12y ago
  Google makes these kinds of decisions to improve their service: Finding the information you need. If you look up some information about bananas on your 4" touchscreen device and 2 sites provide info on them: A mobile site and a "regular" website, I want the mobile/responsive website, not the "regular" one.
tobyhinloopen 12y ago
They should not. A mobile browser should follow standards defined by people who thought about this kind of stuff. Mobile browsers render "desktop-designed" webpages this way because they should so according to the HTML/CSS/JS specs. As a developer, you should define which content should scale and/or resize according to browser viewport width and pixel density: Better known as "Responsive".
- jay_kyburz 12y ago
  Agree wholeheartedly, nothing more annoying than a mobile browser thinking it knows better than the site designer. Mobile browser should render the page exactly how the designer specified.
thameera 12y ago
Isn't it the web designer's responsibility to provide enough metadata so that the browser can actually reflow the content without breaking the intended flow? Correctly reflowing a website doesn't sound like something a program could do without knowing enough context.

moepstar 12y ago

^this. And: It pisses me off to no end that Google is in the position to decide how a site has to look like on $device. They announce that you will get a worse SERP if your site doesn't do X and everyone scrambles to please mighty G. If they decide that every site has to have a yellow background, starting next week, what will you do? Give in?

jontro 12y ago
Well, you only get worse SERP for mobile searches don't you? As long as google delivers good results people will use it, I am not that worried
golergka 12y ago
The whole business model of Google is knowledge about what users want to see on the web. And their judgements about it are context-specific: they are true for the current situation, when the mobile browsers work as they do. If Google is wrong, and users want the sites that are _not_ optimized for mobile, they will lose their market share. However, if they are right, and the users _do_ want to see sites optimised for mobile, it means that while you are right technically about how mobile browsers are supposed to work, and how sites are supposed to work, the real users just don't agree with you.
- seba_dos1 12y ago
  What if my target audience is actually that 1% niche that doesn't care about mobile, or a niche that actually uses decent browsers and mobile platforms, so they're perfectly able to view my simple page even without stupid meta viewport tag? It seems easy to just add the tag and a few CSS rules - but what if this is a still useful page from 2005 which I have forgotten about?
  - golergka 12y ago
    Then Google sees that they don't use mobile devices when they search and your mobile unfriendliness doesn't affect search results.
tobyhinloopen 12y ago
Google makes these kinds of decisions to improve their service: Finding the information you need. If you look up some information about bananas on your 4" touchscreen device and 2 sites provide info on them: A mobile site and a "regular" website, I want the mobile/responsive website, not the "regular" one.

tobyhinloopen 12y ago

They should not. A mobile browser should follow standards defined by people who thought about this kind of stuff. Mobile browsers render "desktop-designed" webpages this way because they should so according to the HTML/CSS/JS specs. As a developer, you should define which content should scale and/or resize according to browser viewport width and pixel density: Better known as "Responsive".

jay_kyburz 12y ago
Agree wholeheartedly, nothing more annoying than a mobile browser thinking it knows better than the site designer. Mobile browser should render the page exactly how the designer specified.

thameera 12y ago

Isn't it the web designer's responsibility to provide enough metadata so that the browser can actually reflow the content without breaking the intended flow? Correctly reflowing a website doesn't sound like something a program could do without knowing enough context.