Google seems to be 'doing evil' by blocking Windows Phone from maps.

Originally published on Kapuno in the Technology community

🔗 Shenanigans: Google Maps redirect issue on Windows Phones is a matter of competition, not compatibility (Article)

🔗 Misspelling “Windows Phone” Makes Google Maps Work (Video)

Windows Phone users recently found themselves at a loss when they were no longer able to use Google Maps from their IE 10 browser. Google’s explanation was that they only support Webkit and that’s why; however, the Google Maps does work on IE 10 on the desktop.

The attached video shows that Google’s logic is looking specifically for the phrase “Windows Phone” and if you send it a different user agent header, it will render normally.

Here’s Google’s statement (via http://thenextweb.com):

The mobile web version of Google Maps is optimized for WebKit browsers such as Chrome and Safari. However, since Internet Explorer is not a WebKit browser, Windows Phone devices are not able to access Google Maps for the mobile web.

Is this bad business?

Responses

Hooman Radfar

February 14, 2013

Have you seen all the scroogled ads  by Microsoft - think it’s all out war!

Cyrus Radfar (February 14, 2013)

I hadn’t seen the “Scroogled Ad”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WIluNt0mvA

Now I have. Thanks for the response