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Author Topic: google search + ipad  (Read 4684 times)

Weaver

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google search + ipad
« on: July 13, 2015, 12:14:29 PM »

I’m using Safari on an iPad. I do a Google search such as
    site:kitz.co.uk  foo

and I get a load of results as normal, but following the link to one of the found kitz pages gives a strange result that looks like a page served up with abnormal CSS. I'm guessing this is @media "handheld" or whatever (I forget, it's been a long time), because the kitz webserver thinks the iPad is an _iPhone_. The text is all gigantic and hurts the eyes especially in landscape mode, that's the reasoning.
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kitz

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Re: google search + ipad
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2015, 03:00:46 PM »

I've spent a lot of time attempting to research 'responsive websites' over the past few months and trying to find a solution that would work for the site but aside from forking out a lot of money and paying someone to completely re-do several hundred pages, I haven't yet been able to find a workable answer.  In truth its a bit of a headache for me as I really dont know what to do, as I dont even think parts of the site are suitable for responsive pages.

Although I really really would like to be able to so, the main site doesn't do any form of responsive serving nor serve up different pages or CSS depending upon any detected browser type. 
For the forums I've installed the tapatalk plugin but that also needs to be installed on the mobile device and I also have the WAP2 option which is plain text for mobile devices that manually needs to be selected by the reader (link at the foot of the forum page)

Ive just tried to replicate what you see on my i-pad and I cant get anything to show up when I do site:kitz.co.uk...    but by looking at wap2 on my ipad I think I can see what you mean..  and I'm assuming that your search threw up a forum post.

If so, then the blame for this is google.   Its google that has detected your ipad as a mobile device and automatically directed you to a wap page. :(
Whilst I agree that mobile devices are becoming more common, google's changes earlier this year with search results have become a major problem for many site owners.
IMHO the ipad and 9" tablets dont need special treatment as they have sufficient resolution to serve normal webpages.   On top of that the ipad also offers 'reader view' if you wish to save bandwidth.
Its fine for the likes of BBC etc who have a full time content & web-design team, but google's SEO changes that came into effect in April(?) mean some popular websites are being penalised down the rankings.      Its not just me it affects, Thinkbroadband are also in a similar place because to change things mean either expenditure of thousands of hours or many many man-hours trying to sort things themselves.   :(


If you do get served a wap-page by google again, the way to get out of it is to scroll down to the bottom and click "Go to full version".    I'm really sorry that Im not able to offer a better solution.
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Ronski

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Re: google search + ipad
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2015, 06:41:49 PM »

I don't know about Apple devices but many Android browsers have the option to always request the desktop version of a site.
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Weaver

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Re: google search + ipad
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2015, 08:42:57 PM »

Ugh. Nasty.

Things are also not right with the iPad build of Safari IMO. Too many other things throw out iPhone-like content. I think Safari team ought to be getting the right kind of helpful user agent string firstly, and then reaching out to google and others as necessary to debug bad decisions.
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Weaver

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Re: google search + ipad
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2017, 01:44:55 AM »

Btw I can work around this by just deleting the 'wap2' off the end of the URL that Google comes up with.
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