“Google has launched an iPhone version of its homepage, linking itself even more closely with Apple,” MacNN reports.
“While the iPhone already had an integrated version of Google Maps, American users who visit Google.com from an iPhone are now redirected to a new page,” macNN reports.
“Tabs at the top take users to Gmail, Calendar, Reader and ‘More’ (Picasa, GOOG-411, etc.), while many pages have a secondary menu bar, letting users pick app options such as Gmail’s ‘Contacts,” MacNN reports.
Screenshots and more in the full article here.
Very good display… soon you’ll see the same from YouTube, CNN, etc. and why not MDN. They should do the same with their Gmail (if not done yet) ’cause now it’s kind of crappy to use it with iPhone.
“MDN talks the pro Apple talk but this site is full of ads for the HTC touch….”
And the Intel ad for http://www.iwantagreatpc.com/ is only promoting Windows PCs. It recommends a Gateway as the top pick for a high end multimedia desktop computer.
That’s a river horse on life support.
Wait the minute now, I thought the idea of Safari on iPhone was to have website written once and being able to view it on all teh same way. This is clearly departure from what Apple intended.
Although, it is nicely executed.
I agree Rob!!!!
I want to use the regular website on my iphone! Don’t redirect me!
While the regular website is fine MDN has WAY too many links for the page to load fast. Not only that but its annoying to have to wait for the whole page to load then to have to scroll all the way down to bypass all the links before you get to the story which is also annoying. finally the pop-under ads on an iPhone are also annoying, yes I know they block popups and unders but it still attempts to load the advertisement page prior to closing the popup.
If it didn’t take so long to load the site on an iPhone I wouldn’t have a problem
Yeah, I wish they wouldn’t do this. I hate being redirected to a mobile version.
I’m reading this from the office using Firefox with pop-ups blocked and Adblock Plus installed and I see NO ads, only the article lists on the left side. And, hey, if HTC thinks they’ll get business from readers on this site, they’ll soon be disabused of that notion. In the meantime, MDN gets some revenue to keep this site going.
I totally agree with some of the above posters that MDN is way too *cluncky* for the iPhone. It’s merely tolerable on WiFi, but on EDGE, it’s downright painful.
My iPhone loves that google site. Its perfect for surfing on Edge. Very well done by google.
Although MDN is slow to load over edge, they have to make a living and I appreciate this site for what it provides for us. Thanks MDN.
From iPhone
Looks like MDN delted my criticism of it above, in part quoted by Ampar.
Whats the matter MDN? You cant take what you dish out?
Can anyone tell me why the iPhone would need a specially formatted site when it apparently has the ability to surf the web as a normal browser? A Mac (also using Safari) doesn’t require a special site so why should the iPhone? If I had an iPhone (which being Canadian, sadly I don’t) I would not want to be redirected to a different page than I would normally see on my Mac.
Well said Mac4life !!! Thanks to Google for this mobile version of their site. It fits iPhone screen perfectly. It’s nice, even better than the regular one. Seeing that, I’m telling myself that web designers could make millions, hundred of millions proposing their services to create/adapt sites specifically to smartphones displays. The market is there. Every portal website will align. This is the future.
Let’s put it this way: Regular websites suck BIG TIME on iPhone or any other smartphones. I’ve tried to send an email from Gmail on an iPhone and didn’t like the experience at all ’cause of all the scrolling top to bottom and worse, left to right. I simply dropped it and gave phone calls to the persons I wanted to write to.
All websites needs to put out there mobile versions for smartphone. Content can be the same, not the display. It just needs to be adapted. Totally rethought from A to Z. C’mon guys, who likes scrolling and scrolling and *#@&… even if Apple made it fancy with multi-touch. Regular site on smartphone suck !!!
I have to say that while I get the part about not doing special layouts, I do like the work Google has done in this case. I put all my usual feeds in Google Reader and they look great on my iPhone.
Also, the calendar, while a bit garish in appearance, works great on the iPhone – the map feature is great. I wish the navigation on the calendar was better on the iPhone, but I expect it will become so.
Extremely functional from where I sit…
Forgot to include my second on Mac4lfe’s comment on Edge speed… the whole perceived Edge issue goes away on Google reader, even with a long Joel On Software post with pics embedded.
“I’ve tried to send an email from Gmail on an iPhone and didn’t like the experience at all ’cause of all the scrolling top to bottom and worse, left to right. I simply dropped it and gave phone calls to the persons I wanted to write to.”
Dude, it’s called IMAP. Gmail is absolutely F***ING AMAZING on the iPhone when you set up IMAP.
http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=77702
All of you fucking whiners who complain about iPhone formatted versions of sites need to take EDGE into account! While that real web experience can be emulated well over WiFi, when it comes to EDGE certain things are unbearable. I never even bother to view MDN when I can’t get WiFi, it takes a minute to load and half the time it just conks out.
Over EDGE, this Google page comes in VERY handy. That’s what these iPhone formatted sites are meant to do, make the experience tolerable for EDGE users. Searching pictures, going through Google news and Gmail are all speedier. It will have to do until we can get 3G iPhones and even then the coverage will suck for a few years to come.
“Can anyone tell me why the iPhone would need a specially formatted site when it apparently has the ability to surf the web as a normal browser? “
Personally, the double tap feature on google sometimes doesn’t zoom in for me – that’s why I used the mobile version. It loads faster, with no ads, and the text is the perfect size already – no zooming needed.
The new version automatically loaded for me and it works great! I didn’t even realize there was a new google page until I read it on here and tried it. It’s PERFECT for edge and gmail (if you prefer reading it through safari). It’s really not necessary though, because I previously used the mobile version and it formatted everything very nicely. Tabs at the top are a nice facebook-like addition though, especially the icon style links under the “more,” tab.
@ macK
Thanks for taking the time to explain that without resorting to any flaming. I can see now why a reformat is beneficial (lack of ads is always a welcome bonus too) and can answer questions when people ask me. Much appreciated!
Ahh very nice. Makes it even more of a pleasure to use the iPhone anywhere, anytime.
Wait! That’s bogus! We designed the iPhone for the “REAL” Internet. Not some compromised Internet! Google, get it together! You need to GET the iPhone!