MacDailyNews readers are complaining that ZDNet is forcing iPhone users onto a dumbed-down mobile version of their website (http://m.zdnet.com/).
This website will not allow iPhone users to take advantage of the full Web browsing capabilities of their Safari browser. Access to much of ZDNet’s content is not allowed. For example, reading or contributing reader comment is not permitted.
iPhone users are upset that ZDNet is forcing a limited, “baby” Web experience on iPhone users without offering a choice to access the full ZDNet site. As one McDailyNews iPhone user remarked via email, “I did not get an iPhone, so that I would be forced to endure a crippled online experience because other mobile browsers are not as capable as iPhone.” Another told us, “I would’ve gotten a Treo, if I wanted to have as crappy a Web experience as ZDNet is offering my iPhone.” Another asked, “Why, when our iPhones are perfectly capable of viewing and interacting with their Website, is ZDNet forcing us onto their &*#$%@! Website that’s meant for inferior mobile devices?”
MacDailyNews Take: ZDNet and all other websites that are automatically redirecting iPhone users to dumbed-down mobile verison fo their Websites need to follow the lead of MLB.com, the official site of Major League Baseball. MLB redirects iPhone users to their mobile version (http://wap.mlb.com/), but they also offer a link (visible to iPhone users) to their full MLB website. Sites such as ZDNet should know better than to force iPhone users — with their capacity to experience the full Internet — onto dumbed-down, crippled mobile sites that offer no means of escape.
Please contact :
ZDNet Senior Vice President Dan Farber:
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Swordmaker,” “Fred Mertz,” “Journo,” and many others for the heads up.]
ZDNet is pretty dumb to begin with.
I would never recommend anyone specially Mac users to visit ZDNET and CNET. More like ZDNUTS and CNUTS. That place is FUD central.
ZDNet still lives in the 90s
Careful with those acronyms there, Jubei. After all, this is a family-friendly blog. So, in that spirit . . .
. . . I POOP ON ZDNet!
Amazon and Google give you the option too. I hate being redirected!
@MDN
In the same light as calling the folks at ZDNet dumb and “stuck in the 90’s” perhaps this website could use a bit of it’s own medicine.
Al the pop-ups and scripts on this site are definitely dumb, 100% bad taste, and totally “stuck in the 90’s.”
A classic example is how every link on this site, even the ones to their own sources and stories, will open a separate new browser window. Hello? Tabbed browsers have been around for ages, specifically on a Mac.
Hardly anyone younger than 50 or so uses a new window to open up a different web page, and since I have my Safari specifically set to open up new links in a “new tab” it is intensely rude of MDN to force the link to open up in a “new window.”
That’s almost worse than redirection.
Signed:
“Sick and tired of right-clicking every stinking link on this site to force it to open up in a new tab.”
Like ZDNet, Bank of America’s online banking does not give you the option of going off their mobile site — I wish they would.
ZDNet = Microsoft-subsidized, biased, opinionated, home of some of the worst tech zealots on the face of the earth (Dvorak!), etc.
Would you expect anything less?
So I might ask, why should we bother with their site?
fm
“MacDailyNews readers are complaining…”
Surprise of the century.
Airtran Airways does the exact same thing…. So I had no choice but to make my reservations with another airline!
I like to check in several time a day to MDN, but I don’t do so from my iPhone. Can anyone guess why? Because MDN is the slowest loading site I have experienced. All the crap that loads before the content makes it painful to use on Edge, so I don’t do it. I am finding other sites to fill the void.
(And yes, I fully expect to get called juvenile names for daring to criticize.)
Indeed – why would anyone want to visit ZDNet from an iPhone, or any browser, for that matter?
Follow the example of baseball? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…
It’s ZDNET; who cares.
It’s ZDNET; how can you tell?
Who reads Zdnet anymore? Jebus!
Yuck
iPhone users need to get a life blah blah.
Steve has you all duped blah blah blah
Beat you to it ‘Realist’
zdeeznuts!
DanieIN:
I agree completely. MacDailyNews is the slowest loading site I visit – and I visit many! I gave up a long time ago trying to load this site on my iPhone.
Anyone know how ZDnet and others are redirecting these users? Is it based on browser version, or is there some other way that they can tell that a request is coming from a mobile device?
If it’s by browser version, can folks alter the browser version that Safari on their iPhones is reporting itself as, like you can do with the “normal” Safari?
“ZDNet – the «Zune» of technology websites”
The iPhone browser needs a developers option so we can claim our browser is something other than an iPhone and let us spoof these idiotic sites.
@Jeremy,
You’re confused. The “open in new tab” feature of Safari is only for external links (from emails and other programs). Safari doesn’t provide the ability to force “new windows” to open in “new tabs” like other browsers have. That is not something that MDN can fix, as it’s a browser behavior.
@Jeremy (again),
Forgot to mention, if you look at the Safari preferences, you’ll see specifically that you need hold down the Command key to open a link in a new tab. Just gonna have to get into the habit of that, eh?
Imagine that, apple users COMPLAINING when they get a dumbed down feature limited product. Normal practice is to try to convince the world how much better the dumbed down product is.
Forget ZDNET. Someone needs to hit Yahoo with a clue bat. They do the same thing.
Can you spell conspiracy?
I have a feeling CNET is trying to downgrade the experience for iPhone users with all other M$ mobile users.
They are not tech illiterate, and they are reaally pro M$.
Think of it this way, they will say: see the iPhone has the same experience as all other mobile phones, the iPhone is not anything special.
Dan just replied to me.
Today, we have modified our redirects on all blogs pages, so if you’re coming in via an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you’ll see our standard Web page, in all its glory.
In early January, we’ll be doing the same thing for our front door at ZDNet as well, though I should point out that our current mobile version is a full feed of our blogs and news. The only thing missing is Flash, and as you know, you can’t currently view Flash on an iPhone in the first place.
DF
Here is what I wrote to Dan at ZDNet:
I feel that it would be in your company’s best interest to allow
iPhone users to decide their own web experiance. I understand that you
want to streamline a process. In this case though it may not be the
process to streamline. Thank you in advance for your time.
and his reply:
Today, we have modified our redirects on all blogs pages, so if you’re
coming in via an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you’ll see our standard Web
page, in all its glory.
In early January, we’ll be doing the same thing for our front door at
ZDNet as well, though I should point out that our current mobile version
is a full feed of our blogs and news. The only thing missing is Flash,
and as you know, you can’t currently view Flash on an iPhone in the
first place.
DF
darn u Ron, you beat me.
Dan at ZD Net wrote: “…The only thing missing is Flash, and as you know, you can’t currently view Flash on an iPhone in the first place.” And that’s a bad thing – because – ?
@Maryland Balloon Guy
No flash: I don’t think that’s a bad thing!
NFL.com also has the same problem!!! I want them to change this immediately!
Gee, that would be annoying if I had any reason to look at ZDnet.
-jcr
why waste bandwidth going to zdnet?
Never underestimate the power of MDN… write an email and get results the next night.
Thanks…
Swordmaker
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