Google blocks Windows Phone from Maps, limits Gmail
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 5th Jan 2013 14:53 UTC
Talk, Rumors, X Versus Y And so this situation is starting to get ridiculous - and consumers are, as usual, caught in the middle of it all. Google has just blocked Windows Phone devices from accessing Google Maps on their phones. In addition, it also seems Windows Phone users are now restricted to the basic HTML version of the mobile GMail website. While understandable from a defensive perspective - Microsoft's extortion scheme targeting Android device makers and all that - it's still a massive dick move that only hurts consumers. Update: the media attention has worked - Google is backpedalling, and will remove the redirect. "We periodically test Google Maps compatibility with mobile browsers to make sure we deliver the best experience for those users. In our last test, IE mobile still did not offer a good maps experience with no ability to pan or zoom and perform basic map functionality. As a result, we chose to continue to redirect IE mobile users to Google.com where they could at least make local searches. The Firefox mobile browser did offer a somewhat better user experience and that’s why there is no redirect for those users. Recent improvements to IE mobile and Google Maps now deliver a better experience and we are currently working to remove the redirect. We will continue to test Google Maps compatibility with other mobile browsers to ensure the best possible experience for users."
E-mail Print r 3   · Read More · 247 Comment(s) http://osne.ws/kkt
Thread beginning with comment 547530
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
ze_jerkface
Member since:
2012-06-22

once a business reaches a specific volume they seem to display similar predatory tendencies.


It's when the company is no longer ran by a founder that values the business along with the customers and is instead ran by a board of directors that wants a profit and nothing more. All the large publicly traded corporations today would prostitute 10 year old girls if it made them a decent profit and didn't malign their public image. Just look at how the Google CEO talked about how evading taxes is actually a good thing. No loyalty at all to the country that helped foster its growth, it's just a geographic area of resources to them. Morality only matters to them in terms of legality and public perception.

Reply Parent Score: 3

tylerdurden Member since:
2009-03-17

Are you sure? Currently, both Google and Microsoft are run by founding members of their respective organizations.

Reply Parent Score: 2

ze_jerkface Member since:
2012-06-22

Schmidt and Ballmer are not founding members and they both answer to shareholders.

But it's obviously a generalization, you can find small businesses that are ran by total assholes.

In general though I would trust the moral decisions of a small business owner over a CEO that answers to shareholders.

I once ran into a compatibility problem with some small business software and the owner contacted me personally and even worked on a solution before I read his email.

To Microsoft, Apple and Google I'm not even worth considering unless it involves thousands of dollars or their public image. Even when they do care it's only out of obligation. None of those companies take pride in developing relationships with partners. Microsoft only contacted us once in the last few years to make sure we were going to follow through with a big purchase and not go open source. They never even followed up with a thank you for sending them thousands of dollars. Not going open source? That's all we need to know. Goodbye.

Reply Parent Score: 2

Read more of this thread... >