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Seems appropriate that a site on Google Android should also be optimized for viewing on the mobile phones it is based on, so Google And Blog now has a mobile version customized for the G1.
The mobile version can also be viewed from an iPhone, but this should only be temporary until you get a real phone that has Android on it.
This was done via a great plugin called WPtouch as it automatically checks your browser’s user agent to display the mobile version rather than having to create a separate mobile site.
You can also view the standard non-mobile version of GAB by clicking on the link at the bottom of the site so you aren’t locked in to only that version – it is frustrating that some sites don’t give you the option.
As far as I know the other major Android sites don’t have a mobile version as of yet, so maybe GAB is now the first and hopefully encourages the other sites to do the same for the sake of our G1 phones.
*** Comments as well style and user feedback are welcomed and encouraged ***
Google And Blog is cited & referenced as a top Android site in:
Congrats on your mobile site. I’m also planning on launching a custom mobile site soon. I have found several 100 Android visitors so I think it is time to give them the option for a mobile page.
Bobby P.s last blog post..3 Ways To Get More Storage Space On Your Android G1
@Bobby,
Thanks for your feedback.
I have checked out your site – AndroidAndMe – I like the site layout and has some great Android how to tips!
“The mobile version can also be viewed from an iPhone, but this should only be temporary until you get a real phone that has Android on it.”
lmao, classic comment. i almost fell of my chair with that one.
Congrats Michael on your site. I can now officially use my G1 for everything
.
I’ll have to give it a try. When I experimented with other WP plugins to make Wordpress blog mobile-friendly I found they all broke when used with WP Super Cache: if a page was shown in a mobile version first, then the cached mobile version was served for desktop browsers too, and vice versa.
PS. This comment area is confusing: it has two checkboxes that seem like they could be used to subscribe to comments. Something also seemed to pick up the latest post from my own blog; dunno how that is going to show up…
Heikki Toivonens last blog post..Caltroid Upgrade
I removed some of the confusing comment plugins for more simplification.
Let me know if its more clear now.
Thank You!
Are you sure the WPtouch plugin is working correctly? I am posting this comment using the Android emulator and I am getting the normal version of your site.
Yes, it depends if you emulator when browsing uses the G1 user agent which is Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.0; en-us; dream)
When I run this agent from my laptop it displays the mobile site as well the user agent for the iPhone.
Could you confirm what your browser user agent is in the emulator?
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.0; en-us; generic) AppleWebKit/525.10+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0.4 Mobile Safari/523.12.2
Yup everything is the same except for the generic tag which prevents the mobile version from showing up.
If you changed the agent from generic to dream in your emulator then that would trigger the mobile version for this site as well many others.
I’m an android fan and the first search I did tonight was “android top sites” and this was the first useful or interesting page I found. Just wanted to let you know your efforts are generating grateful traffic.
Thanks, and I hope more people optimize their sites for mobile users! Also want to let you know the site’s mobile version is working beautifully for me.
Like the site. Good work. Only problem is that since the 1.5 update
I no longer get directed to the mobile version.
@Andy,
What means did you upgrade to 1.5 – manual or rooted vs US or UK OTA?
Also if you can tell me what the browser user agent is – if you can uncover?
Thank you for this heads up!
Sorry for the delay in reply. Started working again after a couple of days. Got another update after 1.5 OTA update here in the UK, not sure if it had anything to do with it. Keep up the good work.