Google to put mobile-friendly websites first in search engine

[eschwartz]

Very well, you may take that as said. I apologize for not spelling it out -- I thought that much was implicit (that I am talking about when you browse via a mobile view) but I guess not.

[Phogg]

My problem is that there are lousy sites out there that detect a mobile device and force the view into and minimalist view apropriate for a three inch screen. That's irritating on a six inch screen. Often the page you are accessing does not have an equivalent for mobile view, so you wind up on the site's home page.

[hapmas77]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

So Google is concerned with mobile friendly sites now? If they want people to be able to use a browser on their phone, maybe they should fix the Chrome browser to be able to do text wrap. They removed that capability a few years ago for some reason.

You can always enable the new hidden 'Reader' mode in Chrome for Android:

1. Open Chrome (make sure you're running the latest version) and type chrome://flags in the address bar. Press Go.
2. Head to Menu > Find on Page and search for "Enable Reader Mode Toolbar Icon". Click the Enable link under that setting.
3. Relaunch Chrome when prompted.
4. Now, when you're on a compatible page, you should see a little "A" icon appear next to Chrome's address bar. Tap that, and you'll get a more readable version of the page.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by hapmas77

You can always enable the new hidden 'Reader' mode in Chrome for Android:

1. Open Chrome (make sure you're running the latest version) and type chrome://flags in the address bar. Press Go.
2. Head to Menu > Find on Page and search for "Enable Reader Mode Toolbar Icon". Click the Enable link under that setting.
3. Relaunch Chrome when prompted.
4. Now, when you're on a compatible page, you should see a little "A" icon appear next to Chrome's address bar. Tap that, and you'll get a more readable version of the page.

Do you know of a site this will work on? I went to a few sites and didn't see anything.

[Purple Lady]

I don't think this checker works very well. ereaderiq comes up as not mobile friendly and their new site comes up as mobile friendly. I can read the old site on my phone or tablet, but I can't see the new one because the site doesn't allow page zooming. The fonts show up looking the same size to me on both versions, so I don't understand why Google thinks the new one is better. Here's the two sites - does anyone see a difference in font sizes? I use Opera or Dolphin browsers on Android devices.

Old - http://www.ereaderiq.com/
New - http://new.ereaderiq.com/

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I don't think this checker works very well. ereaderiq comes up as not mobile friendly and their new site comes up as mobile friendly. I can read the old site on my phone or tablet, but I can't see the new one because the site doesn't allow page zooming. The fonts show up looking the same size to me on both versions, so I don't understand why Google thinks the new one is better. Here's the two sites - does anyone see a difference in font sizes? I use Opera or Dolphin browsers on Android devices.

Old - http://www.ereaderiq.com/
New - http://new.ereaderiq.com/

I am able to zoom with the new site just fine using Chrome browser on a Motorola Droid Maxx

Shari

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by shalym

I am able to zoom with the new site just fine using Chrome browser on a Motorola Droid Maxx

Shari

Chrome has a setting 'force enable zoom' that will always allow zooming. They don't have text reflow though, so zooming still makes it difficult to read. Opera doesn't have force zoom.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Chrome has a setting 'force enable zoom' that will always allow zooming. They don't have text reflow though, so zooming still makes it difficult to read. Opera doesn't have force zoom.

Ah...ok. Too bad Opera doesn't have accessibility options. So what features does it have that make it better? (Sorry for the off-topic discussion, but I'm genuinely curious)

Shari

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by shalym

Ah...ok. Too bad Opera doesn't have accessibility options. So what features does it have that make it better? (Sorry for the off-topic discussion, but I'm genuinely curious)

Shari

Not really too off topic since to me this is about browser usability on mobile devices.

The biggest plus for me is text wrap. I very rarely use Chrome since they took that away. My husband told me he doesn't use his tablet or phone much for web surfing because he has to pan back and forth to read anything. I also like the speed dial better than Chrome - I can put the shortcuts in whatever order I want. I also like to be able to permanently set the user agent to desktop. But since more and more websites do not allow zooming I have to use Dolphin more often and Dolphin is slower.