Connect with us

Mobile

Why Smartphone Browsing Still Sucks [Comic]

Published

on

Browsing on any smartphone is still a mixed experience.

Yes, it is great to have access to the entire world of information on your mobile device, but even as we close out 2011, mobile browsing still sucks.

Android, iPhone and Windows Mobile devices aren’t to blame. Though each have their own shortcomings, the problem lies on the shoulders of websites that try to think for you, and not in a Siri gets you kind of way.

No, this is more like an annoying telemarketer/salesman/carnie type of way.

The XKCD webcomic shown below describes one of my most hated smartphone browsing issues — the, “Hey, I have a mobile app you should check out!” landing page and ad.

xkcd server attention span

Smartphone vs. Server Attention Span from xkcd

This isn’t a limited problem. Over the past week, here are just a few of the sites that have tried to push a mobile app on me.

  • Twitter – While trying to follow a link to a tweet.
  • LinkedIn – While following an email link to confirm a contact
  • News Sites – Too Many news websites to count
  • The list goes on.

The only mobile browsing issue I hate as much is the quadruple redirect, wherein I could have loaded a full webpage by the time I get bounced between alternate mobile sites, with no hope of using the back button.

You can use a browser like the Dolphin Browser to show your browser as a desktop browser, to avoid these issues, but you shouldn’t have to fight with a website to see what you came to see.

What is the most annoying forced browser behavior that you have experienced.

5 Comments

5 Comments

  1. Bigmouth

    10/20/2011 at 10:46 am

    Some of the most annoying forced browser behavior is those obnoxious “RECOMMENDED FOR YOU” sliders that Gottabemobile and others have installed. Even when I opt out, the window pops up then closes, which is incredibly distracting. Even worse, if I click on a Gottabemobile link from search engine results, I have to manually opt out every time. Please get rid of this crap.

    • Cuhulin

      10/20/2011 at 1:09 pm

      Not only are the sliders annoying and the “do not show” cookies not really functional, but the system just works badly.  A lot of the articles are old and are things we’ve already read, but there also is no common sense in them — they’re picked by a machine — so I got a how should Steve Jobs spend his semi-retirement article when reading obituary comments.

    • M@rc

      10/21/2011 at 8:04 pm

      +1 here

  2. Anonymous

    10/20/2011 at 11:41 am

    Agreed.

  3. Maximus

    10/21/2011 at 4:39 am

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.