Is Google blocking Window Phone users from using Google maps?
Google has been in intense competition with Microsoft, both companies offer rival services and products. However, outside of lawsuits and courts, Microsoft consumers are slightly feeling the burn, with the Google maps mobile page being redirected to the Google homepage when visited by a Windows Phone.
So what exactly is going on? Well, the useragent can tell everything about a browser and when spoofed properly, can trick websites into revealing what's really going on. One simple way to spoof the useragent is to use this website: http://www.wannabrowser.com/index.php, alternatively you can spoof the useragent by changing browser settings or by using a custom browser.
Below is a basic test of spoofed useragents, to try to see what's going on and to identify the culprit.
Not Working UAs
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; IEMobile/10.0; ARM; Touch; NOKIA; Lumia 920) = http://maps.google.com/m/local -> https://www.google.com/webhp?site=localMozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Phone 8.0) = http://maps.google.com/m/local -> http://www.google.com/m?site=local&
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows Phone) = http://maps.google.com/m/local -> http://www.google.com/m?site=local&
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows Phone OS 7.0; Trident/3.1; IEMobile/7.0) Asus;Galaxy6 = http://maps.google.com/m/local -> http://www.google.com/m?site=local&
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| Redirection with a windows phone useragent |
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| Redirection with a blackberry useragent |
Working UAs
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Pone 8.0; Trident/6.0; IEMobile/10.0; ARM; Touch; NOKIA; Lumia 920)Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Windows Pone 8.0)
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Wndows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; IEMobile/10.0; ARM; Touch; NOKIA; Lumia 920)
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Wndows Phone 8.0; Trident/6.0; IEMobile/10.0)
Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; MSIE 10.0; Wndows Phone 8.0)
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows)
Mozilla/5.0 (Phone)
Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3 = https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl
Notice how this issue only affects the keywords "Windows Phone" when put inside of the user-agent A misspelling will render this simple sniffing meaningless, and so it seems apparent that Google is redirecting all devices with the user-agent of "Windows Phone" from it's map service to http://maps.google.com/m/local regardless of rendering engine, and phone OS version
This appears to be an issue with the landing page http://maps.google.com/m/ to cause the site to redirect to the homepage not matter what your browser is..
Also note that on international versions Google is also doing this: http://maps.google.co.uk redirects to http://maps.google.co.uk/m/local to http://www.google.co.uk/m?site=local&
Also note that on international versions Google is also doing this: http://maps.google.co.uk redirects to http://maps.google.co.uk/m/local to http://www.google.co.uk/m?site=local&
With some more investigation: http://maps.google.com/m/ seems to be the "Google Maps for Mobile" page, however no longer works. https://www.google.com/search?q=http%3A%2F%2Fmaps.google.com%2Fm%2F
In the end, this seems like a failed Google roll-out to force Windows Phone users to use their native app, unlike the subtle dismissible message that iOS users get when viewing the mobile maps page for the first time.
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Sources
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-maps-windows-phone-not-blocking-20130104,0,5808027.storyhttp://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-01/06/google-maps-windows-phone
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_Z8vfzurnKw
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/u0gHVo98EbE
