Google Says It Will Stop Blocking Maps from Windows Phone

Google said it would stop redirecting users of Windows Mobile Phones away from the Google Maps website.

This weekend, controversy erupted after a user reported that attempts to access Google Maps on a Windows Phone device lead to redirects to the Google homepage. Google redirect confirmed on Friday, says Mashable and other news outlets that the decision to redirect users of Google Maps was because it has been optimized for mobile Google Maps-based site for WebKit browsers.

Because Internet Explorer for Windows Phone uses the Trident rendering engine and not WebKit, Google Maps will not load on the browser. Unspoken message is that Windows Phone is not able to properly render Google Maps in your web browser.

Yesterday, we explained that the issue is not about the browser capabilities rather than decisions made by Google to not support non-WebKit browsers mobile.

Additional user tests have shown that the Google Maps for mobile phones operate properly in Internet Explorer for Windows Phone.

As a result of this controversy, Google has taken a closer look at the capabilities of Internet Explorer on a mobile phone. The company issued a statement to The Next Web, Weeks says:

"We periodically test the compatibility with Google Maps mobile browser to ensure we provide the best experience for our users.

In our last test, IE the phone still does not offer the experience of a good map with no ability to pan or how it looks and performs the basic function. As a result, we have chosen to continue to redirect mobile users of IE to Google.com where they could at least make local search. Mobile Firefox Browser does not offer the user experience a bit better and thatâ € ™ s why there is no redirect for the users."

Hotfix for IE and Google Maps Mobile now provides a better experience and we are working to remove the redirect. We will continue to test the compatibility of Google Maps with other mobile browser to ensure the best experience for our users.

source:http://mashable.com/2013/01/06/google-stops-blocking-windows-phone/