Google Transcoding Search Results for Mobile
I’m happy to hear that Dave managed to get Google to stop mangling the WINKsite pages after searches, but definitely somewhat troubled by the process he had to go through. I agree with what Scott had to say about the issue in general. I don’t really see it as censorship or predatory behavior necessarily. The problem is that Google doesn’t automatically pass through to the mobile site when one exists, so they can be seen as hijacking the browser to a degree. It’s just bad web etiquette to return your own stuff when you can link off to existing workable stuff. I personally view it very much the same as framing. It’s bad manners to frame someone elses site unless you have a reason to. And it should be bad manners to stick your transcoding engine in between the user and the end website if you could realistically just link off to an existing mobile version. That’s it. I’m not going to comment on the advertising or the censorship issues or the rights of publishers or anything else. It’s just bad manners in general, independent of any other issues. So I hope Google figures out how to fix it and does so.
