Google paves the way for Tablet-friendly websites

Mike Halsey MVP
Jul 31, 2011
Updated • Nov 30, 2012
Google
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This has been a long time coming and, to be honest is already way behind schedule.  However Google is the first company to make it's search page finger-friendly for tablet operating systems.  In a move that will be welcomed by almost everybody the new look will be automatically implemented when the website detects you're using a tablet OS.

In a blog post the company said, "As part of our effort to evolve the Google design and experience, we’ve improved the www.google.com search experience on tablets.  We’ve simplified the layout of search results pages and increased the size of page contents like text, buttons and other touch targets to make it faster and easier to browse and interact with search results in portrait or landscape view.

The search button located below the search box provides quick access to specific types of results like Images, Videos, Places, Shopping and more. Just tap to open the search menu and select an option to see results in one category."

This is much more than just providing a larger search box and search button though.  Google have really thought this one through with more spacing between search results, large thumbnail images and better usability throughout.  For this the company should be applauded.

There will be problems with this however.  On initial inspection Windows 8 on tablets won't get the new interface as the website will recognise the OS as a desktop operating system.  Windows 7 also won't get it at all.  While it can be argued that it might be difficult to tell Windows 8 on a tablet and desktop apart for this system, it's also a way for Google to maintain a lead over Microsoft and, perhaps, even the iPad if they refuse to support iOS.

tablet google

These questions have yet to be answered and if Google go down this route they could face complaints from competitors for anti-competitive behaviour.

However this move is also an indicator of a much larger problem and one that won't be going away for a good few years yet.  That being the unfriendliness of the general web when it comes to touch.  So far companies have been relying on specific apps to deliver their user experience, and it's entirely possible that an app-centric way to access these services will be the way forward.  Major websites such as Amazon, eBay and Facebook are making no progress in making their websites finger-friendly, nor have they or any other websites yet publicly come out and said they will do so.

This is annoying and frustrating and ultimately will hurt the companies themselves.  Adding a different finger-friendly style sheet to a website is a small matter, hardly worthy of a multi-million dollar investment.  It would make the world of difference to people using these websites on both tablets and smartphones.

In short this is something that needs to be addressed right now for all the companies who are not yet considering it.  The problem isn't going away and it could take a website a year to decide on what format they will adopt for their users and how they will implement it.  In that time the whole tablet market will have moved on considerably, there will be new operating systems available from Microsoft, Mozilla and MeeGo and the number of consumers and businesses using these devices will have grown exponentially.

In the mean time Google is the only company to have publicly come out and done something positive about the problem.  All that remains is to see if the company will make the finger-friendly improvements across all tablet operating systems or just Android.  Google leading the way here could change the websites we visit forever.

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Comments

  1. VioletMoon said on August 16, 2023 at 5:33 pm
    Reply

    “Do you use Google Photos?”

    I do; I find it impossible not to use Google Photos on the Android phone; nevertheless, the “memory” feature is sort of neat. I’ve seen photos from a couple of years ago that that offer glimpses into the long-ago, forgotten past. It’s a lot like reviewing journal writing. “What was I doing and such and such a date?”

    And, I think, when the “memories” are sorted and positioned, one can create a mini-collage with up to eight photos.

    It’s so much easier to share photos with people rather than journal entries.

    Nifty!

  2. John G. said on August 16, 2023 at 8:57 pm
    Reply

    I delete the photos after 1 month of being taken. All of them are erased to return to the black and silent nothingness. Only the best ones are printed and placed in a very nice site at home. :]

    1. Anonymous said on September 15, 2023 at 10:33 am
      Reply

      I should buy a Chromebook.
      None of the big tech companies are good but at least Google are the least dishonest and morally bankrupt of them. They’re always trying to do the right thing if the money allow it.

  3. Tachy said on August 19, 2023 at 5:15 pm
    Reply

    In reply to “https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/19/google-keep-is-getting-a-version-history-but-only-on-the-web/” since the website has gone insane and no one can know where thier comment ends up.

    This app should be called “Google Keeps it”. Because, they do.

    I use Color Notes. No syncing, no internet, just local.

  4. said on August 22, 2023 at 3:19 pm
    Reply

    The article said: “[…] positive outcomes of genocide…”. Perhaps the AI was actually discussing the benefits of reading a “Scroll of genocide” … “You feel dead inside.”.

    Martin, this post reply is supposed to belong: [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/22/googles-ai-search-generates-horribly-misleading-answers/] (given the the database is faulty it could appear anywhere or nowhere).

  5. John said on August 22, 2023 at 3:46 pm
    Reply

    I have yet to be impressed with AI of any kind. I think it’s overhyped and not ready to live up to it.

  6. Seeprime said on August 22, 2023 at 8:36 pm
    Reply

    How to use AI: Avoid the artificial stupidity at all times.

  7. Richard Steven Hack said on August 23, 2023 at 3:54 am
    Reply

    “When searched “Why guns are good,” it also prompted questionable responses, including potentially questionable statistics and reasoning. ”

    Based on whose reasoning? These sorts of assertions are generally bullcrap intended to advance an agenda. If you don’t like guns, say so. Meanwhile, there are 400 million firearms in the US owned by close to a third of the population and around 20 million carry concealed.

    So your opinion is not shared by a LOT of people who either enjoy firearm spots or are concerned about self-defense or both.

    1. Seeprime said on August 31, 2023 at 10:07 pm
      Reply

      Wow. Ghacks still hasn’t fixed the broken comments system where old comments from a different article appear. Sad to see you slowly turn to dust since the buyout.

      1. owl said on September 1, 2023 at 3:40 am
        Reply

        @Seeprime,

        For over two weeks now,
        I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
        https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
        https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
        For the time being,
        it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.

      2. Kirk said on September 19, 2023 at 3:08 pm
        Reply

        This guns comment came up in the Pixel watch repair post and I was bewildered as to what was the connection between the two.

  8. gogo said on August 23, 2023 at 5:12 am
    Reply

    goog = skynet
    “human beings” = \slaves\

  9. no said on August 23, 2023 at 3:51 pm
    Reply

    This info is so NOT correct.
    I so do not want google in my life that I have NEVER downloaded chrome and I do NOT have ANY google accounts.
    My browser is set to clear all cookies, cache and history every time I close it, which is every day, and I still get these world takeover login prompts on every site I go to.
    So I CANT go to google accounts and turn it off.
    If this info were truly accurate I wouldnt be getting these pop ups AT ALL.

  10. John G. said on August 31, 2023 at 3:49 pm
    Reply

    Thanks @Ashwin for the article! :]

  11. Scroogled said on September 1, 2023 at 11:31 pm
    Reply

    Anyone who continues to use these big tech scum’s cloud services deserves what they get.

  12. Tom Hawack said on September 4, 2023 at 2:44 pm
    Reply

    Given Ghacks’ comments’ database problems I precise :
    I’m commenting the article “Google is in trouble with YouTube Shorts – gHacks Tech News” by Emre Çitak
    at [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/04/googles-youtube-shorts-problem/]

    About the article’s question, “What do you think about YouTube Shorts?” (BTW first time I read here any other writer other than Martin Brinkmann directly asks the audience it’s opinion, and that’s just fine) :

    YouTube Shorts may suit smartphones (which I don’t use) but on a PC they are not my cup of tea, to put it mildly.
    From what I read a bit everywhere, opinions are shared : love or hate. For those who dislike many scripts and dedicated browser extensions have been developed to handle them (removal or redirect to standard video display).

    I don’ view YouTube videos on YouTube but via a Piped or a Piped-Material YouTube front-end instance and these offer on search results and on channels the option to view Videos-Shorts-Livestreams-Playlists-Channels ; well, I practically never open the ‘Shorts’ display. I don’t like shorts (except in summer, hmm), I dislike the concept, fast-videos after fast-food, fast, faster … to bring what? Emptiness, IMO

    Does that answer your question, @Emre Çitak :)

  13. ECJ said on September 4, 2023 at 3:17 pm
    Reply

    I despise YouTube Shorts. So much in fact, I use custom adblock rules in Brave Shields to remove that crap.

    youtube.com##ytd-grid-video-renderer:has([href*=”shorts”])
    youtube.com###dismissible:has([href*=”shorts”])

    1. Anonymous said on September 5, 2023 at 6:28 am
      Reply

      There’s an extension for Firefox and Chrome browsers called “Youtube-shorts block”, re-opens the video in a normal window. :)

      https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-shorts-block/
      https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-shorts-block/jiaopdjbehhjgokpphdfgmapkobbnmjp

      ps. say NO to Shorts, it only encourage shooting vertical-videos which doesn’t go well with many desktop displays… except when shooting vertical objects, such as ahem… pretty ladies. :)

  14. RG said on September 4, 2023 at 5:02 pm
    Reply

    Page source shows that ghacks is still using WordPress as the platform. Knowing, more or less, how it works at the DB level I am not sure how one could mess up comments this badly. It is actually very difficult.

  15. John G. said on September 4, 2023 at 6:14 pm
    Reply

    Google is the big leader of everything. Indeed it can actually buy Amazon, Disney, Netflix, X and whatever other company. I wonder what could happen if Google starts to build airspace ships in order to conquer the Moon. I bet that Google would be the first to offer free WiFi at the Moon. Please fix the comments.

    This comment is inside the article:
    [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/04/what-is-google-synthid-and-how-does-it-work/]

  16. DC said on September 11, 2023 at 10:52 am
    Reply

    This “analysis” is disappointingly shallow and trivial. Why not include other factors like job level, responsibilities, full-time/part-time, qualifications, etc.? Because the conclusions probably wouldn’t fit the current leftist/feminist narrative. You don’t find what you don’t look for.

  17. said on September 11, 2023 at 11:42 am
    Reply

    Misleading statistics.

  18. Kris said on September 12, 2023 at 9:10 pm
    Reply

    Wage should be based on the amount of time, works, thinking (brain > muscle), responsibilities etc

    Not skin pigmentation or your genitalia. There could be correlations, but not causations.

  19. Anonymous said on September 14, 2023 at 4:36 pm
    Reply

    “Google maintains that it provides a superior product”

    That is also Mozilla’s official position in defense of Google against the people, on that question of search engine abuse of dominant position by Google.

    The funniest part is that not only it’s false regarding actual competitors, but even among not-actual-competitors there are meta-search engines that use exactly the same engine, just minus the tracking, so Google is clearly the inferior one compared to those already. But maybe what Google is saying is that it is the surveillance and bubbling that would make their engine superior. False again even without considering the damage those do.

  20. bruh said on September 15, 2023 at 10:17 am
    Reply

    “Google increases Chromebook support to 10 years”

    I mean that’s great and all, but imagine using a browser-based, highly internet-dependent OS such as chrome. I’ve never used chromeOS but have seen it in person and read about it, just seems like ultra-limited user experience which relies on the concept that “most things can be done in a browser”.

  21. Anonymous said on September 15, 2023 at 11:11 pm
    Reply

    What is there to support? It just a glorified web browser.

  22. Anonymous said on September 24, 2023 at 5:18 pm
    Reply

    “Google launched Chromebooks in 2012 as low-cost devices and the company has had great success in the education world, especially in the United States.”

    Happy tracking for all those unsuspecting children. And help normalize surveillance for those young brains. Well done Google.

  23. Ich bin nur ein Verlierer said on September 27, 2023 at 4:50 pm
    Reply

    No, AltaVista’s Search engine wasn’t difficult to use in the mid-nineties, and Yahoo didn’t own AltaVista either during the 1990s. Yahoo!, was a Web Directory. I was alive then and have actually used those engines, during that era, I should know if they were easy to use. So tell the angels what you’ve seen, scarecrow shadow on the Nazarene.

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