Google Warns Mobile Users of Websites That Don't Work on Their Devices

Google will start warning mobile users when sites in its search results might not work on their devices.

“A common annoyance for web users is when websites require browser technologies that are not supported by their device,” an official company blog post said. “When users access such pages, they may see nothing but a blank space or miss out a large portion of the page's contents.”

This problem is particularly acute for mobile users, since there’s still a lot of content out there that uses Adobe Flash, which was famously shunned first by Apple for its iOS devices, and then later by Google’s (News - Alert) own Android OS.

YouTube, one of Google’s major properties, also happens to be one of the biggest offenders, as Flash powers all of the desktop version’s videos. However, a good chunk of its massive video library is available on HTML5 formats that modern smartphone and tablets can handle.

In addition to flagging search results that might not work on mobile browsers, Google is also making a push for Web developers to upgrade their pages to HTML5 with a couple of developer’s tools.

The first is a “Web Fundamentals” page, which outlines modern best practices for website development, offering advice on how to choose development tools and how to build sites that work on all devices, not just desktop PCs.

The other is the Web Starter Kit, which includes a lot of tools, such as boilerplate code to make developing modern web pages easier. If developers don’t have to code everything manually, it’ll be easier for them to convert existing content to open standards as well as build new sites that will work on all devices, now and in the future.

As a popular (albeit proprietary) standard, Flash will still be around for some time as more people shift their browsing habits to mobile devices, even as the two major smartphone platforms have effectively made it obsolete.

Making the mobile Web easier to use is in Google’s best interest, as the company depends on advertising revenue. The biggest competition to the Web is mobile apps, which bypass Google entirely. If enough users get frustrated because websites aren’t keeping up with modern technologies, they’ll migrate to apps, hurting Google’s bottom line.