Thematic (In)Consistency Hall of Shame No. 5 – Google+

!= Thematic Consistency is the principle that a web link should serve essentially the same information to all browsers. Adapting content to better fit the target platform is good but redirecting requests for a specific image or news item to your site’s homepage spoils the user’s experience and discourages them from using or linking to your site or web service. Sites that break thematic consistency get a place of honor in the WapReview Thematic (In)consistency Hall of Shame. The latest honoree is … Continue reading

Update – Partially Fixed: Thematic (In)Consistency Hall of Shame #4 – Microsoft Skydrive

Thematic (In)Consistency Hall of Shame is an irregular feature of WapReview where I call out sites and services for violating the principle of thematic consistency. That principle says  that a web link should deliver the same essential information to all browsers. Adapting content to better fit the target platform is good but redirecting requests for a specific image or news item to your site’s homepage breaks hyperlinking, which is what makes the Web a web. This time the culprit is Microsoft … Continue reading

Update: Fixed! – Thematic (In)Consistency Hall of Shame #3 – Microsoft Bing

Update: sometime after this item was published, Microsoft fixed the bug discussed here that caused links to items on Microsoft corporate blogs to retun HTTP 404 (Not Found) errors when accessed with mobile browsers. -> Last week Microsoft announced the launch of Bing Deals, a Groupon inspired feature of Bing Search.  Created in partnership with The Deal Map, Bing Deals aggregates money saving offers in your area from Groupon, Living Social, Restaurant.com and other sites. The announcement was made on … Continue reading

Update Fixed! – Gawker’s Redesign Lands It In My Mobile Thematic Inconsistency Hall of Shame

Update 22-Feb-2011: I’m happy to report that Gawker Media has fixed the issue of deep links not working in mobile browsers sometime in the last couple of days. I don’t know if it was in response to my post or something that happened independently but either way, Thanks Gawker! -> It’s been been nearly two weeks since the big Gawker Media redesign on the online hand wringing over it shows no sign of winding down. On Feb 8th Gawker, Gizmodo, … Continue reading

Update: Fixed! Thematic (In)Consistency Hall of Shame – Softonic

Update: sometime after this item was published, Softonic fixed the bug discussed here that caused mobile brosers following links to items on the Softonic blog to be redirected to Softonic’s mobile appstore. != It happened again.  I was happily reading the Twitter timeline in my mobile browser.  I saw a tweet with a link provocatively titled “Five reasons to give up Firefox”.  That sounded like the start of an interesting flame war so I clicked the link – and wound … Continue reading