TheMadScientist - 8:14 pm on Dec 28, 2010 (gmt 0)

One issue that Google needs to address is cloaking penalties for websites that give different layouts for mobile users versus regular browsers.

I think 'everyone's doing it because they have to' implementations are probably safe...

As a search engine, they really have to get that piece right to return a large number of high-profile (and 'everyday') sites in the results, so I would guess they have taken that into account.

I think one of the problems people have with understanding these types of statements is not thinking 'What do they have to "let through" to have a chance at getting the results right?' or 'What eliminates too many sites (pages) from the results to be advantageous?'

If people ask themselves those (or similar) questions more often I think they'll have a better understanding of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable to do on (or with) a site.

frontpage: Not trying to pick on you at all; just share an example of how I try to look at things a bit differently to 'keep it reasonable' because IMO that's what Google has to do... There will obviously always be 'oopses' from any change, but eventually, they have to 'get it right' in some aspects or they won't have a search engine any more and I think not penalizing a site for having a mobile version is one of those areas they have to 'get right'.