Google and WAP

[wilderness]

I don't much care for this. The same page required loading three times in order to broke down small enough for the WAP. Even then the machine likley couldn't handle the volume.

216.239.39.5 - - [19/Jul/2003:03:59:05 -0700] "GET /mypage.html HTTP/1.0" 200 27123 "-" "Nokia3510i/1.0 (04.01) Profile/MIDP-1.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.0 (Google WAP Proxy/1.0)"
216.239.39.5 - - [19/Jul/2003:04:00:05 -0700] "GET /mypage.html HTTP/1.0" 200 27123 "-" "Nokia3510i/1.0 (04.01) Profile/MIDP-1.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.0 (Google WAP Proxy/1.0)"
216.239.39.5 - - [19/Jul/2003:04:00:40 -0700] "GET /mypage.html HTTP/1.0" 200 27123 "-" "Nokia3510i/1.0 (04.01) Profile/MIDP-1.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.0 (Google WAP Proxy/1.0)"

Either the SE's or the users are going to need to come of with a solution and some discretion, else we be serving up pages again and again to folks that are not that patient in the first place.

[volatilegx]

Making the page smaller would help :P

[Kackle]

I've seen several instances of 20 to 25 fetches of the same obscure file by Google's WAP. The file was was 64K long. It had a few hundred alphabetical links on it, and the WAPer was apparently trying to scroll down the list, as each fetch was about 15 seconds apart.

It seems to me that rather than linking to the cache copy for branding and highlighting purposes (which appears to be a copyright violation), here is a good example of where Google's cache copy could be used legally and effectively. But oh no, that won't happen -- there's no profit margin in doing the right thing at Google, Inc.

[wilderness]

Making the page smaller

volatilegx
The page was a bit of work in gathering the material. It contains thumbnails and images to support the content.

The content fills a specific need and has many links contained within the text content.
I likley spent more time on the meta tags (decription and such) than most folks spend on a normal page, all with a purpose in mind.

It was never intented or created for WAP vieweing. In fact, I don't think I have a solitary page in either of my sites that IMO fits the requirements and intent of WAP.
As a result condensing (in this instance be separating the page into miultiple parts,) is out of the question.

I'm not sure what the solution is for these mini-browsers?
It most assuredly is NOT the content of my sites :)
Nor will I even consider creating alternative pages for that cliche.

[volatilegx]

Well I guess the solution for you would be to block access to WAP user agents in .htaccess with either a "deny from" or Mod_rewrite

[jdMorgan]

Wilderness,

Despite not wanting to do anything special for WAP users, I'd suggest redirecting them to a polite "Please visit us with a regular browser" page, and possibly including a snippet of whatever content you have that is most popular. As early technology adopters, these people are often part of a demographic that make *very* valuable customers.

Jim