TECHnalysis Research Blog Extra

April 23, 2015
Mobile Sites Should Be Dead

By Bob O'Donnell

Google made big news this week with the announcement that they had launched a new search algorithm that favored mobile-friendly web sites in its mobile searches. The change was supposedly so important that some in the press even started referring to it as “Mobilegeddon”.

Given the enormous growth in mobile searches and our increasing usage of smartphones, I completely understand the concept of wanting to make mobile searching easier and better. However, there’s a fatal flaw in the argument: today’s mobile phone screens have as good (or even better) resolution than desktops, so what’s the point?

I don’t know about you, but frankly, I hate it when a “mobile” version of a website pops up onto my smartphone’s screen. Many of these mobile sites have designs that hearken back to 2000—a text list of different options or sections designed into simple rectangles. They’re often just plain terrible and, ironically, harder to navigate on a smartphone than the desktop version of the sites—especially if you’re already familiar with the design of the desktop version. In fact, the first thing I look for when I get to one of these pages is a link to the “full” version of the site, and, inevitably, it’s hard to find.

When smartphone screens were small and the resolution of those screens were relatively low, I often put up with these mobile-friendly sites, because I understood (and could readily see) the challenges in displaying a site designed for a larger PC display on a smartphone. But when I’m looking at a 5.5” iPhone 6 Plus screen that features a full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, I just don’t get it. In fact, it almost feels insulting to get reduced to some lowest common denominator design just because I’m using a smartphone.

Now, to be fair, not everyone has a smartphone screen that is that big and whose resolution is that high, but a lot of people do. The percentage of large 5”+ smartphones (nearly all of which feature high-resolution screens) is growing at a dramatic rate, both here in the US and worldwide. In fact, by the end of 2015, the TECHnalysis Research forecast for worldwide market share of large-screen smartphone shipments is 33%. The installed base numbers are, of course, lower than that, but with the explosion of interest in larger phones, it won’t be long before the installed base numbers reach a significant portion of the market as well.

As a result, the timing of Google’s focus on mobile-friendly sites seems several years too late. At this point, all it’s really doing is confusing matters for web site developers, because they have to deal with preparing both “mobile friendly” and “desktop” versions of their site. For many web sites, particularly smaller ones, this strikes me as a completely unnecessary hassle.

For example, I found that my company website doesn’t pass Google’s tool for checking mobile-friendliness, and, therefore, could suffer in its ranking level for mobile searches. Yet, when I call up my site on my phone, it’s an absolutely perfect representation of the entire page. Yes, some text is small from that zoomed out view, but a quick pinch and zoom and I can easily read whatever I need to. The same is true on other desktop sites that I visit as well.

There’s no question that sites have to be not only cognizant of the growing share of smartphone-based searches, but also need to cater to them and deliver an experience that suits the device. The screens on smartphones are only going to get better as time goes on, however, so it seems silly to me that sites should have to lower themselves to the base level of an antiquated “mobile” site that helps them fulfill the requirements for mobile-friendliness. Frankly, I think mobile sites can and should go away. Instead, a single, well-designed “full site” that’s been tested on smartphones seems to be a much more intelligent solution.

Here's a link to the original column: https://techpinions.com/mobile-sites-should-be-dead/39839