Annoying websites optimized for mobile phones

[ski2moro]

Is there any way to work around websites that were optimized for mobile phones? I looked around the site for a full version of the site with no luck. I tried again, but kept getting redirected to the weak website.

Last night, as I sat in a restaurant, I wanted to find out if a store had a particular item in stock before I spent time driving there. The mobile version of the website was so annoying compared to the full version, I wound up going to another store for the product.

 

[vinay427]

On all the sites I've tried (Amazon, Cnet, Gmail, and a few more I can't remember) there is a link to visit the full fledged PC site. What site are you talking about?

 

[jarjarblinks]

I feel the same way as you. Sometimes I want to visit the full fledged HTML website but I always get directed to the mobile version. True that there is a link that directs to the full site, but that kind of defeats the point of browsing on the iPhone right? If thats the case, I should stick to WAP phones.

Anyways, for websites that do not have the link, just go to the URL and remove the /mobile and you will get to the full site.

 

[ski2moro]

Sears.com

I wanted to see what cordless drills (prices, specs, availability) Sears had in stock. Sometimes they have pretty decent sales.

I was on 3G, but the website loaded so slowly! Then it redirected me to sears2go - a weak, watered-down, version for all the other phones out there.

I saw a link for a Sears iPhone App, downloaded it, but it was still the same sears2go. So now, in addition to having one more app taking up space on my iPhone, I still get the same watered down website. Search is ridiculous - you have to re-enter everything. Waaay too frustrating. At least their regular website was easy to use, but I was out, had my iPhone and needed to replace my drill immediately to finish a project.

Deleted the app, went to the Lowes.com website, found the drill I wanted in a minute. The extra miles I drove out of my way was better than the frustration of the Sears website.

I was actually redirected to a totally different site and did not see a way to get back to Sears.com

So, I just wanted to know for future reference if there was something I can to to avoid the 'optimized' websites.

 

[Snide]

Simple solution

1. Jailbreak.

2. Install: User Agent Faker.

3. Toggle on/off via SBSettings.

 

[ski2moro]

Truth be told, I feel like I don't know enough to Jailbreak and I'm concerned that I might do something wrong. Part of me says that I'd like to do it just for the experience of doing it. The other part of me says why do it for the occasional things you might want to do. I guess I don't know enough about the advantages of Jailbreaking to make it worth it to me. I am open if you want to convince me.

 

[jarjarblinks]

If its any comfort, jailbreaking is 100% reversible. It does not cause any hardware changes so you can always restore and back up to last known settings.

IMO, with 3.0 round the corner, the extra perks are somewhat negated.