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up vote 4 down vote favorite

Some webpages forces mobile version even I change user-agent. I changed user-agent in built-in browser and "Dolphin Browser HD", I am checking it on page www.user-agent-string.info

Main problem is engadget.com, always in mobile version. I tried to clean cookies, restart browsers etc.

This is my results:

  1. in built-in browser, user-agent - "desktop"

    • (allegro.pl) doesn't work, redirects to mobile version

  2. in "Dolphin Browser HD", user-agent - "desktop"

    • (NSFW: redtube.com) doesn't work, redirects to mobile version
    • (allegro.pl) works fine

  3. in "Dolphin Browser HD", user-agent - "IPad"

    • (engadget.com) doesn't work, redirects to mobile version
    • (allegro.pl) works fine
    • (NSFW: redtube.com) works fine

  4. in "Dolphin Browser HD", user-agent - "custom": Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.0; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/7.0.1

    • (engadget.com]) doesn't work, redirects to mobile version
    • (NSFW: redtube.com) doesn't work, redirects to mobile version
    • (allegro.pl) works fine

Maybe this pages using "adobe flash" user-agent detection ?

(I'am using Asus Transformer TF101, Android 3.2.1, Adobe Flash Player 11)

share|improve this question
I've had some problems with the default browser getting redirected to mobile sites as well, e.g., teambuy.ca. I would also agree they're using something besides the user agent to determine the redirection. – Matthew Read♦ Oct 14 '11 at 15:30
4  
Please find an example site, other than redTube, to use!! – ninjaPixel Oct 14 '11 at 16:57
I'd send some fire towards Engadget - if they don't allow you to escape the mobile version, then it's their fault. – Broam Oct 14 '11 at 21:45
Have you done all the latest OS updates? ASUS has released a couple updates in the recent weeks one of which is supposed to address this exact issue. – Zooks64 Nov 14 '11 at 3:20

4 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

I'm using Dolphin For Pad, and it loads the desktop version of Engadget with the default settings. Won't try RedTube since it's NSFW. Give it a try! :)

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up vote 1 down vote

Some IP blocks or other header information can be used to identify requests as coming from phone carriers. In an attempt to over engineer the user experience, some web designers could to extreme lengths (such as using this info instead of the user agent) to force what they consider the optimal experience to be on the user.

You can get around this by using WiFi instead of your mobile data plan, but I suspect that's not the answer you're looking for. Other than that, there is zip I know of that you can do about it except complain to the website operators.

For what it's worth, some sites have a link in the header or footer to allow mobile users to view the standard page (like Facebook), but that's the exception rather than the rule.

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1  
Using Wi-Fi instead has never helped me, so I would assume most sites are using another detection method. – Matthew Read♦ Jan 21 '12 at 18:33
Depends on whether you have your user agent blocked, I suppose. Mine's blocked. – Logos Jan 21 '12 at 22:06
up vote 1 down vote

Some sites may be swapping CSS based on screen size. There's not too many PCs out there running at phone resolutions. Disabling Javascript might work around that along with a useragent change.

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up vote 0 down vote

I had the same issue with watching full episodes of daily show on my android. Turns out I visited the site as mobile first and had to clear my cache and put it in desktop mode first.

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