878630 - ask.com doesn't recognize B2G UA as mobile

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Web Compatibility :: Site Reports, defect)

Description

[Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo)]

ask.com serves a desktop site to B2G. Bug 823364 added an UA override for this domain. The override should be removed once the domain serves mobile content to B2G. This bug tracks the evangelism for the site to recognize the B2G UA and the removal of the override at that time.

Comment 1

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

The HEAD method on ask.com creates a time out instead of 501 Not Implemented or 504 Method Not Allowed. Be careful when testing. 

On ZTE device (Firefox OS) without UA override. http://ask.com/ Desktop Content
On ZTE device (Firefox OS) with UA override. http://ask.com/ Desktop Content
On Samsung device (Firefox for Android). http://ask.com/ Desktop Content
On iPod Touch device (Safari). http://ask.com/ Desktop Content

In the footer of the desktop site, there is a link to Mobile.
When I click on it http://www.ask.com/mobile?o=0&l=dir

I'm proposed to download an app for Android or for iPhone on all devices I have tested. 

It doesn't seem there is a mobile version of the Web site.

Comment 2

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

I think We should remove the UA override 
pref("general.useragent.override.ask.com", "\\(Mobile#(Android; Mobile"); // bug 878630

Comment 3

[Lawrence Mandel [:lmandel] (use needinfo)]

My smoke test of ask.com in Firefox for Android, Google Chrome, and Android Stock browsers simply reloads the page when I click on Mobile Site in the footer. Ask.com may have broken their mobile site. Let's revisit this in a couple of weeks to see if it still holds that they have no functioning mobile site. If that is the case, then let's remove the UA override.

Comment 4

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

ok. As of today 

Firefox    + Android   Mobile
Opera Mini + Android   Mobile
Safari     + iPodTouch Mobile
Opera Mob  + Android   Desktop
Firefox OS + ZTE       Desktop

They need to recognize "mobi".

Comment 5

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

Trying to contact through twitter
http://twitter.com/MozWebCompat/status/370213804564828160

and the ex-CTO
http://twitter.com/MozWebCompat/status/370215135593635840

Comment 6

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

They replied. :)
http://twitter.com/AskDotCom_Eric/status/370252302478635008

Comment 7

[Eric]

Replied and escalated to our mobile product team. I don't know if this is in their backlog or if it's off their radar altogether, but I'll find out and report back.

Comment 8

[Eric]

Can you either post here or email me a list of all UA's you'd like to have us recognize?

Comment 9

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

(In reply to Eric from comment #8)
> Can you either post here or email me a list of all UA's you'd like to have
> us recognize?

Eric, thanks a lot for chiming in.

In general we recommend to only match /.*mobi.*/i and that will catch all Firefox devices and other mobile such as Opera Mobile, etc. So it simplifies your maintenance. If you are targeting tablets with desktop site you might want to exclude that. 

The Mozilla user agent strings are documented on 
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Gecko_user_agent_string_reference (for future references if you need them)

 
Firefox OS:          Mozilla/5.0 (Mobile; rv:15.0) Gecko/15.0 Firefox/15.0
Firefox for Android: Mozilla/5.0 (Android; Mobile; rv:15.0) Gecko/15.0 Firefox/15.0

There is no issue with Firefox for Android, that you already recognize, I suspect you are matching android.

Ask me if you have any other questions.

Comment 10

[Eric]

Thanks very much - I've sent this over to the mobile site team, and we'll see what they say.

Comment 12

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

(In reply to Eric from comment #10)
> Thanks very much - I've sent this over to the mobile site team, and we'll
> see what they say.

do you have news? Thanks :)

Comment 13

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

Recontacted Eric in private.

Comment 14

[Karl Dubost💡 :karlcow]

This has been fixed. Removing the UA override.