[tgp]

Many Google users won't realize how screwed they are until the next generation of awesome devices is out, and they go to leave their crappy Android crash-bricks behind for WP8.5, BlackBerry 10, or iOS 7, only to learn that they'll lose all their e-mail, contacts, calendars and ability to upload and view YouTube videos as well.

I would venture a guess that Google is not as concerned about accommodating 3% of smartphone users as Microsoft is about accommodating 75% of smartphone users. Microsoft is struggling enough as it is to gain market share; making it next to impossible for 3/4 of the market to switch would be very foolish at this point.

As good as Nokia Maps are, I personally don't care that much about Google Maps. It's not that great of an experience in the browser anyway.

[crazeee]

I would venture a guess that Google is not as concerned about accommodating 3% of smartphone users as Microsoft is about accommodating 75% of smartphone users. Microsoft is struggling enough as it is to gain market share; making it next to impossible for 3/4 of the market to switch would be very foolish at this point.

As good as Nokia Maps are, I personally don't care that much about Google Maps. It's not that great of an experience in the browser anyway.

Google maps is actually a pretty good browser experience, at least when compared to something like bing. I guess the main point though is that the Google maps site is built for webkit based browsers and has never worked on Windows Phone.

[irvin792]

Everybody knows Google maps has never worked in mobile IE, right? RIGHT? I know because I forget all the time and try to load maps.google.com, and it's never worked. Ever.

Seriously, folks.

your wrong.......ie10 use to run it

[Torch4x4]

what a joke, who needs to type maps.google.com on a phone browser? I never did that thing on Android and I don't need it on WP, looking for places using bing or google search on any mobile browser will open your default maps app.

[clavecinist]

your wrong.......read on.....

Actually I think I know for myself how my past three Windows Phone handsets have reacted when going to maps.google.com. Google maps has always redirected back to google.com when I've tried to load it in IE. If the mobile site has intermittently functioned for a group of users then clearly I am not in that group. I don't understand what's wrong with Google's response. If the product was never officially supported, and now it's officially NOT supported then give Bing/Nokia maps a shot. If Google maps is mission critical to a user's day-to-day then perhaps those users are best served by a Nexus device.

[irvin792]

what a joke, who needs to type maps.google.com on a phone browser? I never did that thing on Android and I don't need it on WP, looking for places using bing or google search on any mobile browser will open your default maps app.

true but that's not the point

[SinisterDuck]

It is a bug because its not working on my iPhone either. It's not redirecting, but maps.google.com is opening in a totally ****ed up way that it's unusable. So yes, it's some backend issue.

I just tried maps.google.com on my iPhone 4S, and after asking me if I'd rather download the app (no), Google Maps came up just fine on Safari. No bug there.

[irvin792]

I just tried maps.google.com on my iPhone 4S, and after asking me if I'd rather download the app (no), Google Maps came up just fine on Safari. No bug there.

yea it is not a "bug" google is even straight up lying saying it was never supported on wp8.....

[Jastow]

Google maps works on MetroBrowser, though its a pain to manipulate. Simply putting in an address or a [search] near [city] works just fine.

[Azzid]

Off topic but the TP2 was the best phone.

[SergeMcG]

Everybody get their own domain name! Sooner or later the war of these titans will reach our door. Better have our own domain name and switch to other providers in case they will ask us to pay anything. In my opinion, like for google apps, Google is using bait and switch techniques.
Anyway, i don't miss google maps. Only if someone sends me a link referring to google maps location otherwise for everything else Nokia Maps is much better!

[ohgood]

So one day after the Government antitrust case is over with just a slap on the wrist, Google now feels that they can continue their antitrust behavior.

How is this an antitrust issue ?

Should google, apple, and microsoft have to provide source code, apis, sdks and full access to all their code and services ?
Should all companies be required to also ?

I hope you can see the point.

[ohgood]

Everybody get their own domain name! Sooner or later the war of these titans will reach our door. Better have our own domain name and switch to other providers in case they will ask us to pay anything. In my opinion, like for google apps, Google is using bait and switch techniques.
Anyway, i don't miss google maps. Only if someone sends me a link referring to google maps location otherwise for everything else Nokia Maps is much better!

The proper way to send mapping, location, or track information is in kml, gpx, waypoints , etc. - along with the os being smart enough to provide YOU with a choice of applications to open the information with.

Links, urls, and similar are bad practices, and not something usable in the near future if xyz company changes protocols.

encourage your friends to use savable data in the future.

[Dave Blake]

All links to competing websites have been removed from this thread. Do not add them back.

Is Google now blocking Windows Phone from using Google Maps? | Windows Phone Central

[ohgood]

All links to competing websites have been removed from this thread. Do not add them back.

Is Google now blocking Windows Phone from using Google Maps? | Windows Phone Central

Could you define "competing websites" for folks please, or does that mean any/all sources other than wpcentral ?

[bbqrooster]

How is this an antitrust issue ?

Should google, apple, and microsoft have to provide source code, apis, sdks and full access to all their code and services ?
Should all companies be required to also ?

I hope you can see the point.

LOL, yes, Microsoft has to provide all API and SDK to everybody. Microsoft has to allow Chrome browser on the Windows platform, no? Have you been out of the loop for the past 10 years on all of these things? But this has nothing to do with this case as Microsoft is not asking Google to provide API or SDK. Let me put it this way. If Microsoft does the same thing to Android phone (like no access to exchange), is it an antitrust issue? If Facebook comes out with a Facebook phone and denies all access of Facebook to Android user, do you feel the same way? If this disease spreads to every company, what do you say about this balkanization? The web is not built to be like this. I hope you see your partisan way.

[Dave Blake]

Could you define "competing websites" for folks please, or does that mean any/all sources other than wpcentral ?

From the forum rules:

• Story Linking - Please link all Windows Phone related stories to the Windows Phone Central blog. We reserve the right to remove links to posts or close threads linking to articles similar to those published here. In addition, do not copy and paste stories in their entirety. Writers (from all sites) work hard, and deserve proper credit.

Besides our writers are the best why would you want to lint to any other article?

[arrowrand]

Everybody knows Google maps has never worked in mobile IE, right? RIGHT? I know because I forget all the time and try to load maps.google.com, and it's never worked. Ever.

Seriously, folks.

I can only speak for the last month, because that's about how long I've owned my Lumia, but Google Maps has never worked in IE for me.

[bbqrooster]

I can only speak for the last month, because that's about how long I've owned my Lumia, but Google Maps has never worked in IE for me.

This just means that Google has been doing this for some time, and Google is lying about the cause according to the analysis done by Tom Verhoeff Breaking down the Google Maps – Windows Phone issue | Tom Verhoeff.

[paulm187]

Setting the website preference in IE to desktop version works

[Microsoftjunkie]

Microsoft is getting #scroogled

Though in all seriousness it's likely a bug of some sort. Let's not jump to conclusions.

Its definitely not a bug, since they said wp8 browser is not ccompatible.
that's basically admitting they know something changed

[MaulerX]

From the forum rules:

• Story Linking - Please link all Windows Phone related stories to the Windows Phone Central blog. We reserve the right to remove links to posts or close threads linking to articles similar to those published here. In addition, do not copy and paste stories in their entirety. Writers (from all sites) work hard, and deserve proper credit.

Besides our writers are the best why would you want to lint to any other article?

Sorry but sometimes you guys are slow to report certain news and we deserve the right to discuss them as they happen.

If a competing site reports news that has yet to be reported here, I don't see the big deal in using them as a source in the interim (which is what happened here) to get the debate rolling.

[ohgood]

LOL, yes, Microsoft has to provide all API and SDK to everybody. Microsoft has to allow Chrome browser on the Windows platform, no? Have you been out of the loop for the past 10 years on all of these things? But this has nothing to do with this case as Microsoft is not asking Google to provide API or SDK. Let me put it this way. If Microsoft does the same thing to Android phone (like no access to exchange), is it an antitrust issue? If Facebook comes out with a Facebook phone and denies all access to Facebook to Android user, do you feel the same way? If this disease spreads to every company, what do you say about this balkanization? The web is not built to be like this. I hope you see your partisan way.

I have zero problems with one company denying access to its services, software, sdks, source code to other companies, or their products. Facebook can close off any/all platforms they choose from accessing their servers and information, this would not bother me in the least. If that was a service I used, I would look elsewhere for services.

Having used linux for years, I'm very accustomed to this kind of stonewalling, and shopped for brands/softwares/services that provided me with access, as needed. Sometimes, this meant using a different os for very specific tasks, via emulation.


My (very limited, possibly wrong) understanding is that limiting access to all -except- ones own platform is where antitrust comes in.

This looks to me to be a very lucrative market (a gift from google?) someone could exploit on the wp platform.... maybe it will happen ?

[64GUNSHIP]

Well this is the last straw for me. This morning, I closed my Google+ Profile, my normal Google profile and all associated data I possibly could with all the other google services without completely closing my account. The only reason I didn't cancel my entire account is YouTube. I switched my default search engines to Bing and when my phone gets back from warranty, the gMaps pro app and google search will not be reinstalled.

Goodbye Google.

[irvin792]

Boo google