StuartTheFish

When I'm using the internet on my phone, if I use google image search for example, everything looks horrendous until I click "view full image", and then it displays correctly.

I know this is because the user agent is set to Android, but if I set it to desktop instead websites appear too small and the formatting isn't laid out to be more suitable for phones. Is there any way of having the best of both? Having the formatting optimisation without heavily compressing the images when I click on them?

Last edited by StuartTheFish; June 19th, 2010 at 07:29 AM.

Demache

Quite frankly, that's how Google Images is. They make extremely low quality thumbnails for fast loading. Then make high quality ones when you request it. There's not much you can do about it, since they have to make it useable for people with slow connections as well.

StuartTheFish

No, it's definitely a phone thing, as the pictures only get compressed when the user agent is set to android/iPhone. When the user agent is set as desktop, the images are full quality regardless, whether I'm on wifi, 3G, etc. Note I'm NOT on about the size of the picture, I'm simply on about it's quality.

Demache

File size = quality. The mobile versions are always more compressed. That's just the way it is.

StuartTheFish

As I have said, not if you switch your browser's user agent to desktop. A setting in the browser actually controls which version it'll download. Try switching your user agent to desktop to see for yourself.

Is there any way of making a new user agent that does all the mobile optimisation EXCEPT from downscaling the image quality?

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Demache

And like I said, the quality is lowered on purpose for slower connections. The desktop version is designed for desktop computers with much faster connections and larger screens. Its done all on Google's end and NOTHING CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT (as of now). The user agent simply tells the server what browser and device your accessing the website from. And if there is a mobile version available, the server will simply send you that version. Your not realizing that Google makes the image previews low quality on purpose. Mobile versions always prioritize speed over quality.

Maybe ask Google to make a feature to select what the image quality is in the mobile version. As of now, there is no possible way.

farook

I noticed this was this case only when using 3G (cellular data), and if I switched to wifi (and cleared the browser cache) then images appear in full quality. This was also happening regardless of the useragent set. I tried Dolphin HD browser (as the default browser on my phone doesn't allow changing of useragent) and set the useragent to iPhone and I had the same problem. After some googling I found that my network, O2 (in the UK), compresses images. Changing the Username of my APN to 'bypass' actually stopped the compression and I now receive full-quality images. I know this is in contrast to what others are saying about changing the useragent to Desktop but this is what worked for me, specifically with my network ( O2 ). Btw, I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S running Android 2.1.

Last edited by farook; July 13th, 2010 at 11:08 AM.

StuartTheFish

Thing is mine still does it using WiFi too, and only when the user agent isn't set to desktop.

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