11 Mobile Web Annoyances (And How to Fix Them)

future of the Internet is mobile, it'll be riddled with just as many nags and nuisances as the Internet of desktop computers. Websites now clamor to create mobile versions of themselves, forcing bite-sized samples upon smartphone users who want nothing more than the whole Internet in their pockets. The very idea of mobile Web browsing on small touchscreens is so new that we're far from seeing perfection; even the desktop Internet is loaded with annoyances, and it's been around for decades. Until we live in a perfect world, here are 11 mobile Web annoyances, and how to work around, cope with, ignore, or fix them.

Lame Mobile Sites

Mobile phone users aren't primitive. Our devices may be tiny, but that doesn't mean we seek a lesser experience from the Internet. So why do some Websites exclude or bury features that are found on their PC counterparts? Hey ESPN, just because I'm visiting you on my iPhone's mobile Web browser doesn't mean I don't want to read page 2, get personalized headlines, or even see story photos. Annoyance within annoyance: the standard mobile site for every blog that uses WordPress. No photos, comment counts, or full stories from the home page? No thanks.

The Fix: The first option is to check the bottom of whatever page you're on. If you're lucky, you'll see an option to switch to the full Website. Otherwise, browse as if you were on your desktop: On the iPhone, Atomic Web Browser lets you identify the browser as Firefox, Internet Explorer, or desktop Safari, and the Dolphin browser on Android lets you identify as a desktop as well. You'll never see another mobile Website again.

New Browser Windows

Just like mobile Websites, mobile browsers wrongly assume you'd sacrifice functionality for more screen real estate, so the standard browsers for Android and iPhone use windows, not tabs. Switching windows or opening new ones takes the focus away from what you were doing, almost defeating the purpose of having new windows in the first place.

The Fix: Get a different browser. On the iPhone, Atomic Web Browser and iCab Mobile allow tabbed browsing, and Dolphin Browser does it on Android. Opera Mini, supported by multiple mobile platforms, supports browser tabs as well.

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