Re: Google Maps URL Scheme

On 2012/12/14 16:30, Karl Dubost wrote:
>
> Le 14 déc. 2012 à 16:26, Paul Libbrecht a écrit :
>> I wonder if that is something everyone wants but it's clear at least (using this basically means you want a vendor lock-in!).
>> (in the current situation on iOS, it seems desired by users).
>
> Another interpretation is that they have been forced to come up with a proprietary url scheme because iOS doesn't allow/enable the handling of URL schemes/app association.
>
> For example, when receiving an email with http on iOS, you can't send it automagically to Opera Mini.
> Users don't have choices on iOS.

Yes, exactly. As far as I understand, the blame here is really much more 
on Apple than on Google. Using the URI scheme to distinguish between 
applications works for mail vs. web (mailto: vs. http:), but not for 
much else. One of the crucial steps was when Apple introduced a new URI 
scheme for iTunes. I think that Tim Bray brought it up in the TAG, but 
that must have been a really loooong time ago.

When you submit an app to Apple, you can ask for any URI scheme to be 
associated with your app. My guess is that there are tons of such 
associations. About 3 years ago, a student of mine applied, and got one 
assigned, although his app, part of an experiment we ran, was overall 
downloaded maybe a dozen times only. Of course it sticks out much more 
if it's Google :-).

Although Apple iOS (or other platforms') apps are not the Web, it might 
be a good idea to come up with better ways of starting up apps. For many 
cases, I guess a media type would do very well, although there might be 
exceptions.

Regards,   Martin.

Received on Friday, 14 December 2012 07:53:30 UTC