<p>And so this situation is starting to get ridiculous - and consumers are, as usual, caught in the middle of it all. Google has just blocked Windows Phone devices from accessing Google Maps on their phones. In addition, it also seems Windows Phone users are now restricted to the basic HTML version of the mobile GMail website. While understandable from a defensive perspective - Microsoft's extortion scheme targeting Android device makers and all that - it's still a massive dick move that only hurts consumers.</p><p>The block is enforced through a simple redirect using the browser's user agent. If the user agent includes 'Windows Phone' and visits the mobile version of Google Maps, the user is redirected to Google's main page - no explanation, nothing. In addition, it seems a similar block has been put in place for mobile Gmail. I distinctly recall being able to access the full mobile Gmail web client on my HD7 running Windows Phone 7.x (confirmed by Peter Bright), while both my HD7 and my 8X are now limited to the crappy basic HTML version.</p><p>The assumption was first that this was a simple bug, unintentionally caused by changes by Google. It seemed hard to believe any company would stoop as low as to use a basic user agent-based redirects to prevent users from a perfectly capable browser from accessing its services. And yet, that's exactly what Google is doing - it simply admitted to such in a statement to Gizmodo.</p><p>The mobile web version of Google Maps is optimized for WebKit browsers such as Chrome and Safari. However, since Internet Explorer is not a WebKit browser, Windows Phone devices are not able to access Google Maps for the mobile web.</p><p><a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/26669/Google_blocks_Windows_Phone_from_Maps_limits_Gmail">Keep reading...</a></p>