New Google rule will penalise Hong Kong government websites lacking mobile versions
Despite pledging HK$555 million for the "use of IT in government", some Hong Kong government departments look set to be given a huge thumbs down by Google for not offering mobile-friendly versions of their sites.
A new rule introduced by the search giant will penalise sites without mobile versions by giving them lower rankings in search results.
Smartphone users are well accustomed to the frustration of navigating to a website only to find themselves presented with a miniscule version of the desktop site, forcing them to zoom and swipe, trying to click the correct tiny button or link in order to navigate properly.
This is the result of websites that haven't been designed to work well with mobile devices, and is the case for the websites of several major Hong Kong government departments, including Leisure and Cultural Services; Fire Services; Transport; Agricultural, Fisheries and Conservation; and the Hong Kong Post.
Mobile-friendly websites provide a version designed for smaller screens, as the South China Morning Post does, or use so-called "responsive" designs which resize depending on the visitor's screen-size.
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"This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact in our search results," Google said in an announcement this week.
Experts have dubbed the change "Mobilegeddon" because of the drastic effect it is expected to have on older, non-mobile-friendly sites, such as those operated by the Hong Kong government.
Jeanne Tam, a spokeswoman for the office of the Government Chief Information Officer, told the Post that "government bureaux/departments are encouraged to develop mobile versions of websites in addition to desktop versions. This would facilitate the public to access government information anywhere anytime."
Google is not the only critic of the government’s IT strategy. Transparency campaigners have long complained of clunky, non-user-friendly government sites and called for better access to official information and data.
“A lot of the infrastructure, both citizen facing and inside of government is very old and lacking,” said Mart van de Ven, a data scientist and co-founder of Open Data Hong Kong.
He added that while the government has improved the look and feel of some websites, such as Data.gov.hk, “fundamentally the mechanisms by which data actually reach the portal are the same old rusty mechanisms they used in the past.”
Ip's website is not mobile-friendly according to a Google tool. Neither is that of the HKIRC.