Google Admits It Was Deliberately Blocking Windows Phone Users From Google Maps

Instead of maps, Windows Phone users were being sent to Google.com.

Google says it's changed its mind and will stop blocking them.

This was a strange controversy.

To recap: Yesterday a flap broke out when several tech sites reported that Windows phone users could no longer access Google Maps. Google offered a technical explanation for the problem, basically saying that the default browser in Windows 8 phones, Internet Explorer, was technically incapable of rendering Google Maps, reported Alex Wilhelm on The Next Web.

But Microsoft quickly pointed out that such an explanation couldn't be true, as Microsoft uses the same rendering engine in the version of IE used in Windows Phone 8 as the one in Windows 8. And the PC's browser has no trouble accessing Google Maps.

So today, Google was forced to backtrack and admit that it was choosing to block Maps access from Windows phone for other reasons, namely that it didn't think that Internet Explorer was good enough. It sent a new statement to TNW's Wilhelm today that said in part:

"In our last test, IE mobile still did not offer a good maps experience with no ability to pan or zoom and perform basic map functionality. As a result, we chose to continue to redirect IE mobile users to Google.com where they could at least make local searches. The Firefox mobile browser did offer a somewhat better user experience and that’s why there is no redirect for those users."

It then said that IE has since improved and promised to stop blocking Windows 8.

The Maps flap was an odd conclusion to a week of epic battle between the two rivals. Earlier this week, Google won a big one over Microsoft when the FCC decided that Google did not need to change its search engine business practices much.

And Microsoft won one over Google when the FCC also told Google it couldn't extort huge sums of money from Microsoft and others for some of its patents.