On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 3:08 AM, Ross Sclafani <[address removed]> wrote:

this is great. thanks.

On Mar 18, 2013, at 2:41 AM, Phillip Nelson <[address removed]> wrote:

Michael,

I just wanted to step in and clear any ambiguity here. 

Andre is correct.

Generally this is implemented by looking at the User Agent field in the header sent along most HTTP requests. Most web applications implement a feature like the "Free" button on Google by either writing some logic in Javascript (the front-end) to enable a special experience, or by detecting this in the back-end and changing how you render a page. 

Google almost certainly does this on the back-end. It appears that they show this button for results leading to the actual Apple App Store and they probably pull in a little bit of meta data directly from Apple. So you will not be able to control this. 

However, check out this website for some simple scripts to make a special CTA appear on your own website for iPhone/iPad users: http://davidwalsh.name/detect-iphone

And everyone else on the thread,

I just double-checked that Google has definitely implemented this feature: you can open the developer tools in Chrome, change the user agent to an iPhone, and you will indeed see Google's "Free" buttons.

Apple most certainly does not modify or inject random HTML or JS into the DOM in mobile safari. That would be ridiculous. It would be unsafe, inefficient, insecure and against web standards. Developers would be in an uproar. In terms of WebKit's relationship with Apple, please read this overview on what WebKit actually is (it's quite complex): http://paulirish.com/2013/webkit-for-developers/

Phillip

On Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 12:17 PM, Rudy Rigot <[address removed]> wrote:

As you say, the interpretation is part of the code written by Apple, so, even though nothing proves it is Apple modifying it, technically it could be.

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