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Google Images not working in Safari on Iphone

Since a while back the "images"-tab in google does'nt work on the iPhone in any of the browsers I've tried. I've searched the net to find others with the same problem but with little luck. Here's a description of the problem.


For example I search for "dog" in google in the Safari browser, this works just fine.
Then I press the "images"-tab and get a thumbnail view with pictures of dogs, of course.

But this is where it all goes wrong, when touching one of the images I get an enlarged view of an image next to it. The "back to the results" and "full image" buttons dim out (without being touchable) and swiping does not work. I don't know what has caused this to stop working properly, I know its not the new iOS version though.


HERE is a youtube video I prepared that explains the problem.



First, is there anyone else out there with this problem?


Second, this is what I've tried:
- Other iPhone web browser applications, for example "Mercury", "Opera Mini", "Skyfire" and none of them works except "Dolphin" (good work).

- Resetting any of the settings in the phone, clearing cache and such have no effect.

- Resetting the iPhone totally, factory settings. No effect.

- Using someone elses iPhone. I've tried on an iPhone 4 and iPhone 3S, same problems (with iOS 5.01).

- Trying out all of the settings in google, no change.

- Setting the google view to "classic" instead of "mobile" works of course, but that makes the site look just like on a PC or Mac and is not what I'm after.


Third, this problem seems to just affect Swedish users from what I can tell. There would be thousands of posts about this if everyone in the world was affected by it, but so far I've seen no posts on this matter. But after searching a while I found a swedish forum site on the subject. Link (in swedish).Also, when visiting google from Sweden some form of script automatically changes the url from .com to .se. I don't know if this has something to do with it?


Anyone know what causes this problem and how It might be resolved?

Best Regard
Stefan, Sweden

iPhone 4S, iOS 5.0.1

Posted on Feb 7, 2012 4:28 PM

Reply
58 replies

Feb 9, 2012 10:42 AM in response to naruyume

Also, I've tried restoring the phone AND restoring the phone in DFU mode. First letting iTunes download a new firmware for me, no change.


Second, downloading an ipsw manually and forcing iTunes to use it (by shiftclicking) but still no change. I've tried using iOS 9A405 and 9A406, same thing on both.


Also, I've found that if i search for a longer string of words it sometimes starts working as it should. For example searching for "dog" does'nt work, but searching for "iphone background dog" works. Strange. Just searching for "background dog" does'nt work though. And not all combinations of three words work. I dont understand it.


Anyone got any clues to why this is?

Feb 12, 2012 1:55 AM in response to naruyume

Hi Stefan,


First; this must be the most thorough error discription I have ever seen. Impressive.


Second; yep for a couple of weeks now I've been having exactly the same problems as you describe. One other thing that I've noticed, is that for me, the 'word suggestion drop down list' or whatever it's name is, no longer works. More specificly:


I open Safari in my iPhone, surf to Google image search and type for example "dog" in the search field. Below the field, I now get a list of suggested words or phrases that I think is based on the most popular searches. For me, the first suggestion in this list is "dogo argentino" (a specific and popular breed of dogs). When I tap on the words "dogo argentino", the search field normally would switch input from "dog" to "dogo argentino" AND starts the image search automatically. However, since the problem showed up, when I tap on "dogo argentino" the input field is not affected (still reads "dog") and I would have to type "dogo argentino" manually and hit "search".


I use a Swedish iPhone 4S (5.0.1 (9A406)) in the Telenor network. I also have tested the same possible solutions that you describe in your post, but with no luck.


All the best,

Ingo

Feb 12, 2012 2:12 PM in response to naruyume

Frankie, "dogo argentino" works fine for me. Strange.

Ulf, smart! but I can't make google.dk my default search in Safari.


Nicklas, good. It seems to be something with the swedish google coding. images.google.se, google.com and google.dk works for example.


I've also posted it on the google groups help-forums. Link.

And another google forum. Link.



Lets hope i get some replies.

Feb 12, 2012 2:28 PM in response to naruyume

It works quite fine for sometime for me until something goes broken for a reason I haven't really known of. Even in privacy mode.


I think it could be the Nitro Javascript engine not working correctly.


It's abit jumpy when I try to tap a result. Also, sometimes after getting in to the result's site as I hit back, it will bring me back to the site of the previous result I searched and I'm literally spam hitting my back button to get out of that page, and googling images isn't really a breeze for me.

Feb 13, 2012 7:17 AM in response to naruyume

exactly the same problem here in austria

first i thought it has to do with my iphone 4 - did a reset of everything i could - but no impact.

then i tried it also on two other iphones (one 3gs and one 4s), with the same results...

the crazy thing is that "iphone backround dog" works as mentioned in yor post, but "dog" does not work!!!!

for me it seems to be more a bug from google than apple, but i do not have really a clue....


thanks for the mention that images.google.xx works!!!!

the same for me:

the built in google search in safari and google.at do not work for images.

but images.google.at work as expected!!!

Feb 14, 2012 4:11 AM in response to naruyume

I'm still waiting for a response from google, i posted these two (link, link) discussions on their forums, but no admin or employee has responed.



Its apparent that this is a coding error by google as it affects both iPhone and Android phones. Also as already stated only some servers are'nt working (.au and .se)


If someone feels like they have the time, make another post on the google forums and link to this discussion.


Also, I don't see a reason to contact apple as it's not their fault. (This thread was only started here on the apple forums because I initially thought it was an iPhone problem).

Google Images not working in Safari on Iphone

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