Why famous websites use adaptive design ?

[aHMAD_SQaLli]

Hello

 

I Googled Responsive vs Adaptive design , and almost all results recommend using Responsive design and say that Adaptive design has a lots Cons.

 

But... I noticed that famous websites like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Youtube and many more use Adaptive Design, so I'm wandering Why they use Adaptive design if the majority say that responsive is better ?

Thanks !

[QuickOldCar]

Most likely whoever isn't using responsive will eventually change their sites. A lot of sites made special "mobile" versions.

The sites you mention are not very user friendly at all. Seems popularity does not matter for the best website award.

[Psycho]

But... I noticed that famous websites like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Youtube and many more use Adaptive Design, so I'm wandering Why they use Adaptive design if the majority say that responsive is better ?

 

There could be any number of reasons why - many that have nothing to do about technology, but with organization politics and/or division. For example, you may have different groups responsible for the "desktop" vs. "mobile".

 

Plus, when mobile first became a major factor, responsive design was not at the forefront. It was all about the phone since tablets were still gaining momentum. Thus the goal was to support the desktop and phones - not everything in between. it was quicker to get an adaptive rewrite to production. Also, responsible web design requires a unique skillset for which there was not a huge amount of expertise initially.

 

Once the adaptive web designs were done to meet the immediate need, there was less of a priority to go back and rewrite once again to be responsive. So, the early mobile adopters may be slower to responsive.

 

Lastly, many of the companies you cite have specific mobile applications. Many sites try to push mobile users to install their mobile apps instead of expanding their generic web content to be optimal for small displays.

[gizmola]

Responsive design required a few technologies and techniques to mature before it became pervasive.  Initially, adaptive was the simpler, albeit brute force technique of choice and large companies had the resources to create essentially multiple specialized sites, and the technology of user agent detection and classification has been around for a long time.

 

At this point, it's more economical to go with a responsive design, not to mention far less resource intensive in regards to maintenance.  I would expect to see adaptive sites die off over time, but like any design trend that goes hand in hand with standards and browser support, it will take some time, and you'll still see large sites that will not see the need to change something in the short term that takes care of the critical need simply to stay current, but will probably change when there are strategic reasons like the desire for a fresh design that offer the opportunity to update the underlying code base.