Besides for messaging, BBMing, IMing, gaming and document editing, one of the popular activities to do on BlackBerry smartphones is browse the web. While there are many alternative mobile web browsers to the native BlackBerry browser, many of you may not have enough memory or the right specifications to use them, or maybe you just prefer the native browser.

By default the BlackBerry browser identification setting is set to “BlackBerry” which means websites who have a mobile version may force you to see it when visiting it. This can have its benefits since the load time is cut down and there aren’t so many page elements, but what if you want to view the full website and not the mobile version? This guide will help you change your browser identification so you can do just that.

Note: Before attempting the following steps make sure you have a data plan with your wireless service provider and have sent your device service books. This is required in order to have access to the browser application.

• Navigate to the BlackBerry application icon titled Browser and click on it.
• In the next screen you will see that you’re in the Internet Browser. Open the menu, scroll to Options and click on it.

• You are now in the Browser Options screen. From here click on Browser Configuration.
• Now that you’re in the Browser Configuration screen you will see a bunch of options with check boxes and drop down menus. Before going on to change the Browser Identification make sure your Browser option at the top is set to Internet Browser. If not the Browser Identification option will be locked to BlackBerry.
• Once you’ve made sure your Browser option is set to Internet Explorer scroll down to the Browser Identification drop down menu and click on it.

• From this drop down menu you will be able to select between three different browser identifications: BlackBerry, Firefox and Internet Explorer. Setting it to BlackBerry is ok for browsing the web unless a website forces mobile devices to see a mobile version of the site when you actually want to see the full version, in which case you would set it to either Firefox or Internet Explorer.
• Note that when setting the Browser Identification to Internet Explorer you get the following error: WARNING!! Internet Explorer identification may cause certain web pages not to function correctly! This is most likely because more and more websites no longer support older versions of Internet Explorer or have elements that don’t play nice with it.
• Ideally, if Internet Explorer is not required and you want to view a full website, you should probably set the Browser Identification to Firefox.
• If you’ve previously visited a website while your Browser Identification was set to BlackBerry, you should probably clear your cache and cookies before loading a website with it set to Firefox or Internet Explorer. If you don’t you may be shown the mobile version even if you changed the setting.

That’s it! I hope you found this guide useful and that it answered any questions you may have had about viewing full websites with the native BlackBerry browser. If you believe this quick guide is missing something or think something is wrong feel free to leave a comment.

Stay tuned for a more thorough guide on how to further customize your BlackBerry Internet Browser options and settings.