Haavard

Google: Switch from Chrome to IE or Firefox

Friday, 5. September 2008, 10:36:27

In my previous post about Google encouraging webmasters to test in all browsers, I may have been a bit harsh. It seems that Google is at least being consistent with its browser discrimination.

There's more on Google's stance on browser discrimination over at the Opera Developer Network. As a sidenote, Microsoft has apparently often been more responsive fixing their issues than Google has when fixing theirs. Food for thought.

Why is Net Applications (Hitslink) changing its browser stats after publishing them?Clicky Web Analytics: Opera beats Chrome, doubles market share after Google Chrome launch

Comments

NoteMe # 5. September 2008, 11:30

Yeah, they don't seem to cheat:

For you non Norwegian speaking, it says: "This is probably not the page you are looking for" when you try to go to https://www.gmail.com

- ØØ -

Rijk # 5. September 2008, 12:32

"Microsoft has apparently often been more responsive than Google when fixing Hotmail issues."

Well, duh, why would Google be responsive on fixing Hotmail issues? :-P

wupperbayer # 5. September 2008, 12:37

Hehe, I experienced the same thing when playing with Chrome. I hope Google won't fix their pages just for Chrome but for all browsers - as they encouraged other web developers to do so, too.

@NoteMe: So Chrome says Google's server could be misconfigured (if I understand that right)? Nice one, too. I wonder where "Back to security" brings you to - google.com?

haavard # 5. September 2008, 14:31

Ok, ok, I edited it, Rijk

hallvors # 5. September 2008, 17:46

On the other hand, the high-profile MS property Hotmail requires some pretty hefty coding in browser.js to get around all the IE-specific stuff. GMail seems to be under more active development, which is both good and bad: old bugs might get fixed on purpose or by happy accidental rewrites but if new features aren't tested in Opera they might easily end up exposing incompatibilities more often.. Hotmail is a more stable target for site patching, but it's not exactly Opera friendly.. :-p

kyleabaker # 5. September 2008, 18:25

haha, nice catch Rijk.

@haavard
Just goes to show how browser sniffing can come back to haunt you. Now it's time to turn to Google and say in a Stewie Griffin voice:
"What have you learned?"