6 ms·

"Google Chrome required" - sure, because current crop of web developers are too young to remember dark age of Internet Explorer domination.

phkahler 9y ago
Yeah, I noticed the contradiction: "Explore the far reaches of the world, right in your browser. " But my browser is FireFox.
- deegles 9y ago
  Simple fix: "Explore the far reaches of the world, right in our browser. "
  - _lce0 9y ago
    I know I know stupidity beats malice .. but when I first saw that same message I thought: nice marketing stunt, well played Google
krisdol 9y ago
What web technology does this use, specifically, that prevents firefox usage? Or is it just a chrome plugin they decided not to port?
- nandhp 9y ago
  ["other browsers in the near future"](https://blog.google/products/earth/welcome-home-new-google-earth/ https://blog.google/products/earth/welcome-home-new-google-e...), so maybe there isn't one?
- dkns 9y ago
  I remember when inbox launched it could be only used under chrome/chromium. Then somebody changed their user agent in firefox to chrome and magically it started working just fine. So you might want to try that.
  - callahad 9y ago
    Looks like the first hurdle is that it's relying on the deprecated document.registerElement API from an early draft of the Web Components specs, which prevents the app from booting in Firefox. Edit: Paul Kinlan reports that Earth is using PNaCl (https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378 https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378), which means it fundamentally can't run outside of Blink.
    - Animats 9y ago
      Can somebody fix Google's code? It's just Javascript, right?
      - euyyn 9y ago
        It's just Javascript, but served from Google servers. For a fix to work for other users you'd need them to use a plugin that applies it.
        Animats 9y ago
        At some point, it's using an API to get the map data. Is there anything that prevents non-Google hosted code from using that API?
        zeptomu 9y ago
        Yes, rate-limits.
      - lern_too_spel 9y ago
        PNaCl is a binary executable format.
        Animats 9y ago
        Is Google actually using that? That's IA-32 only. It won't run on ARM. What are they running on Chromebooks?
- spankalee 9y ago
  I think the issues is that it uses NaCl - I assume they compiled the existing Earth engine to run on the web. Most likely web-based Earth was launching just too early to switch from NaCl to WASM, which just shipped, and they'll port to NaCl soon.
  - Analemma_ 9y ago
    Hasn't NaCl been abandoned? On top of the annoying browser incompatibility, this is also a pretty embarrassing case of Google's left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
  - oppositelock 9y ago
    This is a rewrite, not a recompilation.
krisdol 9y ago
What web technology does this use, specifically, that prevents firefox usage? Or is it just a chrome plugin they decided not to port?
dietr1ch 9y ago
But is it required for some open technology?
y4mi 9y ago
Erm, this product isn't done by some random web developer but google themselves... so yeah, they made another essentially proprietary website. it honestly sucks but your phrasing puts the blame on inexperienced developers, which most certainly doesn't apply here.
- 1_2__3 9y ago
  You underestimate how many levels of engineering at Google are entirely populated by recent college grads. It could absolutely be unwillingness (I agree it's probably not blind ignorance) to pay attention to the lessons of the past.
manigandham 9y ago
Chrome is a voluntary install, open source and keeps pushing web tech forward. 1 site using advanced features that aren't supported elsewhere is not a big deal and not comparable to IE's history.
Osmium 9y ago
> "Google Chrome required" - sure, because current crop of web developers are too young to remember dark age of Internet Explorer domination. This is the same with the new YouTube TV too. I'm not sure if it's a DRM issue or not. Especially galling if so given the controversy over HTML5 DRM content, after other browsers have decided to support it, to then roll your own solution anyway...
- smonff 9y ago
  It is unacceptable.
- cpeterso 9y ago
  > This is the same with the new YouTube TV too. I'm not sure if it's a DRM issue or not. Firefox supports the same Google Widevine DRM as Chrome, so YouTube's choice of DRM system should not be an issue.
- londons_explore 9y ago
  DRM in web browsers is anything but standard. Edge uses PlayReady, Chrome uses Widevine, Safari uses FairPlay, etc. As a content producer, you have to get licenses to use each of those technologies and run servers for them separately. It's anything but standard.
BerislavLopac 9y ago
How long before we see the same notification on Google Search and Gmail?
- blacksmith_tb 9y ago
  Presumably never, since that would make a serious cut into their advertising revenue, and provide quite an opening for competitors in both spaces to snap up disgruntled users.
- callahad 9y ago
  Google already serves a degraded Google Search UI (the "heirloom" interface) to Firefox on Android. You have to spoof your UA string to get the modern UI: http://imgur.com/a/cIH7T http://imgur.com/a/cIH7T
- nojvek 9y ago
  I respect the European to keep American tech giants on their feet. Google is really the new evil Microsoft. It is building it's walled gardens and enabling in monopolistic activities. Apart from Gmail and Google I don't touch anything that Google makes in the fear that it will be half baked and will be cut the year after.
BerislavLopac 9y ago
How long before we see the same notification on Google Search and Gmail?
RX14 9y ago
What's even more annoying about this is it requires specifically Google Chrome, I'm on Chromium on Linux, where you'd think it works, but it doesn't. It doesn't even fail nicely.
- nthcolumn 9y ago
  I was wondering what the hell was going on.
  - 8ball 9y ago
    If you know about politics, this is what it takes: a person on the leader's position would use anything and any way he can to keep his authority/position stable --- this is not happening just in DC but in enterprises too. As Larry etc formed Alphabet while tossing Google to Pichai, the latter's power has already been weakened by the former everyday. The fact is that Google as well as other large companies in silicon valley is more and more occupied by Eastern Indian workers, the quality control of products has therefore gone into toilet since their culture, while turning to be the majority, is to seek atomic survival by exploitation of extrinsic achievement instead of improving intrinsic value of products. Office politics has been never more severe since then and now it's difficult and exhausting for Pichai to maintain his position by dodging countless number of traps created by themselves. He would then like to do anything to keep himself up --- or else being destroyed --- even if it means to set the product quality back to a century before, to bind the will of midlevel managers to support himself. And that is why the products goes back to as evil as IE, simply because no one could care less.
cookiecaper 9y ago
> current crop of web developers are too young to remember dark age of Internet Explorer domination. How does that happen? I'm not even 30 and I remember when IE6 was new. Does everyone burn out or move into management by 26 or what? Programming is really a weird field in that it seems to lose a lot of its workmen just as they start maturing into the experience level that yields a productive stride in other fields. I know some make the argument that programming is a young man's game due to the required mental acuity, but I don't really buy that. Perhaps as people get older, they become increasingly less interested in staring into the computer and seek more social forms of employment? We've got to be losing a huge amount of productivity by seeing experienced developers drop off the map before they hit 40.

phkahler 9y ago

Yeah, I noticed the contradiction: "Explore the far reaches of the world, right in your browser. " But my browser is FireFox.

deegles 9y ago
Simple fix: "Explore the far reaches of the world, right in our browser. "
- _lce0 9y ago
  I know I know stupidity beats malice .. but when I first saw that same message I thought: nice marketing stunt, well played Google

krisdol 9y ago

What web technology does this use, specifically, that prevents firefox usage? Or is it just a chrome plugin they decided not to port?

nandhp 9y ago
["other browsers in the near future"](https://blog.google/products/earth/welcome-home-new-google-earth/ https://blog.google/products/earth/welcome-home-new-google-e...), so maybe there isn't one?
dkns 9y ago
I remember when inbox launched it could be only used under chrome/chromium. Then somebody changed their user agent in firefox to chrome and magically it started working just fine. So you might want to try that.
- callahad 9y ago
  Looks like the first hurdle is that it's relying on the deprecated document.registerElement API from an early draft of the Web Components specs, which prevents the app from booting in Firefox. Edit: Paul Kinlan reports that Earth is using PNaCl (https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378 https://twitter.com/Paul_Kinlan/status/854351477506277378), which means it fundamentally can't run outside of Blink.
  - Animats 9y ago
    Can somebody fix Google's code? It's just Javascript, right?
    - euyyn 9y ago
      It's just Javascript, but served from Google servers. For a fix to work for other users you'd need them to use a plugin that applies it.
      - Animats 9y ago
        At some point, it's using an API to get the map data. Is there anything that prevents non-Google hosted code from using that API?
        zeptomu 9y ago
        Yes, rate-limits.
    - lern_too_spel 9y ago
      PNaCl is a binary executable format.
      - Animats 9y ago
        Is Google actually using that? That's IA-32 only. It won't run on ARM. What are they running on Chromebooks?
spankalee 9y ago
I think the issues is that it uses NaCl - I assume they compiled the existing Earth engine to run on the web. Most likely web-based Earth was launching just too early to switch from NaCl to WASM, which just shipped, and they'll port to NaCl soon.
- Analemma_ 9y ago
  Hasn't NaCl been abandoned? On top of the annoying browser incompatibility, this is also a pretty embarrassing case of Google's left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.
- oppositelock 9y ago
  This is a rewrite, not a recompilation.

krisdol 9y ago

What web technology does this use, specifically, that prevents firefox usage? Or is it just a chrome plugin they decided not to port?

dietr1ch 9y ago

But is it required for some open technology?

y4mi 9y ago

Erm, this product isn't done by some random web developer but google themselves... so yeah, they made another essentially proprietary website. it honestly sucks but your phrasing puts the blame on inexperienced developers, which most certainly doesn't apply here.

1_2__3 9y ago
You underestimate how many levels of engineering at Google are entirely populated by recent college grads. It could absolutely be unwillingness (I agree it's probably not blind ignorance) to pay attention to the lessons of the past.

manigandham 9y ago

Chrome is a voluntary install, open source and keeps pushing web tech forward. 1 site using advanced features that aren't supported elsewhere is not a big deal and not comparable to IE's history.

Osmium 9y ago

> "Google Chrome required" - sure, because current crop of web developers are too young to remember dark age of Internet Explorer domination. This is the same with the new YouTube TV too. I'm not sure if it's a DRM issue or not. Especially galling if so given the controversy over HTML5 DRM content, after other browsers have decided to support it, to then roll your own solution anyway...

smonff 9y ago
It is unacceptable.
cpeterso 9y ago
> This is the same with the new YouTube TV too. I'm not sure if it's a DRM issue or not. Firefox supports the same Google Widevine DRM as Chrome, so YouTube's choice of DRM system should not be an issue.
londons_explore 9y ago
DRM in web browsers is anything but standard. Edge uses PlayReady, Chrome uses Widevine, Safari uses FairPlay, etc. As a content producer, you have to get licenses to use each of those technologies and run servers for them separately. It's anything but standard.

BerislavLopac 9y ago

How long before we see the same notification on Google Search and Gmail?

blacksmith_tb 9y ago
Presumably never, since that would make a serious cut into their advertising revenue, and provide quite an opening for competitors in both spaces to snap up disgruntled users.
callahad 9y ago
Google already serves a degraded Google Search UI (the "heirloom" interface) to Firefox on Android. You have to spoof your UA string to get the modern UI: http://imgur.com/a/cIH7T http://imgur.com/a/cIH7T
nojvek 9y ago
I respect the European to keep American tech giants on their feet. Google is really the new evil Microsoft. It is building it's walled gardens and enabling in monopolistic activities. Apart from Gmail and Google I don't touch anything that Google makes in the fear that it will be half baked and will be cut the year after.

BerislavLopac 9y ago

How long before we see the same notification on Google Search and Gmail?

RX14 9y ago

What's even more annoying about this is it requires specifically Google Chrome, I'm on Chromium on Linux, where you'd think it works, but it doesn't. It doesn't even fail nicely.

nthcolumn 9y ago
I was wondering what the hell was going on.
- 8ball 9y ago
  If you know about politics, this is what it takes: a person on the leader's position would use anything and any way he can to keep his authority/position stable --- this is not happening just in DC but in enterprises too. As Larry etc formed Alphabet while tossing Google to Pichai, the latter's power has already been weakened by the former everyday. The fact is that Google as well as other large companies in silicon valley is more and more occupied by Eastern Indian workers, the quality control of products has therefore gone into toilet since their culture, while turning to be the majority, is to seek atomic survival by exploitation of extrinsic achievement instead of improving intrinsic value of products. Office politics has been never more severe since then and now it's difficult and exhausting for Pichai to maintain his position by dodging countless number of traps created by themselves. He would then like to do anything to keep himself up --- or else being destroyed --- even if it means to set the product quality back to a century before, to bind the will of midlevel managers to support himself. And that is why the products goes back to as evil as IE, simply because no one could care less.

cookiecaper 9y ago

> current crop of web developers are too young to remember dark age of Internet Explorer domination. How does that happen? I'm not even 30 and I remember when IE6 was new. Does everyone burn out or move into management by 26 or what? Programming is really a weird field in that it seems to lose a lot of its workmen just as they start maturing into the experience level that yields a productive stride in other fields. I know some make the argument that programming is a young man's game due to the required mental acuity, but I don't really buy that. Perhaps as people get older, they become increasingly less interested in staring into the computer and seek more social forms of employment? We've got to be losing a huge amount of productivity by seeing experienced developers drop off the map before they hit 40.