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> It's not an accident that Google's webservices work best (sometimes only) in Chrome. A web service that only works in Chrome? Maybe you mean web application

> It's not an accident that Google's webservices work best (sometimes only) in Chrome. A web service that only works in Chrome? Maybe you mean web application (web service would be really odd to work in just one browser). Do you have a source for this regardless? I hadn't heard of this.

______ 12y ago
An example of this is Google Drive's offline mode, which only runs on Chrome (https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375012?hl=en https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375012?hl=en)
- BinaryIdiot 12y ago
  I can't entirely blame them for this one considering the alternative is either using something standard (localStorage) where they're only going to be able to store a really insignificant amount of information or creating something proprietary for multiple web browsers which is difficult to maintain. If there was a web standard way of caching 5GB of files locally then I would be annoyed.
  - comex 12y ago
    IndexedDB is supported on all major browsers by now.
    - BinaryIdiot 12y ago
      Hmm you have a point though I don't know how well Chrome supported it when they first came out with the offline drive support. May be an issue of legacy needing to be upgraded. I also can't find good performance benchmarks for very large blobs in IndexedDB. But yeah I suppose they could use that now.
bzbarsky 12y ago
I mean the services Google provides to users in the form of web applications, yes. The terminology is sucky. As for concrete examples, Hangouts only works in non-Chrome browsers (including ones with WebRTC support) if you install a Google-provided binary blob. Which you may not be able to do. Gmail only supports offline access in Chrome (see https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6557?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6557?hl=en the "two exceptions" bit). Whether not having offline access to your mail counts as mail "not working" is up to you, I guess; for me it counts as "not working". Various Google properties use UA sniffing to deliver degraded content to non-Chrome browsers. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=921532#c9 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=921532#c9 is an example. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=973754 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=973754 is an example where as far as I can tell they built the feature around non-standard Chrome-only functionality even though Firefox supports the standard version. Google news menus don't work in standards-compliant browsers because they rely on a Chrome/WebKit bug. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1083932 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1083932 Google patent search uses UA sniffing and locks out various browsers as a result. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1013702 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1013702 Google Translate will fail to work in Firefox unless you have Flash installed (good luck on Mobile).... or spoof the Chrome UA string. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=976013 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=976013 They do fix these bugs sometimes (the UA sniffing ones, where they just got the sniffing flat out wrong, tend to get fixed once someone diagnoses them). And sometimes not.
- pcwalton 12y ago
  Google Inbox is also Chrome-only. It UA sniffs and tells you to download Chrome if you aren't using it.
  - haberman 12y ago
    For non-nefarious reasons: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8495939 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8495939
bzbarsky 12y ago
http://www.otsukare.info/2014/10/28/google-webcompatibility-bugs-list http://www.otsukare.info/2014/10/28/google-webcompatibility-... has a more complete rundown of the still-extant issues in case you're interested. The whole post is well worth reading, because it does say something important that needs to be said: there are many individuals at Google who believe in things like interoperability, web sites working in all browsers, etc, and strive for that (sometimes against internal opposition). It just happens that Google as an overall organization cares a lot more about its sites working in Chrome than it cares about them working in other browsers, with predictable results.

______ 12y ago

An example of this is Google Drive's offline mode, which only runs on Chrome (https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375012?hl=en https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2375012?hl=en)

BinaryIdiot 12y ago
I can't entirely blame them for this one considering the alternative is either using something standard (localStorage) where they're only going to be able to store a really insignificant amount of information or creating something proprietary for multiple web browsers which is difficult to maintain. If there was a web standard way of caching 5GB of files locally then I would be annoyed.
- comex 12y ago
  IndexedDB is supported on all major browsers by now.
  - BinaryIdiot 12y ago
    Hmm you have a point though I don't know how well Chrome supported it when they first came out with the offline drive support. May be an issue of legacy needing to be upgraded. I also can't find good performance benchmarks for very large blobs in IndexedDB. But yeah I suppose they could use that now.

bzbarsky 12y ago

I mean the services Google provides to users in the form of web applications, yes. The terminology is sucky. As for concrete examples, Hangouts only works in non-Chrome browsers (including ones with WebRTC support) if you install a Google-provided binary blob. Which you may not be able to do. Gmail only supports offline access in Chrome (see https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6557?hl=en https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6557?hl=en the "two exceptions" bit). Whether not having offline access to your mail counts as mail "not working" is up to you, I guess; for me it counts as "not working". Various Google properties use UA sniffing to deliver degraded content to non-Chrome browsers. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=921532#c9 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=921532#c9 is an example. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=973754 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=973754 is an example where as far as I can tell they built the feature around non-standard Chrome-only functionality even though Firefox supports the standard version. Google news menus don't work in standards-compliant browsers because they rely on a Chrome/WebKit bug. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1083932 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1083932 Google patent search uses UA sniffing and locks out various browsers as a result. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1013702 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1013702 Google Translate will fail to work in Firefox unless you have Flash installed (good luck on Mobile).... or spoof the Chrome UA string. See https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=976013 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=976013 They do fix these bugs sometimes (the UA sniffing ones, where they just got the sniffing flat out wrong, tend to get fixed once someone diagnoses them). And sometimes not.

pcwalton 12y ago
Google Inbox is also Chrome-only. It UA sniffs and tells you to download Chrome if you aren't using it.
- haberman 12y ago
  For non-nefarious reasons: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8495939 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8495939

bzbarsky 12y ago

http://www.otsukare.info/2014/10/28/google-webcompatibility-bugs-list http://www.otsukare.info/2014/10/28/google-webcompatibility-... has a more complete rundown of the still-extant issues in case you're interested. The whole post is well worth reading, because it does say something important that needs to be said: there are many individuals at Google who believe in things like interoperability, web sites working in all browsers, etc, and strive for that (sometimes against internal opposition). It just happens that Google as an overall organization cares a lot more about its sites working in Chrome than it cares about them working in other browsers, with predictable results.