
Chrome is turning into the new Internet Explorer 6 - neonhomer
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/4/16805216/google-chrome-only-sites-internet-explorer-6-web-standards
======
RandomException
Except that Chrome can never turn into a new IE6. It keeps updating
automatically, it respects the standards and is nice to use. Oh, and it isn't
installed automatically on Windows or Mac. It also is made by a company whose
business is based on Internet services - not by a company that used to mainly
compete on a completely different area of software business.

It's an entirely different thing to just create a great product that people
want to use instead of "being forced to" use. Firefox has been dragging itself
behind for a long time and was nowhere near enough competitive as a whole
package. Quantum has changed things but there are still some rough edges that
need polishing (e.g. sometimes it just likes to freeze the tab completely).
Chrome's web development tools are IMO top notch and I'd say it is the biggest
reason why all the development happens on Chrome.

PS. This message is written on Firefox Quantum.

~~~
tscs37
>it respects the standards

What about the time they broke passive event listeners for no other reason
than "we say so"?

~~~
rkeene2
Same for when they broke HTTPS support because "we say so". The proper
solution of updating the RFC is too slow for them.

~~~
tscs37
The passive listener case is, IMO, a bit more severe since when several web
developers complained after having their websites broken, the chrome devs
merely yelled "it's faster!" and there was that.

Chrome shouldn't be going around breaking webstandards without atleast
consulting with other browser vendors, if Chrome breaks passive listeners and
Firefox and Edge don't then that is an issue, period.

------
dustinmoorenet
IE 6 was trash because IE won the browser war then went home. Chrome keeps
innovating. Personally (and professionally) I use Firefox, but Chrome is great
too.

~~~
craigvn
According to the people who worked on IE that was never really the intention,
it was just assumed from the outside. They intended to create this whole new
"amazing" updated browser all baked into Windows that would be maintained and
updated. Anyone old enough to remember Windows 98 would remember things like
active desktop which was a precursor to this. But legal and technical issues
followed and before long they had gone years without a browser update.

------
lern_too_spel
If anything, Safari is the new IE 6. Just like IE 6 in its long twilight, it
is the slowest to implement standards by a wide margin. Just like IE 6, it is
used by many who essentially can't switch (though in this case due to iOS
policy restrictions instead of merely OS defaults). Just like IE 6, there are
websites that target it that don't work on standards-compliant browsers —
Apple develops sites that work only in Safari (assuming the browser implements
HLS instead of implementing it in JavaScript on web standards).

That's three for three. Chrome only scores one out of three.

------
ajennings
The article doesn't mention my biggest annoyance:

"Hangouts video and voice calls don't work in Firefox for now. Google is
working to fix this as soon as possible. Until then, use a different supported
browser."

It's been over a year! They can't really be "working to fix this as soon as
possible", can they?

I think video might actually be working, but phone calls (via Google Voice or
Google Fi) aren't and that is the message I get.

~~~
sundaeofshock
I stopped using hangouts about a year ago. To damn buggy on chrome, let alone
other browsers. It’s a significant waste of time having 5 - 10 people wait 10
minutes for someone to get hangouts working on their computer.

~~~
ajennings
I rarely do video calls. The thing I can't live without is SMS from my
computer (via the Hangouts/Voice integration). Is there another good way to do
SMS from a computer?

Phone calls from my computer (with my own number) were nice until they stopped
working. Now I just open Chrome when I need that, but it would be nice to have
it working in FF.

------
fredley
I use Firefox as my main browser at home. I have yet to run into an "Only
works in Chrome" site or message, personally.

~~~
jsgo
The biggest issue I've seen personally was when a vendor we were using would
append query strings to filter data. On the second filter add, it would just
break in Internet Explorer, but Chrome and I _think_ Firefox would work fine.
Come to find out, their code didn't check the existing query string and was
either adding extra # items or ? items, I can't remember which. Looking it up,
though, the standard was that there is only one, so shockingly IE10 was the
only one honoring it.

The vendor, who works heavily in Chrome, was gobsmacked and their response was
basically "well, yeah, but who uses Internet Explorer anymore?" to which we
had to say that's fine, well, and good, but we must support IE10+/Edge.

------
jlzavitz
I've seen this with safari/apple videos. "Hey, come watch us demo our latest
products....oh, you don't use all our products, I guess we won't show you
what's coming"

~~~
scarface74
That's mostly because HLS support is still not where it should be.

------
kakarot
I've had plenty of sites break in FF because they were only tested in Chrome.

In fact, in my own work I have to test Chrome first because I've learned the
hard way that Chrome will surprise you with the weirdest bugs.

Recently I delved into the rabbit hole that is the Web Audio API. It exists...
but apparently it's completely broken because Google shipped a half-assed
implementation before the standards were ready.

Mozilla hurriedly did the same out of fear of losing market share, and now the
spec is an absolute mess. The audio latency is on the order of 500-1000ms on
average.

A solution to the latency issue was finally hammered out, but now the API is
dead in the water and no one is implementing the new spec. Thanks, Google!

------
craigvn
One thing people often forget when bagging IE6 is that all browsers were
rubbish back then. None followed standards. IE6 was actually a better browser
than Netscape and Netscape's next gen browser was too late to be released due
to development issues.

------
corpMaverick
I remember how I used to check browser stats every month when FireFox came
out. At some point, I don't remember when it didn't matter any more. But, it
is interesting to see the trends of past years.
[https://www.w3schools.com/browsers/](https://www.w3schools.com/browsers/)

~~~
perfectstorm
I feel like trends from w3schools would be biased. Most people who visit
w3schools are either developers or students wanting to learn web development
and Chrome is the go to browser for web development.

------
TwoNineA
Ahh ... The Verge, the epitome of tech analysis. Why isn't this submission
flagged?

------
andjd
I think part of why developers are targeting Chrome first these days is not
market share per se, but that the Chrome developer tools are so much better
than the equivalent in Firefox, Safari, or Edge.

------
marczellm
MS Edge fails both the Acid 1 and Acid 2 tests on my computer :)

