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Google browser sniffing and the Open Web

September 4, 2008 · by David Storey

As well as being a valuable partner to Opera, with the release of Google Chrome, Google has also become a competitor. We welcome that as more competitors means more innovation, and less likelihood that the Web will be dominated by one single vendor.

However, now Google has become a competitor with its own self interests in promoting its own browser, it brings new responsibility. Google themselves state the following in their Google developer documentation (emphasis mine):

Internet users have an increasing number of choices for web browsers today, including Firefox, Safari, Opera, and now Google Chrome. Sometimes web pages look and work differently in each browser, so it’s important to test your site across all of them to ensure all your visitors can enjoy the experience you’ve designed. – Google Chrome

They also state in Google DocType that is is bad code that checks for browser names:

Since there is so much bad code out there already that does check for specific browser names, some browsers have options to give out false information about who they are. – Google DocType

Why is this important? Well, in these places and others, Google’s developer documentation and PR is telling us that Google believes in the Open Web, we should test in multiple browsers, and browser sniffing is bad. With these statements, and the fact that Google is now a member of the browser market, it is clear that it is important that they do not warn users of their services against using certain browsers, or block them completely, and that they would be against such policies anyway. You could consider it an anti-competitive move if they do so, while allowing access to their own browser.

The reality is though that Google has and continues to block Opera (and other browsers) from accessing their services, or warns against using them. Sometimes for entire services, or sometimes for specific features. Often the only change needed to allow those services to work is to bypass Google’s browser sniffing. It will be telling if Google changes their tune now that Google Chrome has been released. A list of Google sites that currently block or warn against Opera includes, but is not limited to:

  • Google Notebook
  • Google Groups
  • Google Spreadsheets (they have promised to remove the block but this is not live yet
  • Google Presentations
  • Google Picasa
  • Google Sites
  • Blogger (patched in browser.js to allow us to get the rich text editor)
  • Lively

It is not all bad. There are certainly people in Google that are very helpful to Opera, such as the Google GWT team, and in recent weeks and months I’ve been able to find contacts that have fixed issues and removed the browser sniffing that stopped Opera working on properties such as Orkut, Google Docs, and GMail (mobile specific). The Google Spreadsheets team has also recently been helpful and promised to remove the block on that property soon. I look forward to this collaboration continuing, and for Google to stick to the principles they mention on their sites about testing in all browsers. I hope that there is commitment from higher up in Google to make sure that all discrimination against Opera (and other browsers) is removed. If they test their new features and services in Opera, I’d be happy to work with Google and our QA team to look into any problems they find in our browsers that cause them problems.

Readers' comments 22

Left under the original article, as archived.

  • João Eiras4. September 2008, 22:31

    Google is hardly an issue. What has microsoft done all these years ?
    Microsoft makes profit from selling windows, which is the only platform IE will run on (officially) and they force people to use IE for most of their web apps and web products.
    This alone is enough for a lawsuit.

  • David Storey4. September 2008, 23:02

    Microsoft have been much more responsive than Google in recent times at fixing issues, reporting them to the appropriate teams, and putting me in touch with the people I need to talk with. Google has been helpful recently for mobile issues, but not so much for the desktop browser. It looks like we have started to make progress in some issues,such as Orkut (mainly on mobile though) and Spreadsheets (if the block is removed), so lets hop that is a sign of things to come.

  • Keiv M.4. September 2008, 23:03

    Google would be hypocritical if they continue the browser sniffing.

    As for IE i pretty much use it on a new PC to download Opera.

    After that i pretty much only use it for microsoft related activity that requires IE.

    So for me it only accounts for less than 5% of my web surfing. :p::p:

  • João Eiras5. September 2008, 01:20

    David, have you ever used some MS product like Outlook web access or sharepoint ? IT's a sad story, really.

  • John Faulds5. September 2008, 01:44

    Yeah, it's disappointing that you still encounter so many sites that block Opera users (and I'm not just talking about Google).

  • Zi Bin Cheah5. September 2008, 09:57

    Let's wait and see how fast Google fix their own sites.

    If they do it at lightning speed, then why isnt opera browser get fixed for sooo long? If they don't fix it, WORSE. it will look ugly when their own app is not supported by Chrome.

  • MyOpera team, please fix this!7. September 2008, 09:37

    Originally posted by xErath:

    David, have you ever used some MS product like Outlook web access or sharepoint ?

    I agree. This logic of competition and browser blocking should have been leveraged a long time ago.

  • Anonymous17. September 2008, 07:23

    Anonymous writes: " With these statements, and the fact that Google is now a member of the browser market, it is clear that it is important that they do not warn users of their services against using certain browsers, or block them completely, and that they would be against such policies anyway. " Holy Cr4p! Is that a convoluted sentence!! What's clear now? They shouldn't do what with whom, (insert a conditional phrase here with another comma)?

  • Anonymous16. December 2008, 20:31

    Anonymous writes: As of today, google spreadsheet has not blocked me but presentations did; it's after that that I googled and found this article.

  • Zi Bin Cheah12. January 2009, 15:28

    Thanks for the heads up! We are aware of the issue and is trying hard to solve it

  • Anonymous13. March 2009, 20:07

    kamal writes: i woold like to mike opra my web browser

  • Anonymous5. February 2010, 21:20

    Anonimo writes: Google offer google apps in the past- whit the promis - thath you can access to your document from any compiuter. At the moment it deserve this promises, sometimes becomesvery slow, and also is non possible to use in old browesr, o new browesrs like opera. At the same time, also from the right bbrowesesr, maybe becouse of haker attach, or overcharge, also it become solw and unrichable. I'm deluded from goggle app, in general, and deluded from the limits of compatibility. If you wont tu use your document from any compiter, I would suggest, don't use google app, use a pen drive! Very Uungry about opera pushed out form goggle app and facebook. Paolo

  • Anonymous15. April 2010, 22:47

    Anonym writes: i will not get google chrome. i like opera. its great.if google thinks forcing ppl to use their browser is right, fine. for now i cant access my blog with opera, i cant log into my gmail account which is linked to blogger and so i cant access blogger either. annoying.im not gonna get google chrome tho :) why drink water if you can have champagne.i will simply move my blog :D and then live happily till i end :D

  • Anonymous15. April 2010, 22:48

    Anonym writes: not to forget that you cant sign in to youtube!

  • prd320. April 2010, 09:50

    Signing in to YouTube works fine.

  • Charles Schloss8. September 2010, 22:24

    "They also state in Google DocType that is is bad code that checks for browser names:" It is

    It is said, this does not move the web forward but makes a lot of web users pissed, as they want to use the browser they like and not be told what to use

  • Anonymous9. September 2010, 12:10

    Anonymous writes: Thanks for the informative and kind post on this putrid behavior by Google. Let's be honest, there's only one reason why Google blocks Opera for a few weeks and then on pressure from Opera and its users turns OFF their browser-sniffing. And that reason is to continue to shave off users away from Opera to fool people into thinking it's Opera's problem, not Google intentionally wielding their market power. Anti-trust 101. Another example: they backstabbed Apple when Eric Schmidt was on the Apple Board and changed their Android plans when iPhone came out to copy them. Look at their Android prototype before the iPhone public release, and then after. Backstab 101.

  • Anonymous10. September 2010, 17:46

    Luciana Fujii writes: Only unblocking after complaints is not enough, what about the talk about not being evil, user-agent spoofing is bad, etc? I want to choose whatever browser I use even if I'm the only user and still be fine (or go fix my browser if it's not). Isn't that the purpose of standarts after all?

  • Cutting Spoon16. September 2010, 02:44

    I kinda like not having all of Google's new "features", now that I've played with them. Most of them actually reduce functionality.

  • Stephen Turrell16. September 2010, 14:15

    Originally posted by hellspork:

    Most of them actually reduce functionality.


    I kind of like Google instant but it is distracting.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/13/charlie-brooker-google-instant

  • The Dark Side16. January 2011, 01:18

    Opera is being blocked here http://code.google.com/apis/earth/ but the plugin works great in Opera if you mask as firefox :furious:

  • Cutting Spoon17. January 2011, 19:55

    More of the usual, then.

About this article

Published inODIN blog
DateSeptember 4, 2008
AuthorDavid Storey
Tagsbrowser sniffing, bad practices, Opera, Google, Chrome, accessibility, browsers, Carakan, conference, CSS, css3, education
OriginalInternet Archive

The Red O » Developers » ODIN » Google browser sniffing and the Open Web

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