2020-04-24

Internet Explorer Returns!

Remember the good old days when certain sites only worked in certain browsers? you know, these ones:

I sure don't, I'm way too young for that. Nevertheless, lately I've noticed a disturbing trend of things not working except in Chrome.

Here's a few sites that I've found that are "Chrome-only", in some way:

• Collaborate Ultra — I found students unable to connect if they were on Safari.
• Facebook Calls with more than two people — Really Zuck'? You guys couldn't be bothered to make this work on anything except Chrome?
• A certain site for Videostreaming — This works with Chrome only on my laptop. Seriously guys? Video streaming is supposed to be your thing, this is just laziness.
• Airbnb — This tweet by Airbnb, in response to someone saying their site wasn't working properly on Safari.

All the complaints I've heard of how bad the web used to be when people made a site only for IE, or only for Navigator. And yet here we are in 2020, doing the exact same shit. Wonderful. Great work everyone.

Why Is This a Problem?

The arguments against just using Chrome are not for technical reasons. Chrome works very, very well. Just as well, if not better, than any other browser.

The arguments against Chrome are based on wanting a free and open web. Chrome having a monopoly is bad for that. Just look at:

• Chrome working to disable ad-blockers;
• Chrome removing ads from people other than Google;
• Chrome influencing web standards since they're the de facto standard.

Can you really sit here and argue that any of the above are actually good?

Of course not. The above are good for Google, and only for Google.

What If This is Unavoidable?

What if this is just what happens with web browser? On the developer side, it's certainly easier to test in a single browser. On the user side, it's very easy to download a new browser if there's a problem with your current one.

Once you reach a critical mass of users on a browser, it's hard to justify spending lots of time (and hence money) making sure things work on every other possible browser you could find.

For users, if you find that one browser just works for everything, and another doesn't, which are you going to choose? Even if the browsers themselves aren't at fault for this, but the developers. End users simply don't care. They just want to be able to browse TheInternet without any problems.

What if web browsers simply tend towards monopoly, regardless of what people do to try to stop this?

Conclusion

We need to do better with making sure sites run perfectly in all browsers.

And failing that, we need more regulation for tech monopolies. Having a single company in charge of the future of the Internet doesn't seem like such a good idea to me...