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Ask HN: Why is Google search different on mobile Firefox compared to Chrome?

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Re: Ask HN: Why is Google search different on mobile Firefox compared to Chrome?

#21

Post by gundmc »

1drr wrote: post #10
dmitrygr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oftentimes a team at Google doesn't have the QA resources to test configuration X. In that case to avoid a potentially bad experience, feature Y is often gated to tested configs and and disabled for X, leaving X with the old experience since it had been tested on X. Why does QA test only Chrome? Well if there is only enough QA time to test one browser, imagine having to be the guy to explain to the higher ups why it…

I find it surprising that an organization the size of Google doesn't have the resources to test key features in such a notable browser. Though I just searched and it seems Firefox has a shockingly low market share in mobile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers Perhaps that's why it's not given the attention it needs, how unfortunate.

Bingo, Firefox mobile has << 1% of the mobile browser user base. It's hard to justify the resources to test every change and feature to ensure a good user experience for such a small number of users.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Google search different on mobile Firefox compared to Chrome?

#22

Post by beatgammit »

nullwasamistake wrote: post #18
st3fan wrote: post #4

If you change the User Agent to Chrome you can see that it works pretty well on Firefox actually.

Yes. Google has been doing this for years, they serve a degraded version of YouTube as well. Get an add-on to change your user-agent to latest chrome

But then it looks like everyone is using chrome in marketshare reports...

Re: Ask HN: Why is Google search different on mobile Firefox compared to Chrome?

#23

Post by giancarlostoro »

beatgammit wrote: post #22
nullwasamistake wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Google has been doing this for years, they serve a degraded version of YouTube as well. Get an add-on to change your user-agent to latest chrome

But then it looks like everyone is using chrome in marketshare reports...

You only need to do so for Google sites. Maybe an enhancement on Firefox Containers that only do this for Google sites.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Google search different on mobile Firefox compared to Chrome?

#25

Post by dingo_bat »

theturtletalks wrote: post #20
1drr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I created a new account to post this, so I have no interest in Karma. It was just something that I noticed when I switched from mobile Chrome to Firefox. You don't have to discuss this blindly, just pull your phone and test for yourself, it'll only take you 2 seconds. My phone has Android 8.0, Firefox Mobile 68.0

I think his point is that Firefox should integrate with AMP. Now I’m not sure if Google puts obstacles in place to make this harder, but wasn’t AMP recently open sourced?

Why? Is amp some sort of non standard js/html/css?

Re: Ask HN: Why is Google search different on mobile Firefox compared to Chrome?

#26

Post by lern_too_spel »

Almost certainly because Firefox Mobile's share is too low for them to test on, which would mean it's safer to serve a stripped down results page that is guaranteed to work on any browser than to risk breaking search entirely for those users with shiny features. The fix is to encourage everybody else to use Firefox Mobile too and use an extension in the meantime like I do.

Re: Ask HN: Why is Google search different on mobile Firefox compared to Chrome?

#29

Post by CanisDirus »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #23
beatgammit wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then it looks like everyone is using chrome in marketshare reports...

You only need to do so for Google sites. Maybe an enhancement on Firefox Containers that only do this for Google sites.

There's an addon that does exactly this: https://addons.mozilla.org/pl/firefox/addon/chrome-ua-on-goo...

Re: Ask HN: Why is Google search different on mobile Firefox compared to Chrome?

#30

Post by amelius »

gundmc wrote: post #21
1drr wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it surprising that an organization the size of Google doesn't have the resources to test key features in such a notable browser. Though I just searched and it seems Firefox has a shockingly low market share in mobile: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers Perhaps that's why it's not given the attention it needs, how unfortunate.

Bingo, Firefox mobile has << 1% of the mobile browser user base. It's hard to justify the resources to test every change and feature to ensure a good user experience for such a small number of users.

And the reason for this is probably that Chrome comes bundled with Android.
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