Sightly off-topic but:
Do we really need user agent? What are good reasons we should keep on using them? I could find none...
Google Play Store: Browsing with Firefox is no longer supported on Android
151–160 of 242 posts
Re: Google Play Store: Browsing with Firefox is no longer supported on Android
#152For twitter users: Google play seems to be @GooglePlay. Tag with #ChromeIsTheNewIE and ask if it is malice or incompentence (those are the only two I can come up with : )
Re: Google Play Store: Browsing with Firefox is no longer supported on Android
#153Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, that's also how ActiveX were sold...
Cannot agree more. At least they need to justify this statement. If there is a legitimate critical missing feature in FF, I am sure the FF devs will get on it pronto. But this lack of communication is worrisome.
Yeah, the communications piece is awesome. We (Mozilla) have run into Google properties that send Firefox on Android degraded content because "it's missing some features our mobile site relies on, so it's not Tier 1". When we ask them what these features are, the response is "we can't tell you what things need to be supported to be Tier 1".
Re: Google Play Store: Browsing with Firefox is no longer supported on Android
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Weren't we all applauding some startup that had a douche-bagy "We dont support IE" message on their site and everyone here was so excited about it. Now that the bell is tolling for Firefox, its a different story, eh? There's been this largely ridiculous "revenge of the geeks" after the IE6 days. Now we've fed so much fuel into that fire, that casually telling people to use different browsers is the norm. I'm not sayi…
There is potentially a critical difference here. The "We don't support IE" mini-movement was a reaction to Microsoft's refusal to use the web standards that every other major browser supported. In this case, it appears to me (admittedly without research) that Google's motivations must be different, and two possibilities spring to mind: (1) Google doesn't like the competition from Firefox or (2) the Play store uses no…
(3) Firefox for Android misses true Intent Filters support, which causes annoying experience for the average user.
Re: Google Play Store: Browsing with Firefox is no longer supported on Android
#155For those lazy but curious, hurl: http://hurl.eu/hurls/75bc3ea92343cf38b3711597c5bd4a2e25bed84...
(GET of `https://play.google.com/store` with User-Agent header of Fx 35 on Android)
Re: Google Play Store: Browsing with Firefox is no longer supported on Android
#156Hi Google. Remember those non-evil days where you said you cared about web-standards and actually acted according to those claims? Those days were great. Feel free to get back to those.
Months later, inbox.google.com still requires Chrome, despite it working perfectly well in Safari when spoofing the UA, and claims that it was held back by "performance issues on some animations", and while I've had a few occasional bugs running it in Firefox, it seemed to be altogether quite fine. Anyway I stopped using the thing a month ago because I simply dropped Chrome†.
† slowly becoming too much ChromeOS-and-why-not-a-browser (including terrible memory use) extending its tentacles in ugly ways into my desktop of choice.
Re: Google Play Store: Browsing with Firefox is no longer supported on Android
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gave you an up-vote, not sure why you're being down-voted for making a perfectly logical assumption. It's annoying if in fact it's very specifically Firefox Mobile and nothing else, but I agree, if the app has the better experience, they likely want to funnel everyone that way. Edit: aaaand down-voted. What is the actual problem here?
Because as qntmfred said, you can access the store from Chrome.
Which, as LiroXIV said, is missing the point. If they publish the Google Play store as a web site, it should work on all standard-compliant web browsers.
If they want it to be accessed only from the Android app, fine, but then don't make it available to the Chrome browser either. That kind of "only-works-with-products-from-the-same-vendor" bundling is what got Microsoft convicted for monopolistic practices back in the day.
Re: Google Play Store: Browsing with Firefox is no longer supported on Android
#158Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would you think it's a good experience? I can't count the number of times I'm annoyed when I click on a link to a website - say, clicking a link on news.google.com or a link here - get moved to that website and BAM there is a "you want to use our app. Click here to download it." No. I don't want your F(!&^NG app. I want your website. Don't show me that. The next time I go to the same website? BAM! Go To Our App p…
That's not the same thing that is being discussed here. What's being discussed is that you click, for example, a youtube link in your web browser and android opens up the youtube app to view the video. Android will give you the choice to open it up in a variety of supported applications, including the browser, you can set your permanent preference if you want to not be asked again.
"The great thing about the web is links. Some times you click them and they take you places. If the place it takes you asks you to open an app instead... that's a bad experience"
This is the grandparents quote to the person I replied to. Looking over the quote, I think there's some ambiguity.
One one hand....
there is clicking a link in say Messenger that someone texts you... and "Which app do you want to use? Firefox, Chrome, Youtube, ...". That, I think, its a necessary "evil" and not inherently bad. If you have 5 browsers and youtube, where do you want that link to go? "Use this app every time with this kind of link... or just this time?" is a minor annoyance but expected.
This is to be expected in an environment where you have options. It would be jarring, in say iOS, because they don't give you options. Links open in Safari. Videos open in iVideo (or whatever it's called).
In Android, you have apps installed that make you have to choose - and generally you only have to choose when you say "This time only" or after you install something new.
On the other hand...
How I read it initially: there is clicking a web link, having it open in the browser and having a "You should really install our app. No really." box pop up every time. Not a redirect to an app, but a web page that points you to super-awesome-zomg-your-so-stupid-for-not-using-it app.
It's bad user experience, in my not so humble experience, to constantly be badgered to install apps - whether it's Youtube, LinkedIn (one of the worst offenders, again IMNSHO) or on a link leaving Google.
Re: Google Play Store: Browsing with Firefox is no longer supported on Android
#159Jeff Atwood's App-pocalypse Now gets more relevant every day
http://blog.codinghorror.com/app-pocalypse-now/
Re: Google Play Store: Browsing with Firefox is no longer supported on Android
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because as qntmfred said, you can access the store from Chrome.
Which, as LiroXIV said, is missing the point. If they publish the Google Play store as a web site, it should work on all standard-compliant web browsers. If they want it to be accessed only from the Android app, fine, but then don't make it available to the Chrome browser either. That kind of "only-works-with-products-from-the-same-vendor" bundling is what got Microsoft convicted for monopolistic practices back in th…
I think you're misunderstanding me. I'm not using that to justify Google's actions, I'm explaining to him why he's being downvoted. By virtue of it being available on Chrome, his argument that this action is intended to funnel users to the app is weak. I suspect that's what qntmfred meant too.