Google Apps stop support of old browsers

In the blogVenkat Panchapakesan (Venkat Panchapakesan), the vice president Google for engineering, reports that the company will publish the list of browsers which are supported by services G Suite (before Google Apps). It will appear on August 1. Under a knife go previously: Firefox 3.5 Safari 3 Internet Explorer 7 and all previous versions of these browsers.

Liquidation of support of Firefox 3.5, Safari 3 and earlier versions of these programs will affect a great number of users: the latest data of NetMarketShare say that IE7 occupies about 7% of the market of browsers. Besides, IE6 which support Google stopped last year still feels not bad from 10.36%, conceding only IE8. Simply, Google eliminates support to 17.4% of the market of browsers, cutting off IE7 and everything that below.

Google will also cut down compatibility of all its services with the IE8 browser, and it, as we know, works at the majority of machines with Windows XP OS and occupies a considerable market share (28%, according to StatCounter). Earlier Google supported the termination of support of browsers of old versions much and, apparently, there came hour for actions.

Chrome from Google in this sense differs from competitors a little – its updating happens at once, on an exit of like that. This mechanism is not switched-off therefore the question of transition of users of the browser to new versions is not necessary.

This step of Google can be considered as a stone in the competitor's kitchen garden - Microsoft, but this statement does not force users to pass to the Chrome browser from Google. More likely, the company appeals to users "set the latest version of the browser loved by them".

In addition, the statement underlines importance of corrections of security and the compatibility offered in new browsers, and for it Google is some reputable. As growth of use of web applications continues, also problems with security and compatibility which bear in themselves these web applications grow, and application of old versions of browsers aggravates their vulnerability.

Perhaps, need of updating is also unpleasant for some users, but these are good thing – to force suppliers of web applications to update browsers now and then if only users do not suffer from violation of the modes of security and will be able with the best result to use new technologies.