Google upgrades Gmail for IE 6 users
There's a lot of action in the browser market these days: Google just launched its Chrome browser, Firefox 3.1 is due in months, Apple hopes Safari will spread across the world of Windows, and Microsoft is touting its second beta of Internet Explorer 8.
But a huge swath of Internet users is still getting by with IE 6, which is no doubt is why Google just released a new version of Gmail for the vintage 2001-era browser.
The update means IE 6 users will get access to colored labels for messages, Gmail Labs features, integration with AOL Instant Messenger, and invisible mode for IM, Google engineer Jon Perlow said on Google's Gmail blog on Friday. The upgrade catches IE 6 users up to features available to users of Firefox 3, IE 7, and Safari 3.
Google said it worked with Microsoft's IE engineers on some of other issues, including memory-related performance issue when running JavaScript programs in the browser, and Google pared back some user interface features that had been causing trouble for IE 6 users.
Stephen Shankland covers Google, Yahoo, search, online advertising, portals, digital photography, and related subjects. He joined CNET News in 1998 and since then also has covered servers, supercomputing, open-source software, and science. E-mail Stephen.
- Topics:
-
Browsers and extensions,
-
Chat and e-mail
- Bookmark:
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
For example, the IT department hasn't moved about half the computer labs to IE7, STILL. It's not a matter of needing it, everything used runs fine in IE7 and Firefox. But nooo, we still have to have IE6 in the library.
In a world where web standards move fast, there's no logical reason for non business computers to ever run IE6.
Microsoft: Find a way to kill that god forsaken browser. I'm tired of checking my code to make sure it works in an obsolete application, or at least works well enough that it's not hideous. I'd like to move into 2008 please.
Yes. I'm bitter.
The HTTP + JavaScript + CSS + AJAX + REST + ... world that we live in now is only possible because of programs like IE6 and IE5 and IE4 and Netscape 3 and Netscape 2. It's a fact that Windows XP shipped with IE6, so the fact that it still has a lion's share of web browsers is unremarkable. The way that Microsoft will kill IE6 is by releasing Windows 7 with IE8 and selling more copies of Windows Vista and Windows 7 than Windows XP. Until most people get new hardware, they won't disrupt their status quo by installing newer versions of software unless IT mandates it or their children do it.
Between Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, IE 5, 6, 7, and now 8, Netscape, Opera, and the plethora of other web browsers out there, W3C standards and ACID tests one thing is clear: Flash or XAML have fewer implementations than X/HTML, and flash is the winner here by longevity. With REST-ful sites and Flash and XAML and JavaScript based web apps, we have hit a point where making web pages really is back to coding, and the platforms are all powerful, complicated, and you need to test on them all or take the Microsoft/Hotmail approach - limit the non-tested browsers to a poorer experience and nag the customers to switch (i.e. Chrome visiting hotmail).
I like some aspects of Chrome, in particular the process isolation and tearable tabs. The download mechanism seems broken to me - consuming browser real estate for downloaded files after they finish. The loss of the mouse wheel button to scroll around is the loss of my favorite navigation mechanism. "Incognito mode" is nice - at the same time that IE8 brings out the same feature - both lagged behind other browsers, but it's a nice feature.
Application mode is something that I just don't get - having a shortcut to an "app" like GMail is nice, but what if I want to click a link? Not having an addressbar in the web browser is akin to not having a carriage return in a word processor.
<p>D
Drtydogg
I speak English and I do not appreciate being pushed to learn Iconese; all those pretty icons do not improve function they just take up space. Caveman used pictures to communicate because he had no spoken/written language; why are we going backwards?
I have tried IE7 several times and keep going back to IE6; not for the sake of resistance but because it better fits my needs.