Justin Carmony » Google

Google Apps Dropping IE 6

Justin Carmony — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:16:59 +0000

This morning I found this email in my inbox. I use Google Apps to host my email and calendars, which works really slick and is fabulous. Here is the email:

Dear Google Apps admin,

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology. This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5. As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser. We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience. We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

The Google Apps team

For all Web Developers around the world, we should all be rejoicing! Having a large internet giant telling its consumers to “drop IE 6″ and other older browsers will make all our lives easy. I remember while working on a very large site, we used PNG images sparely for some background images. The deadline was extremely tight, but we were (barely) on schedule. Out of the blue I get an email forwarded to me from the marketing director for the client, and it went something like this:

Why are all the backgrounds looking nothing like the mock? Its all a funny blue.

Of course, the Marketing Director had IE 6. Whats worse, is that he was working for a very large computer technology business. We had to drop everything and apply ugly IE 6 hacks to enable PNG support. At the time, I tried explaining that the browser he was using was released while I was still in highschool, but he didn’t understand. Hopefully now the big internet giants will start telling people “Get off IE 6.” Once people adapt better browsers, the more we can do with the web.

Google Wave Jargon

Justin Carmony — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 18:55:57 +0000

I got my new Google Wave Demo Account. It is very, very alpha, but the concept is pretty awesome. I saw a funny “wave” and thought I would share.

Here is a list of Evolving Google Wave Terminology:

Sea Sick When a wave is way too busy with activity, causing dizziness

Wavejacking When you post a wave and someone hijacks the contents to where it no longer resembles the original idea

Ocean/Beach/Treasure Chest! New Name for the Inbox

Ocean New Name for the Wave Server

Puddle A private conversation

Lake A private conversation with a lot of people

Puddle Jumper Someone who has lots of private conversations at the same time, for the Atlantis Fans

Drip Stupid question no one answers

Borking Putting stupid bots in the wave. (aka The Swedish Chef or rickrolley or the borkforceone bot)

Borked A wave that has been destroyed by useless bots.

De-Borking Getting rid of stupid bots in a wave.

Fishing Finding Waves which interest you

Tidal Wave/Overflow A wave that is too busy and you get the “Wave of Death” message

Tsunami A wave that insta-crashes the client.

Tuna AKA Spam

Dyke/Dike Spamfilter

Waveticate Appropriate behavior on waves

Wavepocalypse – Point at which a wave turns from conversation to group free-for-all.

Rip Tide When someone jumps into an edit and starts changing the point (or arguing with you)

Why Google Chrome is Good for FireFox

Justin Carmony — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:50:31 +0000

I’ve heard time after time people saying how FireFox might take a backseat to Google Chrome. However, I actually think Chrome and FireFox will benefit from each other. I think FireFox has nothing but to gain from Google Chrome. Let me give you an example why:

My brother Bryce works at Best Buy. They’ve been selling Apple Macs for the last few months and Bryce hates selling them to customers. The reason is people come in, say they want a Mac because they’ve heard so much about them, don’t listening to any suggestions or tips, and just buy it. That would be great, except usually within 1-2 weeks they come back wanting to return their Mac. Why Bryce asks why, one of the classic responses is “Well, I couldn’t find Internet Explorer.” These customers have been so accustomed to doing things their way that they don’t understand how to use anything else.

FireFox’s biggest challenge is getting the word out about FireFox and how it can be used to browse the internet. So many people think the only way you access the internet is through Internet Explorer. The concept of web browsers is just foreign to them. However, if Google, a name they know, introduces a better product than Internet Explorer, people will get the idea of there is more than Internet Explorer. Once people understand there is more to web browsers than Internet Explorer, people will be open to using something like FireFox.

I honestly believe the people who will like Chrome will like it as an alternative to IE. If people like FireFox, I can hardly imagine anyone picking Chrome over FireFox. People love the extensions, themes, performance, and all-around feel of FireFox. I think Chrome will only take a bite out of IE’s, and help people discover FireFox, not anything to take away from FireFox.

Besides, Chrome is Open Source, and if anything really cool shows up in Chrome, FireFox could implement it. So all of your nay-sayers about Chrome being the end of FireFox, I think FireFox will only benefit from the new browser on the market.

Is Google following Microsoft’s footsteps?

Justin Carmony — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:32:01 +0000

With the announcement of their new web browser Google Chrome, is Google starting down the path of Microsoft? I thought I would jot down a few of my thoughts on the subject.

Google is the King of Search, hands down. While it is only #2 ranked website on Alexa, #1 being held by Yahoo, it is the #1 for searching the web and on-line advertising. Yahoo offers a much larger bredth and variety of products, such as games, music, etc. #3 is Google’s billion dollar purchase YouTube.com. Next comes in Microsoft’s Windows Live at the #4 spot.

Google up and till now has always been a “web company.” Almost all of its products have been web based, suchs as Gmail, Google Docs, etc. The few that aren’t are programs that are used to interact with Google’s online product, such as Picasa, Google Earth, Google Desktop, etc. With the annoucement of Google Chrome, that has all changed. In theory, you could use Google Chrome without ever using another Google product.

Now, many people will tell me “dude, its a web browser, google is a web company.” I totally agree, it makes sense. I think that it is great for web developers, as now, if done right, there might be a browser war between Google and Microsoft. While some people might say “What about FireFox and Apple’s Safari?” Yes those browsers have put Microsoft on edge, losing maybe 7-10% of their market share to these alternatives, but Google’s position in the enterprise level is comparitively close to Microsoft’s. Microsoft can feel serious competition and presure from Google. I’m a strong believer that competition brings out the best products, and if Google makes Chrome a great alternative to Internet Explorer, Microsoft will be forced to step up their efforts.

So why am I concerned? I fear that down the road Google might lose it’s focus. I love Google for doing it’s best for web technologies. It’s searching capabilities are fantastic. I just hope that it stays focused. Microsoft got caught up in doing everything for the PC. Just looking at their list of products is enormous, which this list is an incomplete list. What happens? Somehow Microsoft loses focus on Windows Vista and makes it a large, bloated pig. I use Vista, and I have been using it ever since it was first released. I think it has a lot of improvements, but how it could get away with being so slow is beyond me.

Maybe Google can branch out and make great software that isn’t search or web based, but I’d rather have an amazing Google, than an okay Do-Everything company.