Is Google Burying Firefox With User Agent Strings?

[sffvba[e0rt]

I’ve been using Google Chrome for Linux since it was first made available. I use Gmail, Google Docs (now Drive), Google Plus, Google Adsense, Google Analytics, Google Music, and many more. I am the original owner of an original CR-48 Chromebook, having received mine way back in Dec. 2010. I promote Google services at work and have worked hard to point my business’ compass towards their entire suite of offerings. I use a Samsung Nexus S with an official build of Android 4.04 and I’m only interested in official devices moving forward.

At the same time, I have been gently treading a fine line between complete faith and trust in Google and fear of the Orwellian future they are capable of realizing for us all.

Rather than all the pro FF and pro Chrome posts... could some users actually do the same as the author and report there findings. One swallow doesn't make a summer but enough would suggest the season is changing.

edit: I fail @ internet... the link to the original article I quoted above - http://www.thepowerbase.com/2012/05/is-google-burying-firefox-with-user-agent-strings/ ... Sorry *facepalm*


404

[grahammechanical]

The Google Company and the Mozilla Foundation have two different aims in life. Are the people running Google planning world domination? I do not know but I do think that they are more likely competing against a couple of other corporations that do seem to be intent on world domination than competing specifically against Mozilla.

We might just as well worry about Google producing a Desktop OS and its effect on Ubuntu as worry about Chrome pushing Firefox off the desktop.

Regards.

[SeijiSensei]

I'm not sure exactly what it is you want us to do. The quote you cited listed a bunch of Google products. Do you want us to sign up for these? If so, I'll decline. If not, what specifically are you trying to determine? And what does that list of products have to do with User Agent strings?

[vasa1]

I'm not sure exactly what it is you want us to do. The quote you cited listed a bunch of Google products. Do you want us to sign up for these? If so, I'll decline. If not, what specifically are you trying to determine? And what does that list of products have to do with User Agent strings?

Agreed. I don't understand the first post, a link seems to be missing, and the relevance to UA strings isn't clear.

Anyway, someone interested in UA strings may want to look at this shameless self-promotion:
Putting "Ubuntu" into my browser's user agent string (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=11481979&postcount=1)

[vasa1]

The missing link?
http://opensource.cipto.us/is-google-burying-firefox-with-user-agent-strings/277/

And what's described is certainly not my experience using Firefox.

I would say that something's very, very wrong with that poor guy's set-up ;)

[SeijiSensei]

And what's described is certainly not my experience using Firefox.

Nor mine. I do find it now can take an annoyingly long time to follow many links from a Google search because they first go to Google and then to the ultimate destination. However I don't encounter server resets the way the author of that article reports.

[chugtairizwan]

I don't think so Google will ever take this step.:p

[Dry Lips]

I think Not found forgot to post the link to the article he referred to...

Here it is:
http://www.thepowerbase.com/2012/05/is-google-burying-firefox-with-user-agent-strings/



Edit:
Vasa1 beat me to it.

And I haven't experienced anything like this either. But anyway there was one very interesting
observation in the article:

"It seems that Google services such as Adsense are able to detect that it is indeed being accessed from Chrome, regardless of the user agent being broadcast."

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Edit2:I found a really interesting discussion about this article here:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3934868

[zombifier25]

Anyway, someone interested in UA strings may want to look at this shameless self-promotion:
Putting "Ubuntu" into my browser's user agent string (http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=11481979&postcount=1)

Or better yet: use referrer. You can put random stuffs into your referrer and scare the heck out of webmasters viewing their logs :P
(some site may not work it your referrer is not a valid website)

[fontis]

I'm not sure I completely agree with the sentiment of some fanboys.
The truth of the matter is that Google has produced superior products in comparison to what the rest of the competition, now whether or not they plan for world domination seems a bit like a drastic argument.

I mean, I used to be an avid Firefox user for so many years, and then Chrome was released and it was (in my opinion) just so much better. Just as Gmail knocked away all the other free email providers when it was released. This doesn't mean that all Google services are amazing, I think G+ is a great initiative but it's a terrible service in its current form and in no way near challenging anything remotely close to Facebook/Twitter. But on the other hand you have Android which is simply so much more superior to the rest of the competition as well.

My point is, they have products and services which turn out to be great but they also do have a great deal of things that just fail horribly like Google Wave. At the end of the day, I'm very excited and happy about the fact that they are constantly trying to provide the best experience possible. And as much as I love to be supporting something oldskool, truth is that if something blatantly better comes along then it's simply up to the product at hand (i.e. Firefox) to step up their game and be better.

It's just the natural evolution of software & services. I mean 15 years ago I loved ICQ and I used it all the time, then MSN messenger had a huge boom and ICQ lacked a great deal of what MSN had and it just fell off. If you're not constantly tweaking and being innovative with your software, then somewhere along the line someone will come along who does it better.

[forrestcupp]

I can say that after a recent 12.04 update a few days ago, my Firefox became extremely slow. Typing things in text boxes, like for Facebook or the forums, became very annoyingly sluggish. I actually switched to Chromium just because of that, and Chromium is snappy and not sluggish.

I don't know if it's being caused by Google, but I do know that Firefox all of the sudden became almost unusable for me.

[vasa1]

Or better yet: use referrer. You can put random stuffs into your referrer and scare the heck out of webmasters viewing their logs :P
(some site may not work it your referrer is not a valid website)
That was not my intent. It was to include Ubuntu in the string as opposed to plain Linux.

[vasa1]

...
[/I]Edit2:I found a really interesting discussion about this article here:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3934868
Hmm ... standard internet "discussion", AFAICT.

[vasa1]

... but I do know that Firefox all of the sudden became almost unusable for me.

Time for a new profile?

[sffvba[e0rt]

Sorry about not adding the link... My intention was for someone that uses these services and have the browser to try it out. I also suspect that this is just something funky with the authors set up but seeing as this isn't something that is to difficult to prove or disprove I thought that someone out there has the time (as I don't :/).


404

[CharlesA]

Sorry about not adding the link... My intention was for someone that uses these services and have the browser to try it out. I also suspect that this is just something funky with the authors set up but seeing as this isn't something that is to difficult to prove or disprove I thought that someone out there has the time (as I don't :/).


404

That would be my guess as well.

I haven't had any issues with any google services using Firefox.

This is what it shows up for me:

Precise Box:

Your User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:12.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/12.0

Windows Box:

Your User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:12.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/12.0