Yeah they do a lot of stuff. I think the reason people feel they don't is that their coming and goings are largely enveloped behind the green paper curtain. They do put things out there more than people give them credit for, but we are often not aware of them because of a natural schism between the consensus of a world-view and the forays of a dominant corporate machine. Regardless... the two organisms are really different faces of the same entity and should be treated as such if we are to experience the maximum reward from it's cumulative knowledge, which after-all is the primary purpose of the Internet in the first place.

Google getting behind HTML 5 is probably going to force Microsoft's hands quite a bit. I can't imagine Google rolling out a bunch of new RIA features and having them break in IE, it would look terrible for Microsoft.

It's difficult because Google needs to compromise themselves enough to work for the IE majority. If they break too much then people won't get Chrome. They'll stop using Google.

Or they could just keep legacy versions around for IE users and entice them to upgrade with promises of new features, better UIs, more eye-candy, etc. Best of both worlds for Google.

What and start using Bing and Hotmail? get real...

That's a stupid argument. Would people stop using Gmail if it refused to work for IE6/7/8? Yes. They would stop instantly.

Where the hell did Bing come in? Some people use Google Search and Hotmail. You're not locked into a company. Furthermore, this was never about search, this was about more complex applications. If Google Search told you to download Chrome or else you couldn't use it, you can fucking bet users would start using Yahoo. Laziness trumps everything else. That's why I use Mibbit rather than downloading an IRC client.

Hotmail leads Gmail by 13 million uniques. Gmail is the fourth-largest service. Just because it's the best doesn't mean it's the most popular.

Real enough for you?

No, IMHO they wouldn't. What do you think the browser share is for GMail? I'd say likely 40% or so on IE at the very most. If that. If they stopped supporting IE, some of those would stop using gmail, but a large number would upgrade to a standards compliant browser. They'd still be left with maybe 80% of their original users.

>> That's why I use Mibbit rather than downloading an IRC client.

You have good taste ;) FYI, On Mibbit, IE usage is at 26%, and falling.

In webapps, IE is a very small minority, and falling fast.

But Mibbit appeals to a very niche technical community. Gmail's market share is less than 20%, if I recall correctly.

A lot of people using IE right now are either forced to use it for corporate purposes - my mother has to use it on her laptop - or they're completely illiterate. If something messes up, they'll see it as Gmail breaking.

The solution is graceful degradation, but that won't force people to switch.