Re:IE11 on Windows 8.1 - Google Search loads in legacy mode
by joombar on Saturday October 19, 2013 @01:31PM
(#6577094)
Two different user agent strings for one version of one browser? That can change at any moment based on a list the site authors don't control? There's no way that'd ever confuse things!
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:IE11 on Windows 8.1 - Google Search loads in legacy mode
by lucideer on Saturday October 19, 2013 @02:35PM
(#6577310)
Which is precisely why good web developers never trust user agents. Because they confuse things and cause bugs like this.
It's lazy/incompetent practice, which shouldn't really excusable for such a supposed massive advocate of web standards. MS are no shining example, but it's pot calling kettle black.
Definitely a Google bug - a long standing one
Re:IE11 on Windows 8.1 - Google Search loads in legacy mode
by esrauch on Saturday October 19, 2013 @11:38PM
(#6578855)
There are several reasons why UA detection is relevant where feature detection fails. The first is that you can serve prebuilt js binaries that have only the relevant logic for the requesting browser; strictly smaller js files for every user since you aren't serving irrelevant js.
Some things aren't feature detectable, like actual weird bugs in behavior that need browser specific workarounds.
In this case it looks like MS has the domain listed for their fallback mode, which doesn't just change the UA but actually changes the browser behavior (IE9 in IE8 mode has no canvas support and will fail the feature detection for canvas appropriately).