WebKit, the new IE6

elapsed · Feb 13, 2012

Not so long ago, IE6 was the over-dominant browser on the Web. Technically, the Web was full of works-only-in-IE6 web sites and the other browsers, the users were crying. IE6 is dead, this time is gone, and all browsers vendors including Microsoft itself rejoice. Gone? Not entirely... IE6 is gone, the problem is back.

WebKit, the rendering engine at the heart of Safari and Chrome, living in iPhones, iPads and Android devices, is now the over-dominant browser on the mobile Web and technically, the mobile Web is full of works-only-in-WebKit web sites while other browsers and their users are crying. Many sites are sniffing the browser's User-Agent string and filtering out non-WebKit browsers. As in the past with IE6, it's not a question of innovation but a question of hardware market dominance and software bundled with hardware. But there is an aspect of the problem we did not have during the IE6 era: these web sites are also WebKit-specific because they use only "experimental" CSS properties prefixed with -webkit-* and not their Mozilla, Microsoft or Opera counterparts. So even if the browser sniffing goes away, web sites will remain broken for non-WebKit browsers...

In many if not most cases, the -webkit-* properties WebKit-specific web sites are using do have -moz-*, -ms-*, -o-* equivalents. Gradients, Transforms, Transitions, Animations, border-radius, all interoperable enough to be browser-agnostic. Their web authors need only a few minutes to make the site compatible with Mozilla, Microsoft or Opera. But they never did it.

Without your help, without a strong reaction, this can lead to one thing only and we're dangerously not far from there: other browsers will start supporting/implementing themselves the -webkit-* prefix, turning one single implementation into a new world-wide standard. It will turn a market share into a de facto standard, a single implementation into a world-wide monopoly. Again. It will kill our standardization process. That's not a question of if, that's a question of when.
Click to expand...

http://www.glazman.org/weblog/dotcl...9/CALL-FOR-ACTION:-THE-OPEN-WEB-NEEDS-YOU-NOW

vasa1 · Feb 13, 2012

"Many sites are sniffing the browser's User-Agent string and filtering out non-WebKit browsers." I'll believe that when it happens to me.

elapsed · Feb 13, 2012

I feel one of the contributing factors is the snail-like speed that it takes to push out new specifications and make them official. It doesn't help when the web browser vendors are trying to move faster than the web can make specifications for them to support. Once a certain specification has been made official, the vendor prefix is no longer needed.

vasa1 said:

"Many sites are sniffing the browser's User-Agent string and filtering out non-WebKit browsers." I'll believe that when it happens to me.
Click to expand...

Sorry to disappoint you, but while you nor I have encountered them, it doesn't mean they don't exist. Neither of us are the "typical internet surfer". For starters, we both implement URL based blocklists. Also, someone with a fast internet connection is going to do far, far more browsing than someone who's reminded of their speed every time they try to use it.

vasa1 · Feb 13, 2012

"Many sites are sniffing ..."
"... but while you nor I have encountered them, it doesn't mean they don't exist."
It's quite possible, even if it isn't probable, that these many sites do exist and that it is purely down to my incompetence or other personal reasons that I don't see them often. I won't even question the existence of the Loch Ness thingy. But what I do question is the value of blogs and tech sites that resort to hyperbole.

All the same, I don't like the thought of browser-specific stuff making a comeback.

There are internal uses though! I use "@-moz-document domain/URL" to style certain pages to my liking.

Cudni · Feb 14, 2012

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