Tell HN: Go to Google with IE, it offers Chrome DL, but not from Firefox | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: Go to Google with IE, it offers Chrome DL, but not from Firefox

If you go to the Google home page it offers an icon and a Chrome download direct link if you are using Internet Explorer but not if you are running Firefox.

I tried it on two different machines. Interesting.

View on HN

I have actually seen this once or twice on FireFox (well I recall seeing it and I only use Chrome and Firefox :) so it must have been FF).

One thing I have noticed (but cant verify this properly) is that since I used Chrome on this IP address the ad has disappeared. I could be wrong though - but I definitely cant reproduce the ad in any version of IE, FIrefox or Opera right now.

Use a web proxy to troubleshoot IP issues

If you try changing your user-agent, you will see that it only shows up for IE6&IE7 but not for IE8. Maybe it is showing up for the older less CSS compliant browsers.

But switching to older versions of Firefox doesn't show the Chrome download though - so it could indeed have to do with some agreement with Mozilla.

FWIW, Google provides most of the funding for the Mozilla corporation.

http://www.betanews.com/article/Google-extends-its-investmen...

But why doesn't it offer an Opera download? What about Safari?

I did not search for anything, just went to the homepage.

So you tell me.

Opera: While there were times when Opera was a decent broswer (the pre-Mozilla Suite era), these days it can be a real pain to maintain support for Opera as it has the tendency to do the dodgiest things at the most unexpected times and the small userbase just doesn't motive many web developers to work around these problems, hence offering it as an alternative to IE6 maybe isn't a very good idea as a considerably large amount of pages are broken in Opera.

Safari: We're talking about IE6, so we have established that this is on Windows. Safari is a great browser but it's not a very great experience on Windows, the UI looks out-of-place, the fonts look weird (for users used to Windows font rendering), etc. I honestly don't think that it's a wise thing to suggest Safari for Windows users still using IE6, especially since the release of Google Chrome. (But I wouldn't hesitate to suggest it to anyone using OS X.)

> as a considerably large amount of pages are broken in Opera.

Prove it.

Here you go:

A Google search for "firefox compatibility" yields 3,840,000 results while Firefox having 47.9% "market share".

Search for "chrome compatibility" yields 1,460,000 results while having 6.5% share.

Search for "safari compatibility" yields 2,800,000 results while having 3.3% share.

Search for "opera compatibility" yields 2,450,000 results, 2.1% share.

I know that opera is the oldest participant in this list so it had more time to accumulate these results, but still, these (not at all scientific) numbers are highlighting that there are relatively more compatibility issues with opera than with other browsers.

Not only the oldest participant, but also the only participant old enough to have been around during the IE monopoly. And then there's the people just parroting each other without any first-hand experience.

This is not proof. This is not even an indication. You have yet to show a single (real) site where compatibility issues with Opera arise, let alone "a considerably large amount of pages".

Why would google advertise a competing browser? This is shown on the blank home page before your run a search query.

one of the nice advantages of Chrome (well - or disadvantage if you are the IT administration) is that the installation is very likely to succeed even in corporate environments.

Chrome doesn't need administrative privileges to install and run.

So all these people stuck with IE6 in the office actually have a chance ad running a more modern browser if they download Chrome than any other browser.

Yeah. Firefox portable exists, but I can understand if they stick to the more "official" browsers.

Clearly they need to put in a browser download choser so you can propperly select a browser you like. Obviously google is a monopoly and "google chrome" is too familiar a name, should be changed to something different.

</sarcasm>

On a side note I love almost everything about chrome. Eept that it's dom inspector can't deal with frames.

Well my Firefox is current so perhaps the conspiracy is not as huge as I thought originally.

I saw it before that in IE6 few times.

In my Win7, IE8 I never saw it!!

Which versions of IE?

Six

If you go with IE 8 it has a download option for Google Toolbar

Chrome in IE 6 Google Toolbar in IE 8

Sorry, but this isn't true. I am constantly testing cross browser issues every day and I have seen the chrome download ad on google.com in ie, safari, and ff at one time or another. I work on a Mac and have even seen it then.

I commented below that it is triggered by the age not brand of the browser. My bad.

"Well my Firefox is current so perhaps the conspiracy is not as huge as I thought originally."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com