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Google phases out IE7 support

- By - Source : Google

Google discontinued support for IE6 a little over a year ago. Now it's IE7's turn.

Google has said that IE7 would no longer be supported in its apps as of August 1 of this year. Users may find some features missing from their apps if they are using IE7 and the app may eventually not work at all anymore in this browser. Google said that it would also phase out support for Firefox 3.5 and Safari 3.

As a rule of thumb, Google apps such as Gmail, Calendar, Docs and Talk will only support the two latest versions of a browser, which would be IE9 and IE8 in Microsoft's case or Firefox 4 and 3.6 for Mozilla. Google justified this move mainly with the need to move to newer web technologies such as HTML5, which isn't supported by older browsers. "Older browsers just don’t have the chops to provide you with the same high-quality experience," the company wrote in a blog post.

Whether you like it or not, you will have to keep your browser somewhat up to date, if you want to use Google's apps. Chrome users, of course, don't have to worry as they are updated automatically, but this new policy could be a real pain in the neck, especially for IE users, who tend not to regularly update their browser.

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bourgeoisdude 06/03/2011 9:30 PM
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Shouldn't be the same problem as the previous version. As far as compatibility goes, for the most part anyway, if you've moved past IE6 there is no reason to not jump to at least version 8.

geraldfryjr 06/03/2011 9:33 PM
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geraldfryjr 06/03/2011 9:42 PM
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santfu 06/03/2011 9:54 PM
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you don't have to use ie on xp....

hellwig 06/03/2011 10:15 PM
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santfu :
you don't have to use ie on xp....


Unless you work for a business that both forces you to use IE AND Google Docs (that would be wierd, but not unheard of). On my work computer, I'm actually blocked-off from the Google Docs sites (we can't share sensitive information with Googles servers), but I AM stuck with IE7 (which I had to install myself last year, the computer CAME with IE6). When McAfee System Defender *snicker* isn't bogging down my machine, it actually scans for .EXE files for known programs (like Firefox and Opera) and DELETES them. I have to restore my Opera .EXE file every morning (I used to store it on a Flash drive, but they eventually found it there and deleted that too).

Anyway, long story short, this shouldn't affect most home users (if they haven't bothered to Update XP past SP1, I doubt they know how to use Google Docs), but some businesses might have to re-think their absurd ID strategies, if they use IE-dependant web interfaces AND Google Docs.

11796pcs 06/03/2011 10:44 PM
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hellwig :
Unless you work for a business that both forces you to use IE AND Google Docs (that would be wierd, but not unheard of). On my work computer, I'm actually blocked-off from the Google Docs sites (we can't share sensitive information with Googles servers), but I AM stuck with IE7 (which I had to install myself last year, the computer CAME with IE6). When McAfee System Defender *snicker* isn't bogging down my machine, it actually scans for .EXE files for known programs (like Firefox and Opera) and DELETES them. I have to restore my Opera .EXE file every morning (I used to store it on a Flash drive, but they eventually found it there and deleted that too). Anyway, long story short, this shouldn't affect most home users (if they haven't bothered to Update XP past SP1, I doubt they know how to use Google Docs), but some businesses might have to re-think their absurd ID strategies, if they use IE-dependant web interfaces AND Google Docs.


I'm tellin' ya MS Security Essentials is the way to go! As for Google, I don't like the idea of FF 3.5 and IE8 being phased out in the next 6 months because they seem like they just came out.

2 billion penguins 06/04/2011 12:13 PM
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Not really surprising seeing as both Mozilla and Microsoft are starting to decrease the time between each release. Hell im already using firefox 5.0 beta....

Anonymous 06/04/2011 1:13 AM
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IE and ASP.NET are both the devil. Microsoft tries to make the web proprietary, and ensure that it only works properly on their platform. Thank goodness the real interwebz don't give a flying f*ck about ASP.NET. Maybe people will also stop coding javascript work-arounds for the various versions of IE.

alidan 06/04/2011 2:16 AM
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and here im not upgrading from ff 3.5 because 3.6 has no real value to me, besides making extensions not work, and 4 has a bigger ram footprint, so i cant use it.

dameon51 06/04/2011 3:43 AM
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When I was in IT, I loved that companies supported old browsers. Now that I'm a web dev, I hate it.

the_krasno 06/04/2011 5:08 AM
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hellwig :
Unless you work for a business that both forces you to use IE AND Google Docs (that would be wierd, but not unheard of). On my work computer, I'm actually blocked-off from the Google Docs sites (we can't share sensitive information with Googles servers), but I AM stuck with IE7 (which I had to install myself last year, the computer CAME with IE6). When McAfee System Defender *snicker* isn't bogging down my machine, it actually scans for .EXE files for known programs (like Firefox and Opera) and DELETES them. I have to restore my Opera .EXE file every morning (I used to store it on a Flash drive, but they eventually found it there and deleted that too). Anyway, long story short, this shouldn't affect most home users (if they haven't bothered to Update XP past SP1, I doubt they know how to use Google Docs), but some businesses might have to re-think their absurd ID strategies, if they use IE-dependant web interfaces AND Google Docs.



Your job sucks.

eddieroolz 06/04/2011 7:20 AM
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Nobody should be using IE7 any more anyway. I'm an IE fan but there's no reason not to upgrade, especially when its free.

jescott418 06/04/2011 3:25 PM
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Eventually support for XP will also be dropped. People really need to move on. The Windows side of PC is so much slower adopting a new OS then say the Apple side of OS. Why people stay in the past with XP is such a mystery? IE7 was not much better then IE6. Most users of XP need to drop the century old OS and get onboard with a modern OS and browser.I commend Google for their efforts to nudge people into moving on.

bit_user 06/04/2011 6:28 PM
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I only use Chrome for Google apps, only. That way compatibility is optimized and Google is limited in the ways they can connect my usage of their apps to searches & web browsing I do.

dread_cthulhu 06/05/2011 12:27 PM
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Meh... this is fine... I wouldn't use IE unless I had absolutely NO other option. XP can be phased out too for all I care... it's getting quite outdated

Anonymous 06/05/2011 4:20 AM
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And when IE10 comes out (already in beta), XP IE support will be finished, forcing those businesses stuck on using IE and XP to decide on an upgrade path if they wish to use Google (OS or Browser). Oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth as IT guys are forced to explain to their tech-tarded bosses that they cannot control what Google does, and there is no way to 'just make it work like it did yesterday'...

s997863 06/05/2011 8:07 AM
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All the more reason to continue using IE6, since lately Google's 'features' stink, and I've used IE5 to pleasently find that it forces the old Google page, without the 'everything' tab, without the resource hogging 'instant' or the stupid 'doodle' animations ... :)

The laymen who comment on 'moving on' just for the sake of 'moving on' are killing the industry by encouraging . Experiment a little and you'll find some interesting stuff. Example: on my old P3-600MHz machine, I have XP/98SE dual boot. I installed 3rd party NTFS reader & USB drivers for 98SE, because MS don't support it officially; they 'nudge' people to move on as some morons would commend. Well guess what, in spite of disabling all autorun, indexing ... etc services, my new USB HDD takes many minutes to appear in my XP OS. Is it because of my slow old stone-age computer? I tried it on 98SE, and it's drive icon shows up INSTANTLY in explorer, that's even faster than on core-2-duos!

alidan 06/05/2011 8:56 AM
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jescott418 :
Eventually support for XP will also be dropped. People really need to move on. The Windows side of PC is so much slower adopting a new OS then say the Apple side of OS. Why people stay in the past with XP is such a mystery? IE7 was not much better then IE6. Most users of XP need to drop the century old OS and get onboard with a modern OS and browser.I commend Google for their efforts to nudge people into moving on.



because apple doesnt change EVERYTHING when they "upgrade" their os, even when its a real upgrade and not a .1 increase.

windows was the same feel till vista, but vista and 7 changed the feel not just the look.

i cant !@#$ing believe i just gave apple credit for doing something right.

cookoy 06/05/2011 4:13 PM
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i wish my boss would subscribe to this idea of automatically upgrading my salary so i can experience a high quality existence. Someone forgot Opera again.

fir_ser 06/07/2011 2:55 AM
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This will help Microsoft’s efforts in killing old versions of IE.

Maximus_Delta 06/07/2011 4:32 AM
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I agree, people really need to move on. Windows XP and IE6/7 really are old hat and do seem rather rudimentary now. Windows 7 and an up to date browser running on a modern machine is the very definition of progress, perfectly illustrating just how far we have come. I commend Google for this, doing their bit to nudge the Luddites among us along.