Google Apps to cut off IE7, Firefox 3.5

Nicole Kobie June 10, 2011

Google will stop supporting older browsers, as it continues to push web users to upgrade to the latest versions.

As of 1 August, Google’s web applications will support the most current version of major browsers as well as the one just prior to it.

That means Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7, and Safari 3 and earlier won’t be supported.

Older browsers just don’t have the chops to provide you with the same high-quality experience

“In these older browsers you may have trouble using certain features in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites, and eventually these apps may stop working entirely,” said Venkat Panchapakesan, vice president of engineering, in a post on the Google Docs blog.

“Each time a new version is released, we’ll begin supporting the update and stop supporting the third-oldest version,” Panchapakesan said.

Panchapakesan said such apps need the latest browser technology, such as HTML5, to offer desktop notifications and drag-and-drop folders, for example. “Older browsers just don’t have the chops to provide you with the same high-quality experience,” he said.

According to Net Applications’ latest stats, the move will affect three in ten web users.

Half of those users are on older versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The company has been actively trying to encourage its users to upgrade, introducing an IE6 countdown page in March. Since then, its share has fallen from 12% to 10.9%.