There is potentially a critical difference here. The "We don't support IE" mini-movement was a reaction to Microsoft's refusal to use the web standards that every other major browser supported. In this case, it appears to me (admittedly without research) that Google's motivations must be different, and two possibilities spring to mind: (1) Google doesn't like the competition from Firefox or (2) the Play store uses non-standard features not supported by Firefox's overwhelmingly standards compliant browser. If either of these is the case, we've got a very different situation, potentially one in which Google has begun to play the part of Microsoft, implementing and using their own non-standard features, even if it's in a less intrusive and less inconvenient way.
Not really. Since IE10 a lot of the standards argument has been bunk and I've run into a lot of sites lately that tell me, "Oh this html5 feature is only on Chrome, so use that" when I use Firefox. Or if I'm using IE11 for work, suddenly I hit a site that either tells me to get lost or warns me that I'll get a better experience with Chrome.
The problem is we let web culture degenerate into a "my browser or the highway" attitude thanks to the fuel uber-geeks poured on the IE6 fire. Now we're constantly reaping this negativity. I won't even go into the issues I've had with Opera, AOSP browser, dolphin, midori, and others. This "my browser or the highway" attitude is still very strong and we need to stop pretending its a legitimate way to manage the web. No wonder people are clamoring for walled-garden app stores and dumbed down apps. Maybe they're sick of the geek-led browser wars that flare up every so often. Google knows this and is using this to its advantage with its long-range plan to lock people onto its proprietary Android-based services. Now here's another reason to not use Firefox and to stick with Chrome.
> Google knows this and is using this to its advantage with its long-range plan to lock people onto its proprietary Android-based services. Now here's another reason to not use Firefox and to stick with Chrome.
Based on your argument, I think it's time for the opposite.. stick with Firefox
I hate to repeat this, but it's just not true. I see far, far less "use this browser" enforcement that used to be prevalent on the web. Yes – some advanced demos are Chrome- or FireFox– only in particular, but using these as a yardstick to measure the web in general is broken.
> a reaction to Microsoft's refusal to use the web
> standards that every other major browser supported
Take your points, but in fact, Microsoft didn't refuse to support web standards.
IE6 was more standards-compliant than Netscape when it came out. The main problem was that Microsoft stopped developing browsers (for complicated reasons that must include the US anti-trust suits). That put it years behind in standards support.
Then when it started to catch up (with new browsers in Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8), it couldn't move users on to later more standards-compliant browsers, even though it tried.
Might have to try it then. Google Chrome for Android's handling of intents is really annoying. Sometimes I have to tell it to open a link in the browser rather than the associated app three or more times, as it redirects between different pages or domains and prompts again for each one.
I've never had issues with intents on Firefox for android, including in the play store. If there are issues, then users of Firefox chose to take them on. Who knows, maybe they value their software freedoms more than the ability to open a link in a different app.
