Wednesday, April 25, 2012

SRSLY?

I had something different in mind for this post, but I really just want to make everyone aware of one thing right at this moment: Apparently, Blogger no longer supports Internet Explorer. If I want to use Blogger and actually be able to do things like tag posts, change fonts, or put in links, I have to use a different browser...and while Blogger isn't suggesting I change to any specific different browser, why hey! They're a Google-owned product that just happens to work really well in Google Chrome!

The problem is, of course, that I'm not in a location where I can just download Google Chrome. I'm blogging this on my break at work, and I don't think that my helpdesk would take it kindly if I asked them if I could download a new browser for blogging at work. I'm somewhat upset that Google deliberately made changes to their entirely functional blogging software that they knew would break it if it was used on anyone else's products but their own, purely as a strong-arm tactic to get people to switch to their browser. It seems like a striking violation of their "Don't be evil" mission statement, and I want people to know about it. Normal blogging service, or something like it, will resume tomorrow.

7 comments:

Tyler said...

To completely miss the point for a moment, I think Blogger can be figured to post by email. Then you could write posts in email. On sending, they go up on the blog.

Tyler said...

But that doesn't address your concerns about labels, linking or images, so never mind.

Kelly Sedinger said...

I've never had a problem with IE and Blogger on my work computers...but you can always try using Portable Chrome on a flash drive on your office computer. Here's how you do it: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/20006/run-portable-chrome-from-your-flash-drive-on-any-windows-machine/

Anonymous said...

Funny, it looks exactly the same in IE as a commenter.

Is it actually preventing functionality in IE, or have they stopped supporting, e.g., IE 6.0 specifically?

John Seavey said...

It might be specifically the version they use at my job (IE 7), but as with the suggestion of using a flash drive with Google Chrome on it, it's really kind of irrelevant to my current position. I can't upgrade to a newer version of IE, install another browser, or even plug in a flash drive with my own software without violating my work's information security policy...and I don't think that it's such an unfair or restrictive policy that I want to try to break it just so I can blog on my lunch breaks. I'll just deal with the browser issue as best I can, blog from home, and be quietly irritated with Google. :)

DeeB said...

Thank you, Kelly, for that link. It might come in handy for me someday! :)

Anonymous said...

Well, my point is more, if Blogger is no longer supporting an obsolete browser version, and suggesting you get a different browser, of course they're going to pimp Chrome. It's not evil conspiracy, it's just... well, maintaining functionality on old platforms kinda sucks, and there's vanishingly little reason to do it in an age of broadband and free browsers a-go-go. It's not evil, just unfortunate.

I mean, if they neutered the current version of IE, that's a bit of a silly move, but if the worst effect is people being less able to blog on company property... I think it's hard to complain too strenuously.