GOOG-MSFT pissing match

[unixronin]

So Microsoft's Hotmail service and Google's Chrome browser have had this compatibility problem.  Google just pushed out a minor patch to Chrome to make it fake a Safari useragent string when talking to *.mail.live.com, which turns out to be all that's necessary to fix the problem.

But what's funny is the resulting pissing match...

• [Google]  We got tired of waiting for MS to fix their web page, so we fixed the BROWSER because that was quicker.  Which is so wrong.

• [Microsoft]  Hey!  We have a lot of users on Hotmail.  It's a major web service.  It takes time to roll out a change to a service this big.

• [Google]  Uh ... dude.  We, like, have this web site, you know.  We update it all the time.  You might have heard of it...?

(paraphrased)

Comments

[otherbill.livejournal.com]

Yes, but now Microsoft doesn't have to fix their web page. This will just encourage them to be equally sloppy in the future, as they know other companies will clean up their messes for them.

:-(

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, they do claim they're rolling out a fix now.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

It is not sloppy! Setting up a page to break when viewed by a non-approved browser is deliberate. Micro$oft has been doing it for years with their services. It is a blatant tactic to delay the adoption of competing products. That the fix is so simple and obvious is an indictment of the sophistication of their programming abilities.

[ttocs.livejournal.com]

I love your paraphrase.

[masgramondou.livejournal.com]

Pity Google just had a bit of an anti-Malware massive FAIL today though... it does kind of hit the " Uh ... dude. We, like, have this web site, you know. We update it all the time. You might have heard of it...?" line. Although since they apparently fixed their booboo in about half an hour I guess they do have some fairly good migration/rollback practices.