This has been brewing for a while and there have been some prior unofficial signs but now it’s official, Google is deprecating Gears in favor of HTML5. Kudos to Google for contributing to HTML5 standard.

Somehow this page make it to be the first result in Google when searching for Facebook. Hilarity ensued. Apparently many people don’t understand how a url works. They just type Facebook into Google and click on the first result. This is a fascinating indicator of the true power of Google and how Google search has become the primary way that many people experience the web.

Google has officially dropped support for IE6 in Google apps (Docs, Calendar, Tasks, Gmail, etc). As a developer I can say: About time! With a little help and encouragement maybe IE 6 will die.

Some pundits are saying that this is may turn into a mistake give that many enterprise and corporations are slow to upgrade from IE 6 to more modern browsers. I think it’s a calculated move my Google to be on the leading edge of technology without making concessions to late or slow adopters. Not to mention they would love for Google Chrome to rule the browser market. This news adds a small amount of pressure on Microsoft but more than that it makes a statement that Google is not going to pin it’s destiny on the inequities that exist but rather they are taking charge and making moves that will ensure the best web experience.

Dear Google Apps admin,​

In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance, we are harnessing some of the latest improvements in web browser technology.  This includes faster JavaScript processing and new standards like HTML5.  As a result, over the course of 2010, we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010.  After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar.

Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

Starting this week, users on these older browsers will see a message in Google Docs and the Google Sites editor explaining this change and asking them to upgrade their browser.  We will also alert you again closer to March 1 to remind you of this change.

In 2009, the Google Apps team delivered more than 100 improvements to enhance your product experience.  We are aiming to beat that in 2010 and continue to deliver the best and most innovative collaboration products for businesses.
Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,
The Google Apps team