Web opening like anything in life has some common obstacles. A regular challenge I face is trying to convince websites there is enough business value to include Firefox OS in their user agent (UA) detection. In most cases this means they are excluding Firefox OS from receiving mobile optimized content that other browsers receive. The arguments against can vary but tend to touch on Firefox OS not having enough marketshare to be relevant. Although I don’t necessarily agree with their decisions, I can understand their perspective. There’s pressure to make deadlines, fix bugs and I’m sure a million other things. Ensuring the website works with every device and browser under the sun is crazy right?
The ironic thing is most of the time the site works well on FFOS and usually better than the desktop version of the site too. But because of its user agent, it gets excluded. Firefox on Android seems to have better results, not surprisingly due to the word “Android” in its UA. Mike Taylor has done great work with getting frameworks to support Firefox OS. The challenge now is getting websites to update to the latest version and also trying to find sites with custom UA detection code.
There is a lot of UA detection happening on the web and this worries me. The web is coming to all kinds of new devices including cheaper smartphones, tablets, cars and TVs. The tech is exciting to see grow at such a staggering rate but some of these new devices will face similar challenges. Do they fake who they are to get served the right content? Or risk the users potentially having poor experiences on the web with their new product?
Maybe the argument will change over time. As mobile becomes the primary way we access the web, the business value in providing exclusive content to certain browsers/devices while ignoring others should hopefully diminish.