Google Apps to stop supporting older browsers

Google Apps is to stop supporting all but the two most recent major releases of the Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari browsers.

On Wednesday, Google engineering vice president Venkat Panchapakesan posted a blog saying that, from 1 August, "Google Apps will only support modern browsers". On that date, support will be discontinued for Firefox 3.5, IE7, Safari 3 and their predecessors, and the same policy will continue into the future on a rolling basis.

Old Chrome versions were not named in his post, presumably because Google's browser constantly updates itself without user intervention.

"For web applications to spring even farther ahead of traditional software, our teams need to make use of new capabilities available in modern browsers," Panchapakesan wrote. "For example, desktop notifications for Gmail and drag-and-drop file upload in Google Docs require advanced browsers that support HTML5. Older browsers just don't have the chops to provide you with the same high-quality experience."

Panchapakesan explained that older browsers may also eventually make it impossible to use certain features of Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Sites.

"If it's been a while since your last update, we encourage you to get the latest version of your favourite browser," he added.