The publication cycle of the Chrome browser, which was recently shortened from six to four weeks, could turn out to be problematic with a view to version 100 expected in spring 2022, as Google has admitted as part of its Chromium Bug Tracker. Apparently, various content management systems (CMS) and website builders such as Duda are not set to three-digit version numbers when they determine the installed version of a requesting browser via the user agent string.
Well-known problems reissued
There were already comparable difficulties when the first browsers switched from one to two-digit version numbers. Google therefore prepared itself at an early stage for possible problems with the three-digit version numbers and created an opportunity to test them in the course of the Chrome 96 preview. With Canary Release 96, web developers received the option to activate a 100 user agent via flag. To do this, “Force major version to 100 in User-Agent” had to be activated in the “chrome: // flags” settings.
Chrome 100: Result of the browser version check via the user agent string.
The tests that have been carried out since then and the bug reports collected via Web Compat have shown, however, that Chrome 100 will cause problems with an apparently not inconsiderable number of websites worldwide, since in many cases the reading of the browser’s user agent string only relates to the the first two digits of the version number. With some probability, the consequence is that the websites concerned block access if web developers fail to parse the three-digit version numbers correctly before Chrome 100 is published.
Looking for a solution
Time is of the essence. Even if Chrome is currently only officially released in stable version 96, the Canary releases, which give developers an early access build and test options for new functions, are about to switch to version number 100. From Chrome Canary 100 in January until the stable release only remains for a few months.
Google wants to find a solution to the problem. At least for older websites, where the probability of an upgrade is low, Chrome should first lock the first two digits to 99 and insert the actual version number into the second digit sequence of the user agent string.
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