Do you remember the news about Y2K, the approaching digital chaos of the year 2000? It was said that most of the old systems would break down due to the change of the first digit of the year; from 1 to 2. But in real life, almost nothing happened. Now, there seems to be a similar problem approaching the browsers and the websites.
Happened before might happen again
At the beginning of November, Google has shared the possible problems about the upcoming version of Chrome, 100. Google Chrome 100 is going to be released in March 2022. The company is now warning users and website owners about getting ready for the three-digit browser versions.
The User-Agent parsing libraries caused tons of errors when the web browsers had reached a two-digit version: 10. The same might happen on the older websites with version 100 of the browsers. And Google is not alone in getting that version number; Firefox and Edge are also about to release new versions in the upcoming months, or maybe at the beginning of 2023.
The User-Agent string consists of the information of the browser and other software components, and they are being sent to every website user makes a connection. It includes the exact version of the browser too. Google also considers using 99.100.xxx as future versions instead of directly releasing versions 100.xxx to prevent possible problems.
How to check if your website is ready for Chrome 100?
Google has included a new flag into the latest version of its browser. The flag changes the User-Agent string as if the browser is already in version 100, so the webmasters can check if their website crashes or not. To use the flag, first, copy the string below to your Chrome’s address section and press enter:
chrome://flagsNow click the search section at the top and write “100”. You will see the “Force major version to 100 in User-Agent” option below. Change its state from “Default” to “Enabled”, then restart Google Chrome.
Now you can check your website if it is ready for three-digit browser versions.