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August 30, 2007

internet

Safari doesn’t support gChat?

Posted Aug. 30, ’07, 10:00 AM PT by Cyrus Farivar
Category | Internet

gchat2.jpgYesterday, I was exchanging rapid-fire emails with a friend in New York. It got to the point where it seemed like it would make much more sense if we just switched to IM. Seeing as she was on a Gmail account, I suggested that we used gChat (Google Talk), the free IM client that’s part of any Gmail account.

However, she couldn’t seem to find how to sign onto gChat. Mystified, I inquired as to what browser she was using — and she told me that she was on Safari, while I was on Firefox.

One quick firing up of my Safari, and I discovered the sad, sad, truth — Safari doesn’t appear to support Saved Searches or the Quick Contacts box on the lower left side. As the picture illustrates, Firefox has those boxes, whereas Safari doesn’t.

Of course, astute readers of this blog will note that this isn’t the first time I’ve pointed out Firefox’s superiority over Safari. Still, if Apple can get just about everything else right, why can’t they do browsers right?


14 Comments

anonymous said:

Furthermore, enriched text formatting isn't supported in the current Safari. BUT...Safari 3 Beta fixes both the issues mentioned in your post, and the enriched text issue.

August 30, 2007 10:34 AM
wesg Author Profile Page said:

What is it about browsers that makes some of them incompatible with certain web features?

August 30, 2007 10:52 AM
David Chartier said:

There's a lot of complex technology that works under the hood of a browser to allow it to do fancy things on the web. This could be the fault of both parties - Safari implements certain kinds of technologies in one way (Gmail relies heavily on javascript, I believe), while Firefox does another. Considering Firefox's popularity over Safari, Google made the obvious decision when building support.

If you pick up Mailplane, however, you can use Gmail and Google Talk as well. It's a Mac OS X desktop app that integrates with Safari for dragging and dropping to email files and other nice features. It's based on WebKit, the same engine Safari is using, but they somehow got Google Talk working in it. (http://mailplaneapp.com)

This is a really, really large discussion though, and the superiority of a browser can't be decided on a couple of features alone. Sure, Firefox has a rich add-on community, but Safari is far lighter in file size and much faster at rendering, which is why it's getting used in a lot of mobile devices like phones and internet tablets instead of Firefox (or its rendering engine, Gecko). Firefox has some unique features, but Safari integrates with Mac OS X for things like scripting and saving passwords in the secure, system-wide and easy to backup Keychain found in Applications/Utilities, where virtually every other app stores logins and passwords.

It comes down to what you need - if Google Talk is a requirement, Safari probably isn't the way to go. If you value speed and OS integration, Safari is likely a much better option. If you value web integration with widgets and add-ons, however, Firefox leaves Safari in the dust.

Different strokes for different folks.

August 30, 2007 11:02 AM
andrew said:

google spreadsheet and docs dont support safari 2 either, but they work on the iphone, which has some variant of safari 3 in it, so compatability might be just a month away

August 30, 2007 11:13 AM
Omer said:

That's odd, because the google talk widget works well in Safari.

But your last line is inappropriate in my opinion - it's not Apple's fault, it's Google's. I don't think Apple changing a few lines of code in Safari will solve the problem, and even if Apple had that ability, it shouldn't do the work for Google. Google are the ones building the road, Apple makes the car. It's google's responsibility to make sure users with different choices to be able to use their product.

August 30, 2007 11:22 AM
Matt Deatherage said:

Interesting state of mind that Cyrus immediately jumps to "Safari can't support" and "Safari can't get it right," when certainly he knows that it is Google's servers that decide what features to expose by consulting a browser's user-agent string.

Add the User Agent Switcher to Firefox and tell it to use Safari's user-agent string instead, and guess what? Suddenly Firefox "doesn't support" those same features? Why can't Mozilla get browsers right?

Oh, wait, asking that points out the false premise, and notes that it's Google that chose to write browser-specific code for some features and chose not to do so for Safari for these features. That leaves it up in the air about whether Google didn't write the code or Safari doesn't have the capabilities, and that would make this…a non-story.

Blogs don't pay for non-stories.

August 30, 2007 11:36 AM
amox said:

As a workaround you may use gTalk in safari using the talkGadget: http://talkgadget.google.com/talkgadget/popout.
The fact that it isn't available in gmail is because of browser detection features, not that it isn't rendered because of a safari glitch. The same applies to google docs, wich is not officialy supported but you can actually use it.

August 30, 2007 12:18 PM
jayH said:

at anonymous: google talk still doesn't work on safari 3.

August 30, 2007 12:24 PM
Gatesbasher Author Profile Page said:

What the hell kind of Instant Messenger needs a browser running to work? I can have YIM, AIM, and MSN all running simultaneously or all running under Adium, without any browser at all. If gChat can't do that, I think it's time to switch! Oh, by the way, if it weren't for one extension I need, I'd have trashed Firefox long ago. It sucks big-time!

August 30, 2007 12:26 PM
Dan Moren Author Profile Page said:

@Matt: Interestingly, however, when I tried the same trick in the Safari 3.0 beta (which you can do by enabling the Debug menu using something like Safari Stand or Saft), and switched the user agent to Firefox 2.0.0.2 (the latest available), Gmail pretty much fails to render at all. So, it would seem that there's something a little more complicated than User Agent parsing going on here. But I agree that the blame doesn't fall totally on Apple's head.

On a separate note, while your criticism of this post itself is no doubt intended constructively, I respectfully suggest that casting generalized aspersions about the nature of blogs kind of detracts from your point.

August 30, 2007 12:35 PM
pumpkinwhite said:

@ Gatebasher: Not everyone uses only their home computers where they can install anything. I don't have administrative rights on my office computer, and chatting via a browser is my only IM option. I am sure many users use gChat precisely for the reason that a separate installation is not required.

August 30, 2007 1:11 PM
FedesssMG said:

You can set up a Jabber account in iChat with your Gmail user and password, and talk with your gTalk contacts.

August 30, 2007 1:15 PM
Gatesbasher Author Profile Page said:

@pumpkinwhite: I'm sorry, I didn't think of that. Have you tried:

http://wwwl.meebo.com/ ?

Google Talk is one of the four they offer on the front page, then there's a link to other services, but I don't know what they are.

August 30, 2007 1:32 PM
David Chartier said:

The Google Talk widget on iGoogle works in Safari because it's built in Flash of all things. Right click it to verify if you'd like.

August 31, 2007 10:33 AM

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