Google Doesn't Like Opera

If you are a webmaster, you should know that before you start the developing process of a website, you must select the browsers that will be compatible with it. This means more HTML codes and a more advanced developing process. For example, if the website is compatible with Internet Explorer, the Firefox users are not able to view the content of the page.

Because Google is one of the most known online service providers, we expect that the solutions provided by the company be compatible with all major browsers available at the moment. It seems like the search giant doesn't like Opera, one of the most popular browsers, because many services are not available in this application.

"Although Opera is a modern browser that respects web standards, many developers don't have time to test their sites in Opera and prefer to block it. There are a number of Google services that return "incompatible browser" errors or deliver a trimmed-down version in Opera, even though the site would load just fine without the hardcoded browser checks (also known as browser sniffing). Google knows the service doesn't work perfectly in Opera and other browsers, so it does this to prevent user complaints," Ionut Alex, the blogger that identified this issue, said on his blog.

Let's take for instance Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Open Opera and visit the official website of the product. After the website is entirely loaded, you'll get an error message saying that "if you are working to fix problems with a specific browser and would like to bypass this check, just add &browserok=true to the end of the Google Docs & Spreadsheets url."

Google Calendar is another product that is not compatible with Opera browser, giving you the possibility to pass the error message and visit the website but with some features disabled.