this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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Google Search bug shows blank page in Firefox for Android (www.bleepingcomputer.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
23 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The issue:

Android users with Firefox can't access Google Search (including intl sites and localized domains like google.de, .co.uk, .com.br). Instead, they see a blank page.

Cause:

A server-side bug on Google's end related to User-Agent (UA) sniffing, which serves an empty page to newer Firefox versions.

Affected versions:

All Firefox versions on Android (>= 65) including Mobile 121.0, Nightly 123, and older.

Chrome not affected:

The bug is specific to Firefox.

Solutions:

  • Use a different browser (Chrome, etc.) or search engine (DuckDuckGo).

Advanced users can:

  • Change Firefox's UA in developer settings or with add-ons.

  • Request the desktop version of Google from Firefox settings (region-dependent).

Status:

  • Problem identified as critical and escalated.
  • Still unresolved at the time of reporting.

Additional notes:

  • Disabling Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection doesn't fix the issue.
  • Some users report google.co.in loading the desktop site instead of mobile.
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[–] [email protected] 113 points 10 months ago (3 children)

"bug" aka purposely making firefox unusable on one of the largest websites in the world so more people use chromium

(these allegations are based solely on prejudice against google and its subsidiaries, and do not necessarily hold true in reality)

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago

Google:

Oh no anyway

[–] KpntAutismus 22 points 10 months ago

perfectly reasonable and logical prejudice, i might add. we really need to get people to use alternative search engines. google has been sucking fat balls for a long time now. either people are going to start to switch, or the frog will continue boiling.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Even if it's for only a short period of time, it's enough to do a lot of damage. Especially as people are becoming privacy conscious and are looking to start using Firefox.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I tried signing into Google today on Firefox and got 'sigin in using a safe browser. This is not a safe browser'. I refreshed the page and it was gone and I was able to sign in. What the heck.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

Google should follow their own advice and kill the user agent.

[–] JK_Flip_Flop 18 points 10 months ago (1 children)

After intending to for years, I've recently switched to DuckDuckGo after getting increasingly frustrated with Google's search results. This makes that decision feel all the more like the right one.

I find it hard to say this is deliberate on Google's part but at best it's yet another case of Google blatantly skipping over Firefox testing.

[–] Carighan 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I did so, too.

I've done so repeatedly over the past years, each time giving it one month to evaluate how useful its result are to my productivity before deciding whether to swap back.

After now giving it three months, I can say this:

  • As much as I complain about Google's results having gotten worse, fucking hell is Bing sad (which AFAIK is still the majority of DDG's result input). It's orders of magnitude less useful than what Google digs up for my mix of gaming, board gaming, cooking, trivia knowledge and programming input.
  • Apple Maps is still an insult to people actually wanting to find things on a map on a desktop system and I cannot believe they have not replaced it with something else, no matter what. Openstreetmap would be a godsend. The current state just means I used an extension that hardwired Google Maps into it so I don't have to add the !-command each and every time.

In theory though, DDG is nice. If they can improve the quality of their results, I can work around the maps issue. But it's still significantly behind Google, but I also have to see this in context of course: Google has a fuckton of money to throw around, for the budget they have, DDG is impressive.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Apple Maps is still an insult

Absolutely agreed. I still use Google Maps because it's actually useful (going to try switching to OpenStreetMaps again at some point), but DDG is good enough for my needs. Most of what I want is available through bangs (mostly wikipedia, protondb.com, Amazon, Steam, and Google maps), and the rest I can usually craft a decent enough query to find, though I find myself using more terms than w/ Google. On average, I think DDG has been better for me.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I'm on 121.0 mobile and have no issues accessing Google.com. Not that I use it anyway but figured I'd test.

[–] KpntAutismus 3 points 10 months ago

same, i'm on 121.0.1

[–] Aurix 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It was fixed in a few hours:

https://status.search.google.com/incidents/hySMmncEDZ7Xpaf9i32C

[–] PoliticalAgitator 12 points 10 months ago

And it was never broken for Chrome.

Google can do plenty of damage to Firefox in a few hours and the best way to do it is to simply not include Firefox in their testing. If you don't know the standards the web is built on, it makes FF look unreliable, despite it being Google's bug.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Real professional engineers at Google. Reading the browser name is just so hard.

[–] Aurix 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It works here with the latest version. But moved to Kagi recently and very happy with the search results.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Can you use it without signing in? I see privacy issues with a search engine that needs you to sign in.

[–] Aurix 2 points 10 months ago

No and it would make no sense with a paid model. I believe them and even if not I think there is enough indirect tracking tools.

[–] KpntAutismus 3 points 10 months ago

another reason to not use that horrible, ad-infested site. even if caused by a "bug".

[–] Carighan 3 points 10 months ago

Interesting, from Germany the Google homepage loads normally but shows the old version (while the search results page uses the new version). Either they partially fixed it, or Firefox in its beta version already works around the problem in some way.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

ah yes, a "bug"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

It's not a bug. It's a feature.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Thank you for the screenshot of a blank page.