As each the Chrome and Firefox browsers method their one centesimal variations, what ought to be a cause for the builders to rejoice may flip right into a little bit of a large number. It seems that very like the Y2K bug, the triple-digit launch numbers coded within the browsers’ User-Agents (UAs) may trigger points with a small variety of websites, Bleeping Computer reported. 

Mozilla launched an experiment final yr to see if model quantity 100 would have an effect on websites, and it simply released a blog with the outcomes. It did have an effect on a small variety of websites (some very massive ones, although) that could not parse a user-agent string containing a three-digit quantity. Notable ones nonetheless affected included HBO Go, Bethesda and Yahoo, in response to a tracking site. The bugs embody “browser not supported” messages, web site rendering points, parsing failures, 403 errors and so forth.

How may such a foolish factor be taking place? “Without a single specification to follow, different browsers have different formats for the User-Agent string, and site-specific User-Agent parsing,” Mozilla defined within the weblog. “It’s possible that some parsing libraries may have hard-coded assumptions or bugs that don’t take into account three-digit major version numbers.” 

Luckily, builders for each browsers have a plan. If there are points with websites that may’t be resolved earlier than the variations are launched, each browsers will freeze the model numbers at 99 within the UA strings or inject code overrides to repair the issues. Both have additionally requested builders to check their websites with Firefox/Chrome 100 person brokers. The browsers are set to reach on March twenty ninth and May third for Chrome and Firefox respectively — hopefully like Y2K, it will be a lot ado about nothing..