Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox are nearing their version 100.Nearing version 100 could mean users will experience inefficiency in accessing major websites in these browsers.

These inefficiencies could mean some issues that cause websites to fail, have technical problems, and have several bugs.

As popular browsers reach their 100th version, developers prepare themselves instead of celebrating. 

It has been discovered that the triple-digit release numbers embedded in the browsers' User-Agents (UAs) may cause compatibility issues with a small number of websites.

Over the course of several months, Mozilla, Google, and Microsoft have issued warnings about the imminent version 100 release, which is set to be released in March for Chrome and Edge and in May for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Mozilla and Google have both been undertaking trials to test websites and report any issues that may have come about.

Chrome and Firefox Reaching Version 100

According to Apple Insider, Chrome uses version 98 while Firefox uses version 97. Following the transition to version numbers with three digits, Mozilla warns of inconsistent difficulties across an unanticipated range of websites.

Website servers inspect what is known as the User-Agent to detect which browser is being used. They then utilize this information to adjust websites in order for them to display correctly.

More than 12 years ago, when browsers initially reached version 10, numerous difficulties with User-Agent parsing libraries were uncovered as the major version number increased from one to two digits.

Since there is no uniform specification to adhere to, different browsers use different formats for the User-Agent string and site-specific User-Agent processing.

It's likely that some parser libraries contain hard-coded assumptions or bugs that don't consider three-digit major version numbers.

As reported by The Verge, while there have been fears about some websites going down, a great deal of hard work has been done behind the scenes, much like what was done to avoid severe issues with the Y2K bug 22 years ago to ensure that the transition to version 100 goes smoothly.

Users of current Chrome, Edge, and Firefox versions can set a specific flag that causes the browsers to report as version 100, which is useful for testing websites.

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Browser Mitigation for Version 100

There are also contingency preparations in place in the event of widespread problems.

According to Mozilla, as a backup strategy in Google Chrome, the browser uses a flag to freeze the major version number at 99. It reports the real major version number in the minor version component of the User-Agent string. The Chrome team will determine whether or not to use the backup option based on the number and severity of the issues that would be reported once the issues arrive.

Firefox also has a backup strategy in-store, although the approach used in Firefox will be determined by how significant the breakage is. Firefox has a site interventions mechanism.

With the use of this mechanism, Mozilla's web compact team can hotfix broken websites in Firefox.

Mozilla can temporarily freeze Firefox's main version at 99 and then experiment with different options if the problem is widespread and individual site interventions become unmanageable.

Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft are all working hard to prevent any major problems from occurring.

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