Google Chrome Version 100 Is Here to Break the Internet

pcmag.com:

Google has officially released Chrome version 100—and that could be a problem.

Google warned earlier this month that Chrome and Firefox both reaching this milestone release could break some websites until web developers account for three-digit version numbers.

The company plans to report Chrome's version number as 99 in part of the User-Agent string used to communicate browser versions, operating systems, and other details to websites. It will report the correct number, 100, in the minor version part. But even that might cause problems.

"Chrome is also running experiments to ensure that reporting a three-digit value in the minor version part of the string does not result in breakage," the company says, "since the minor version in the Chrome User-Agent string has reported 0 for a very long time."

Google says that Chrome version 100 "will roll out over the coming days/weeks" on Windows, Mac, and Linux. So if a bunch of websites seem to break in the next month, well, that's why.

Version 100, meanwhile, arrives 14 years after the first version of Chrome was released in September 2008. It is now the most popular browser in the world, according to StatCounter, which puts its share of the market at 65%. No other browser has even 10% of the market.

The open source Chromium project at the heart of Chrome has also become increasingly popular: It provides the base for Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi, Brave, and other browsers.

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