January 9, 2024 at 09:50AM
Users of Firefox for Android are experiencing a blank page when attempting to load Google Search and localized Google sites. This issue has been confirmed to affect Firefox Mobile 121.0 for Android 13 and Nightly 123, and versions starting v65. The problem stems from a server-side issue with the User-Agent sniffing system, and temporary solutions have been suggested. The bug is specific to Firefox and has been rated critical but remains unresolved.
From the meeting notes, it appears that there is a critical issue with the Firefox browser for Android when loading the main Google Search site. The problem is specific to Firefox and is related to a server-side problem with the User-Agent (UA) sniffing system, causing an empty HTML document to be served to Firefox Android User-Agents with versions greater than or equal to 65. Disabling Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) in Firefox does not resolve the issue.
Mozilla engineer Dennis Schubert has highlighted the issue and it has been rated as critical and escalated for diagnosis and resolution, but remains unresolved at this time. Temporary solutions for Firefox users on Android include using a different browser or considering alternative search engines like DuckDuckGo until Google fixes the problem.
Advanced users may choose to change the user agent in Firefox to mimic a different browser, via developer settings or specialized add-ons. Additionally, depending on their region, users can request the desktop version of the Google site from within the browser’s settings as a potential workaround.