TBH I dont blame them... aside from compatibility problems that can occur when trying to design a site for older browsers, I cant help but wonder if there may be another reason why Google is taking this stance.
Such as the EU cookie directive which came into effect on the 25th of May. TBH this directive as it stood was a bit of a farce, because the technology to satisfy the directive right up to the 25th of May could have meant the internet becoming a pop-up hell and extremely difficult to maintain without more onus being placed on modern browsers... which is the way it may be heading.
I wont go into how long it took me to sort out this site before 25th of May (the mods know the full details
) but put it this way, even sites like the ICO and BBC werent able to follow the directive as it stood at that date. Even I had no control over some third party type cookies... which interestingly enough for me meant Google Analytics and Google Ads. The latest changes in the directive do seem to be pushing towards the browsers taking more control rather than the site owners.. as I see it, 2 of the largest problem areas are
GoogleAds and
Google Analytics.... so I can understand them in pushing users to upgrade their browsers.