How come GMail doesn't work on IE with no ActiveX but works great on FireFox with no ActiveX ?

Isn't it wierd that when using IE Gmail cannot work on it's standard interface without enabling ActiveX, but when running on FireFox (which doesn't support ActiveX) Gmail works fine?

Can someone explain to me the phenomena?

How come GMail doesn't work on IE with no ActiveX but works great on FireFox with no ActiveX ?windows nt

Dear lk_sf, thanks a lot for the question. I had never noticed the issue tht u hav brought up. I searched on the Net n found this topic being discussed on David Wang's blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/david.wang/archive... . Your concerns over the security aspect is a legitimate one. But after going through the blog, I think it's got more to do with Micro$oft's implementation of AJAX.

I m not an expert on AJAX, but from whatever little I know about it and from whatever I read in the blog, here's what I think could be the reason:

GMail uses a lot of AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And Xml). And Micro$oft's implementation of AJAX (codenamed "ATLAS") depends on Activex objects, unlike what is used generally by browsers like Firefox. So I think Google gets a benefit of doubt here - they were compelled to do so to make it compatible with IE. If u r into into web-related technical stff, then i suggest u keep an eye on the blog.

How come GMail doesn't work on IE with no ActiveX but works great on FireFox with no ActiveX ?windows 95 internet explorer

because firefox is a lot better than IE. use firefox
cause Gmail is designed to work with fire fox and not IE