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It's helpful in web development, it allows you to target specific browser versions. For example if I use a new feature on my website which is only supported by recent browser versions, I can inform the user about the incompatibility and prevent complains.

I also don't think Google needs that info, there's a million things to criticize them for but this is a bit silly.

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Feature detection is more reliable than version checking, as it can more correctly support a wider range of browsers (that you didn't think to version-test for). There might be some cases where that's tricky, but it's generally straightforward. Tools like https://modernizr.com/ can help with that.

You don't think Google do browser fingerprinting? As a sibling comment suggests: feature detection seems superior.

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