Why is paste/drag-and-drop of images not available on some browsers?

Question

Since February 2013, Stack Exchange has been offering paste/drag-and-drop insertion of images into posts. This is awesome, but it doesn't work the same on all browsers.

Google Chrome (28.0.1500.71 m) provides both paste & drag-and-drop (this feature seems to have been removed in 35.0.1916.114 m):

Chrome 'add image'

Firefox (22.0) only provides drag-and-drop:

Firefox 'add image'

Internet Explorer (9.0.8112.16421) provides none:

Internet Explorer 'add image'

Why is there a deficiency in certain browsers and/or what can be done?

@Dims: Running Chrome is much more convenient with the copy-and-paste feature. — Werner, Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 16:40
Yes, but it is a magic. I would like to know what is the real problem with pasting in other browsers. — Dims, Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 16:42
@Dims: That's why I haven't accepted the current "answer", since it doesn't provide an answer to the question "why". I can't see why "browser compatibility" could be considered the problem, since technology nowadays seem to be so transferable. I don't know much about it, but thought these things would be ubiquitous across browsers due to its simplicity... I've been performing copy-and-paste since, like, forever. — Werner, Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 16:45
This change in Chrome sucks, considering open sourcing Stack Exchange and taking pull requests in order to fix — Nick Craver, Commented May 23, 2014 at 12:49

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:35:18Z

2

This has to do with browser compatibility.

None of the mobile browsers support it either.

Seems like IE9 specifcally uses a different API then other browsers

CommunityBot

1

answered Jul 13, 2013 at 1:14

raam86

1,3817 silver badges17 bronze badges

So if IE9 uses a "different API", why is there not a similar one for IE9 that allows pasting? And what about Firefox not allowing pasting? Does it mean that the technology just doesn't exist for those browsers? Why is Google Chrome so special that it can do/allow both? I know nothing about these things, hence all the questions, sorry...
– Werner
Commented Jul 13, 2013 at 15:18
@Werner try googling for HTML5 drag and drop and paste API or something I am sure there is a lot of content out there. HTML5ROCKS is a great resource
– raam86
Commented Jul 13, 2013 at 15:34
So what browser should DO in order to be able to paste?
– Dims
Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 16:21
So if I change user agent string in Firefox to Chrome it will be able to paste?
– Dims
Commented Aug 21, 2013 at 16:34
@raam86 so Chrome does not paste anymore and the question persists: what browser should DO in order to paste?
– Dims
Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 7:16
@Dims They should implement HTML5 drag and drop api natively...
– raam86
Commented Jun 10, 2014 at 10:56

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