_utf8 POST parameter on gmail login contains a snowman character
authentication, gmail, post, utf-8
Solution
The _utf8 header along with a Unicode character is to ensure that
- At least one Unicode character is submitted to the server
- Force certain non-compliant browsers to respect the form's character encoding
In some cases, the `_utf8` header is given a value of a ☃ and sometimes it is a ✓. What it is doesn't really matter and may have arbitrarily been chosen for fun.
Problem
Possible Duplicate: What is the _snowman param in Ruby on Rails 3 forms for? If you inspect the POST parameters of Gmail login with Firebug or Chrome developer tools, you'll see a `_utf8` parameter with a value of `☃`: ``` _utf8:☃ ``` (See the attached image in case your browser doesn't render the value. It's a snowman, U+2603, `http://www.utf8-character.info/#!%E2%98%83`.) Why do they do this? Is it possible that they somehow test for browser compatibility to UTF-8?