When serving JavaScript files, is it better to use the application/javascript or application/x-javascript

Question

The whole question fits in the title. And to add some context: I'm not asking what is the best according to what the specs are saying, but rather what works the best given the mix of browsers deployed nowadays.

Some data points:

• Google uses text/javascript for the JS used on their home page.
• Google uses text/javascript on Google Docs.
• Google uses application/x-javascript to serve JavaScript files with their Ajax libraries service.
• Yahoo uses application/x-javascript to serve their JS.
• Yahoo uses application/x-javascript for the JavaScript served on their home page.

Answer 1

• text/javascript is obsolete
• application/x-javascript was experimental while deciding to move to…
• application/javascript is the current official MIME type for JS

That said, browsers often ignore the content-type sent by the server and pay a lot of attention to the type attribute (and some may not yet recognise application/javascript).

My recommendation:

• Use application/javascript on the server
• Use HTML 5 and omit the type attribute from script elements

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NB: the HTML specification contradicts the MIME standard, and there is an effort to change it back to text/javascript so this may change in future.