Why do real-world servers prefer gzip over deflate encoding?

Question

We already know deflate encoding is a winner over gzip with respect to speed of encoding, decoding and compression size.

So why do no large sites (that I can find) s

Answer 1

I wondered the same thing :). I think it might be to do with compatibility of older (possibly ancient) browsers. I read somewhere that older browsers are more likely to creep out at deflated content that mod_gzipped in certain instances(?) but googling this led me to conclude that it's probably best to stop googling it.