September 25, 2005 18:56 | WebTech

Real browser war

I thought of doing this recently. I can't imagine that no one has suggested it earlier.

The amount of times I have heard web developers curse Internet Explorer, only to then sigh, shrug and say "but it's the client's site so...".

Sure, that's fine but... what about YOUR site. I mean your weblog, your personal publishing outlet; you know, that thing that doesn't exist solely to make someone money.

What am I saying? I am saying: shut 'em out. "This site cannot be viewed with the Internet Explorer web-browser. Please download one of these..."

I think WASP used to have a page sort of like this that you could redirect to based on a simple browser detect, but that was years ago, before the Firefox sweep and associated awareness building of how bad IE is. Perhaps now would be a good time for a whoooole bunch of us to do this... ;)

Whatcha thinks? A couple of prepackaged Javascripts people can pop in their pages, plugins for the various blog systems, etc.

Comments
Sun, Sep 25, 2005, @ 19:04
1- Adriaan

I'm all for it. Give me the JS and I'll plug it in.


Sun, Sep 25, 2005, @ 20:31
2- Ed Bilodeau

Maybe something that points them to a page that lets them know there are better alternatives out there (esp now with Opera around), but allows them to get to the original site/page. In other words, more of an anti-IE ad that we insert for people using IE.

Even better would be a colored div that would appear at the top of the page: "WARNING: You are using a bad browser!"... you get the idea. Spread the message but let them get the content anyway.

Ed

p.s. !love! the live preview on the comments...


Sun, Sep 25, 2005, @ 20:43
3- Boris

Ed: nope. no time for niceties anymore. I mean a real war: "You are using a tool that makes life hell for millins of people. I refuse to communicate with you." ;)

IE is the hallitosis of the web. hehehehee

Ado: let's see if there is enough interest. I personally don't really care either way, it's just a thought at this point. :)


Mon, Sep 26, 2005, @ 8:38
4- Ed Bilodeau

The traffic on my site is low enough as it is... :P


Mon, Sep 26, 2005, @ 11:57
5- Boris

Hehehee.. not as low as mine, surely!
I am not advocating this fervently or even recommending it to everyone... just a thought.
Interesting reply though. Do you want more traffic? Why? This of course is a whole other topic. :)


Tue, Sep 27, 2005, @ 9:27
6- mtl3p

I think that's a great idea. But I'm with Ed. Fire up an advert when views using IE.

Because even I have to use IE sometime - like now at the library.


Tue, Sep 27, 2005, @ 9:54
7- Boris

No you don't get it... this is not a vote, or a popularity contest. It's a war.
;)


Tue, Sep 27, 2005, @ 14:49
8- karl

Interesting discussion.

We are all for it, but well you know… there is this and there is that… oh and what about the people who will miss my content.

As soon as I have fixed one thing (encoding issue due to my editor) in my weblog I will start to do two things.

* serve as application/xhtml+xml
* block search engines.

Yes you read it… google, yahoo, etc. People will not find me and …?


Tue, Sep 27, 2005, @ 18:25
9- Boris

Actually that's an even better idea. Serving as application/xhtml+xml is "the way it should be" AND leave IE users shit outta luck. Perfect. :)