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Anti-Internet Explorer Site Code

Pete Brown - 03 April 2008

Everyone loves to hate Internet Explorer. Microsoft was originally late to the browser game, but eventually won out over other browsers. Think of that what you may, but I have to admit that the competition at the time was made up of some pretty crappy browsers. It wasn't until the battle was pretty much lost that the alternatives started getting interesting.

The IE folks sat on the browser for a while giving time for a real competitor: FireFox to come into being. FireFox is a pretty good browser and is very developer-friendly. It's far from perfect though.

That all said, someone needs to update their site code and FUD text. It doesn't even take into account advancements in IE7, which has been out for some time. I use Firefox as well, but not as my default browser and crap like what you see below just gets under my skin.

Part of being a good citizen site on the net is respecting the user's choice in browser: that means supporting IE, FireFox and Safari (and of course Opera and other common browsers), but it also means not doing obnoxious things like popping up "your browser sucks" messages on the page and forcing an extra navigation step because you have some sort of an agenda.

image

After all that, the site works just fine in IE7 even though it is pretty butt-ugly in any browser :)

   
posted by Pete Brown on Thursday, April 3, 2008
filed under:    

9 comments for “Anti-Internet Explorer Site Code”

  1. Gravatar of HermanReply
    Hermansays:
    Friday, April 4, 2008 at 3:11:41 AM
    I myself only have a small FireFox banner on my site. All the CSS features that crap out in IE6 are just disabled. I only spend a small amount of time to fix it, but I make sure it looks more than acceptable in the end... it just looks better in FireFox, Opera and IE7 as well.
  2. Gravatar of TomReply
    Tomsays:
    Friday, April 4, 2008 at 10:00:29 AM
    Agreed that this is extremely lame, and I would probably leave that site thinking "these guys are jerks" rather than click the continue link. But at least there is continue link. How many sites have just flat out refused to work with anything but IE over the years? Having to resort to a useragent modification extension is much more of a pain than clicking an extra link. And how about the sites that didn't care what browser you were using, but were obviously only ever tested with IE? I'm glad those days are (pretty much?) over. Certainly, Microsoft's recent attitude here has been very refreshing.
  3. Gravatar of Pete BrownReply
    Pete Brownsays:
    Friday, April 4, 2008 at 10:16:40 AM
    @Tom I totally agree. The opposite side of the spectrum with IE-only sites is very annoying. The silly thing there, though, is it is often ignorance not some explicit choice that leads to that.

    I'm looking forward to IE8 and its default strict mode. That will be painful for many at first, but can only help over the long term.

    Pete
  4. Gravatar of SteveOReply
    SteveOsays:
    Friday, April 4, 2008 at 4:07:55 PM
    Yeah FF is just a superior browser, has been ad will continue to do so. IE will be in catch up for ever probably. This is just a way for the ABM people to voice their opinion.

    Do I care? not really when they give the link to continue with crappy IE.

  5. Gravatar of Emad IbrahimReply
    Emad Ibrahimsays:
    Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 1:56:22 PM
    That is annoying but I have to say both browsers have problems... IE is fast but not as configurable and extensible and doesn't do a good job conforming to standards. Firefox is slow as hell but I cannot live without it... del.icio.us plugins, greasmonkey, firebug, etc...

    You also have to remember that everytime you download firefox from that link, the owner of the site makes $2 through adsense... So there is a financial gain to promote it which is why I have FF banner ads on my site - well I also like the browser.
  6. Gravatar of Chris KnightReply
    Chris Knightsays:
    Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 8:15:49 PM
    Yeah, the AWStats page is annoying.

    But I think what it highlights is just how lame MS have been with IE development and the treatment of Web developers as second-class citizens.

    The IE Developer Toolbar is still a joke both in terms of efficient client-side debugging and when comparing it to something like FireBug.

    Hopefully with the new features coming online with IE8, the story for Web developers will improve.
  7. Gravatar of Pete BrownReply
    Pete Brownsays:
    Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 8:49:13 PM
    @Chris My guess is that it isn't so much ignoring as it is "not my job". Microsoft is really huge, I can easily see how, say, the IE team would consider it the dev tools team to provide dev support in the browser. The dev tools team does most everything in visual studio (javascript debugging, for example) so they probably considered it the IE team's responsibility.

    Either way, from what I saw at MIX, IE8 will help catch up a little to Firefox - assuming they don't cave and dumb things down or default to IE7 mode.

    Pete
  8. Gravatar of Stevie WondersReply
    Stevie Wonderssays:
    Monday, December 22, 2008 at 1:50:14 AM
    IE is a sad excuse for a browser. It is too resistant to standards because it was a failed attempt to establish its own standards. I am sick of making websites that look beautiful in Opera, Firefox, and Safari, but go totally Awol in IE.

    As for respecting a browser choice- I feel that part of the reason IE is so popular is because it comes standard on PCs, and people don't know about other browser choices. In your instance, Firefox isn't being forced upon the visitor, it is being suggested.

    An apple to FF is an orange to IE. Some sites' functionality depend on the structure of the browser, which would mean the designer has to recreate an entirely different approach to getting the same effect in another browser. It is like writing a book in English and then trying to make it translate over to Japanese... you can't just translate it, you have to rewrite it so it works in context.

    The problem is that IE is so radical that it has pushed itself out of the circle. It is a lot easier to make sites work among other browsers, but it seems that whenever the IE test comes, there's some kind of drastic problem that requires hacks to get around.

    The idea of web standards is so that we don't have to waste our time on hacks, and in turn have more time to focus on generating fluid, quality material. IE is a waste of time and is retarding advancements in the web.
  9. Gravatar of weddingdressonlyReply
    weddingdressonlysays:
    Friday, March 16, 2012 at 1:24:27 AM
    An apple to FF is an orange to IE. Some sites' functionality depend on the structure of the browser, which would mean the designer has to recreate an entirely different approach to getting the same effect in another browser. It is like writing a book in English and then trying to make it translate over to Japanese... you can't just translate it, you have to rewrite it so it works in context.

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