Posted by: Robert Bune
on September 29, 2004 04:58 AM
I have problem with a number of sites that only support IE. My local online grocery store www.waitrosedeliver.com is one classic example. If I try accessing their site with Mozilla/Firefox all seems OK at first, then just when you have spent 15/30 minutes placing your shopping order the site fails due to some bogus JavaScript, but if I use IE 6 I get good script and all works fine. I have contacted their technical support a number of times to suggest they make their site cross browser compatible but the answer I keep getting is they only test it on IE and Netscape. It must be and old version of Netscape as this is what is breaking Mozilla, if I swap my user agent to IE 6 I get the correct JavaScript and the site works fine.
So now their logs record me as an XP/IE6 user rather than Linux/Mozilla helping to justify their argument that most users use IE on Windows. What amazes me in this case is that Waitrose used IBM to help them build their online store, and who is it that keeps inging the praises of open source software.
If people code to standards their sites wouldn't need all those crazy hacks which tend to make site maintenance a nightmare.
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The problem with useragent switching
Posted by: Robert Bune on September 29, 2004 04:58 AMSo now their logs record me as an XP/IE6 user rather than Linux/Mozilla helping to justify their argument that most users use IE on Windows. What amazes me in this case is that Waitrose used IBM to help them build their online store, and who is it that keeps inging the praises of open source software.
If people code to standards their sites wouldn't need all those crazy hacks which tend to make site maintenance a nightmare.
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