Using Out of Date Browsers
I just found a neat tool that will alert site visitors when they are using an out of date web browser. I believe there was a thread a while back about blocking outdated browsers or redirecting to an upgrade page. I think this tool is a nice way to encourage upgrades.
Get it here: http://www.pushuptheweb.com/
demonhale posted this at 05:15 — 2nd August 2008.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
Cool tool, thanks for sharing.
Greensphere posted this at 14:56 — 2nd August 2008.
They have: 91 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
Very interesting find i might try and use this should imagine it is quite effective at drawing peoples attention to their browser.
decibel.places posted this at 15:38 — 2nd August 2008.
He has: 1,494 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
I have mixed feelings
I remember all those sites announcing "Optimized for Internet Explorer" - encouraging you to view the site in IE because it used some IE extension
I think we should create our code to be reasonably supportive of current browsers and the last couple of releases (IE7 6 maybe 5 - Ffox 3,2 - Opera 9,8 - Safari 3,2) and to degrade gracefully (like webwiz
)
Users with older browsers may not care, may not be able to update the browser (on a public computer for example) or lack the knowledge to do so.
IMO the pushup code is equally helpful and annoying.
It's also a fair amount of code to add for a pretty simple browser version check and alert - I mean, do we really need prototype.js opacity on a little transient doohickey? (it's in there...)
In pushup.js the "current" version numbers are hard coded - meaning you will need to replace the pushup.js every time a new browser version is released (if you want to stay current) - or if the pushup developers don't "push" the update - you may need to edit the code yourself...
Also, the cookie that triggers the reminder - well, I don't see anywhere that the reminder is turned off if the browser software is updated...
pr0gr4mm3r posted this at 16:17 — 2nd August 2008.
He has: 1,502 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
Changing the version numbers aren't all that hard. I think I would only show alerts for browsers that are out of date enough to affect the functionality of the site.
If I start to use this script, I would host it at one location and use it on all of my sites so I only have to update it once.
decibel.places posted this at 19:28 — 3rd August 2008.
He has: 1,494 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
pr0gr4mm3r,
I did not mean to push your buttons or make you feel defensive about your discovery! Sorry!
Sure, the js file can be centralized - my graver concerns are the others, code bloat, and confusing less technical users
(for example one of my pet peeves is mailto: hrefs - for most people this pops up the Outlook installer script, they have never installed or configured Outlook and don't even know what it is and then it is in their face and they have forgotten all about why they wanted to contact you... thank god for php mail() !
)
And the pushup alert is nowhere near as bad as that, but bugs me a little along similar lines.
I know, I don't have to use it. Or do I?
pr0gr4mm3r posted this at 19:50 — 3rd August 2008.
He has: 1,502 posts
Joined: Sep 2006
No offense taken. I agree with you about the users on public computers and users with limited access to their computer.
JeevesBond posted this at 23:12 — 3rd August 2008.
He has: 3,956 posts
Joined: Jun 2002
Visitors to this site, using IE6, get a message at the top of the site asking them to upgrade. Still over half our IE using visitors are on version six, they probably don't have a choice in what browser they use.
Pushup is cute, and a little more 'smart' than our solution, but much more complicated. There are simpler ways of going about this, although you can't get rid of our warning. We also encourage people to switch to Opera or Firefox, so the Web doesn't get held back by another IE6.
Anyway, it's a good solution. The main thing is that it doesn't try to force people into upgrading.
a Padded Cell our articles site!
decibel.places posted this at 23:57 — 3rd August 2008.
He has: 1,494 posts
Joined: Jun 2008
What about Vista and IE7?
Since IE7 is integrated in the Vista OS, I had to install a VirtualPC with an XP image with IE6 - pretty complicated, just to get use of an out-dated browser.
I just upgraded to Firefox 3 and I am happy my addons mostly work in v 3 (firebug, web developer, colorzilla, measure_it - I'd be lost without them) - but I have discovered that it doesn't work on Google Maps...
demonhale posted this at 04:03 — 5th August 2008.
He has: 3,278 posts
Joined: May 2005
Tried several days ago on a friends blog together with a DL FF3 campaign and it helped increase click-trough's to download FF3. It's a nifty tool, but it does prove annoying being reminded all the time.
I think however it is still a pretty useful tool in case you want to convert some of your visitors to a more modern browser... For regular sites and blogs though, I think I'll pass...
Megan posted this at 14:57 — 5th August 2008.
She has: 11,421 posts
Joined: Jun 1999
Just on a quick look - the thing that I don't like about this implementation is that it implies the message is from the browser vendor when it's not. The browser vendors have other methods of prompting users to upgrade.
Also, it doesn't explain to the user why the browser upgrade is important. Or detect for Netscape which is kind of a serious problem for the handful of people still using it.
Some of these things could be solved with customization options in the script - I haven't looked at that at all.
Megan
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