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[–] 177 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (10 children)

As if they needed to check for ""compatibility"" at all - just let the users try their makeshift coded-in-a-weekend browsers, or their 2008 version of IE.

The better question is why some websites even bother checking for the browser when the vast majority of people uses mainstream options that follow web standards and self-update.

Checking the browser version kind of made sense 15 years ago when updating the browser depended on the user's awareness and willingness of doing so, and the lack of standards across browsers was blatant. Nowadays that's pretty much useless. The maximum these sites should be doing is displaying a banner letting the user know their browser might be incompatible (because it's likely not in a way that prevents usage), then fuck off.

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  • [–] 85 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    I had a client once who used to be obsessed with this. By his logic, if a potential customer visited the website and had a bad experience because the site didn't work properly in their browser, they'd think the company was unprofessional and wouldn't come into the store and we'd lose them as a customer forever. Analytics showed that 99+% of people would visit in one of the big three, and he wouldn't pay for someone to test the site on the less popular browsers, instead he insisted on fingerprinting logic that broke all the time and probably caused more bounces than any possible rendering quirks from niche mobile browsers would have caused

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  • [–] 97 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    It's ridiculous some people even consider blocking a browser completely and having a near 100% chance of turning away the customer that uses it instead of just letting the user browse and have a significant chance of nothing bad happening.

    People are not going to change browsers to visit this website unless they absolutely have to - in which case they'll hate this company for it.

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    [–] 101 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    "We're a very inaccessible and hostile webpage. Turn back now."

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  • [–] 94 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    If it's a website which only works with a specific browser, it's a shitsite.

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    [–] 89 points 2 years ago* (6 children)

    Companies like chrome because it’s the most used browser. So if they develop for it, and only for it without caring of compatibility on others, then it’s cheaper. And since they don’t want you to use another browser and complain that their site is broken, the just block you.

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  • [–] 41 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Which is kind of dumb, because if you target Firefox you are writing to a standards compliant browser that means your code should work on all other browsers. Chrome came when IE still owned the internet and their goal was to offer a faster browser that still worked, so now chrome has a bunch of hacks coded into it.

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  • [–] 29 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Shouldn't they just commit to follow the web standards? Most modern browsers strive to follow those standards.

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  • [–] 29 points 2 years ago*

    Well chrome should, yes. But they don't.
    Then some JavaScript framework developers think "well this non-standard feature is neat, let's use that everywhere" and then companies who use their framework (or a framwork dependent on it) can't support all browsers.

    It's a multilayered problem (as always) with lots of individually decisions that make sense, but don't work out in the end (as always).

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    [–] 81 points 2 years ago (11 children)

    Ads and tracking ? Browser with the largest market share ? Well, we are back to IE6 monopoly. :(

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    [+] 78 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)
  • [–] 66 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    I found a bug once in our content that only affected Firefox. Old versions of articulate whouldnt start properly. Not somthing I could fix on my own as i meeded anyoher department. I brought it to the attention of the managers. They didn't want to fox it as apprently Google analytics showed only .4% of our user base was using Firefox. I manged to convince them its part of our user commitment to ensure that we work consistently across all browsers, but it was a pain.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Google analytics showed only .4% of our user base was using Firefox.

    Maybe it was that low because the site didn't work properly on Firefox...

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  • [–] 62 points 2 years ago

    🍻here’s to all the developers out there who makes sure there site works great not only with Firefox, but also with ublock origin and piholes!

    It is always shocking to me how many sites or apps completely fail to load if you dare block google analytics!

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  • [–] 52 points 2 years ago* (5 children)

    https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/mobile/worldwide

    According to this:

    On the desktop, Firefox has about 6% marketshare, and Edge, the Windows default, about 11%.

    On mobile, however, Firefox is at 0.5%, and Edge at 0.3%.

    A lot of people only browse the Web on a mobile platform. And the ones using those tend to use the default browser bundled with their phone; if what they have out-of-box works, they're not going to install anything else. Apple bundles Safari, and Google bundles Chrome, so that's what gets used.

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  • [–] 50 points 2 years ago

    That's why I started setting Firefox as the default browser on my family's phones. They were too annoyed by ads and almost got scammed once. With Firefox and uBlock Origin it's like magic for them. Plus they don't visit any non-mainstream websites so they'll never encounter such a screen.

    A small step to a better web-browsing experience for all of us.

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    [–] 48 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    for the love of god, charge your phone

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    [+] 44 points 2 years ago (4 children)
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    [–] 37 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    Well good thing my employer runs a script every 15 min to set the default browser to Edge.

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    [–] 32 points 2 years ago

    I don't know, works on my browser.

    -Devs, probably.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Because Firefox has better XSS detection than Chrome and will block adware sites from injecting tracking that Chrome completely allows.

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    Spoofed user agent goes brrrr

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  • [+] 29 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)
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    [–] 27 points 2 years ago

    I absolutely hate this. Ordered something last night that refused to work on Firefox or Firefox based browsers. Switched to my emergency Fulguris and checkout worked like police working for a white rich man.

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  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I'm doing a course for cyber security at my local tafe, and thier website only works on Chrome. Go. Figure.

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    [–] 25 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Don't use that website if you can

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    [–] 22 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    Standardization is nice for people who make sites and people who use them.

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    [–] 22 points 2 years ago

    Time for some user agent spoofing

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago

    It used to be the same way with Internet Explorer.

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