Wal-Mart adds insult to injury with IE-only website
We've known all along that the Wal-Mart Video Downloads service was going to be a Windows-only affair. It's sad, but that's the way that goes sometimes. Is it really necessary, however, to lock the website to Internet Explorer 6+ only? On Tuesday, TechCrunch reported that some coding mistakes on Wal-Mart's page prevented the CSS from loading in Firefox; today, Design by CSS reports that rather than fix the errors, Wal-Mart chose to block other browsers from even trying to load the page. Classy. Other XP-only movie sites like Movielink or CinemaNow have accessible home pages, or at least a universal splash page to let you know that you can't have the sweet, chewy filmic center without IE. Naturally, Amazon Unbox is accessible with any browser, even though the downloads are locked to XP... and, in a quick reality check, one guess which mobile video player (compatible with none of the above, but only with iTunes) shows up at #1 on the bestseller list. The current ranking for the best-selling portable player (Creative Zen Vision: M) that works with Amazon Unbox movies? #63 -- and behind such barnburners as a 50-pack of CD-Rs and the iPod Power Adapter, for crying out loud.
OK, Wal-Mart, go ahead and hide your light under an IE-only bushel. Not only will we not know what we're missing, most likely we won't care, either.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
KenjiFinster said 5:18PM on 2-10-2007
Strange thing, the service is Windows-only (We all kow that), but the page loads fine on Safari once you change the useragent to Windows IE6.
Proof:
http://img159.imageshack.us/my.php?image=imagen1lm6.png
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john russell said 5:30PM on 2-10-2007
When I went into Shiira and changed the user agent to IE6, it showed up just as it did for Kenji Finster. Wal-mart must be using illegal immigrants to code their CSS.
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Mark D. said 3:59AM on 2-11-2007
Even though it claims ie6+ is required even ie5 chugging through Rosetta loads the page (with minor graphical anomalies), though previews don't function. You'd think they'd at least get their browser filtering correct.
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George said 5:56PM on 2-10-2007
Walmart seems to have fixed the problem, as I can navigate their site without problem in Safari, and I didn't have to change the useragent or anything.
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Victor Agreda Jr said 6:03PM on 2-10-2007
Want some more fun? Go to Fox.com. Nice ad, huh?
Then thank goodness, because you didn't want to hang out there anyway ;)
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Jason said 6:14PM on 2-10-2007
If you want to see a website that isnt displaying properly, check this link...
http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/4644/screenshot1lu2.png
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Kevin said 6:22PM on 2-10-2007
Whoever said that it works in Safari without changing the userAgent...What version of OS X and Safari are you using? Cuz I can't get in with an unmodified copy of Safari.
As for Walmart - they won't bother with Mac users, they alread hate Apple for the iTunes store and they'll vent that by not supporting Mac users.
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Jason said 6:42PM on 2-10-2007
Personally, I dont care one bit, I refuse to shop at walmart.
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guidegal said 7:06PM on 2-10-2007
I echo previous comments -- Apple people (and it's not a socio-economic thing) and Walmart people are just mutually exclusive. Tell me, in the known universe is there an Apple store w/in shouting distance of a Walmart? See.
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KenjiFinster said 7:05PM on 2-10-2007
#6:
I did it with Safari, 10.4 PPC, with the debug menu on
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JBell said 7:07PM on 2-10-2007
I always feel dirty after shopping at walmart. The two places I hate to are the hospital and walmart.
Don't breath deeply in either place!
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Mark Kawakami said 7:10PM on 2-10-2007
The most ridiculous thing is that, at least as far as display in Firefox is concerned, the problem is solvable on their end incredibly easily. They're just serving the wrong mime-type with the CSS. Fix that, problem goes away.
However I too think it's irrelevant. There's no way I'm trusting a site that doesn't apparently even bother to do cross browser testing with my money or my personal information -- it's got "identity theft target" written all over it.
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michel said 10:50PM on 2-10-2007
it's really some kind of way to "proprietarize" the web
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Paul D. said 2:28AM on 2-11-2007
It may load in Safari if you spoof the user agent, but it certainly doesn't look "fine". Quite a few elements on the page are messed up or out of alignment.
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merc669 said 7:36AM on 2-11-2007
As far as "Fox.com" its mostly a pinup of Advertisements with a few stories and a humor section hosted by "Bill O'Reilly". And I agree with JBell totally except I would add the Dentist just after Walmart!
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George said 12:17PM on 2-11-2007
Loads fine in my Safari browser, OS X 10.4.8. No user agent spoofing, nothing wrong with the site at all. The debug menu isn't on, however I have turned it on in the past after reading about that trick somewhere, and though I've since turned it off maybe my Safari is still set to spoof the user agent. I hope not, because I want every site I visit to know I'm doing so on a Mac.
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azzamallow said 1:46AM on 2-12-2007
Pretty ridiculous imo. The people in charge of the Walmart are just downright too lazy to fix a serious problem. The cost in fixing the problem will be less than the amount of business they are going to lose by not supporting other browsers.
Plain stupid, I should be in charge over there.
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Brady J. Frey said 12:31PM on 2-12-2007
Inexperienced developers and coders - it's the same song for years, they're just looking more and more dated now. It angers me, but in the end, if their developers and designers don't clean up their act, I'll just take their clients.
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sjmills said 12:13PM on 2-12-2007
What do you expect? Hillbillies and NASCAR fans only buy $150 PCs at Walmart and don't have the smarts to download Firefox. So, all your Walmart customers are belong to us.
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sjmills said 12:56PM on 2-12-2007
azzamallow, you wouldn't want to be in charge of Walmart's IT. It's a freaking nightmare of a mess. But then I guess it's hard to run computer services efficiently with moonshine jugs and hound dogs lying all over the place.
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