Yet another thing that is Facebook specific that I just thought about. I
may be overstating this, since I have no actual statistics to back it
up, but I'd wager that a very large part of Facebook's population is
from the more tech-savvy generations, so their usage statistics of IE6
may be far lower than your average website. Additionally, since a large
portion of there population is (was?) college students who generally
reside on-campus, they are likely to have more up-to-date systems
because nearly all colleges require that you stay current with Windows
updates to access their network (meaning use the internet, not
necessarily access an intranet), so a lot of the users already have IE6
or greater.
Not saying I completely agree with this approach, but at the same time
it is highly unreasonable for a web "system" like Facebook to be able to
individually provide fall backs and fail-safes for IE6.
In addition, I think it is actually about time that we as web developers
began pushing for users to upgrade. Simple non-invasive messages on the
top of our website for those that are using outdated browsers are simple
to implement, easily ignored by those that want to, and are helpful for
those that aren't as tech-savvy. Many people that are using IE6 don't
realize they are using an outdated version. I'd wager to bet that 99% of
those still using IE6 couldn't tell you the browser version they are
using because they aren't acclimated enough to know that there are
different versions of Internet Explorer. Most of these users are those
stereotypical users that think "Internet Explorer = The Internet". (The
other 1% are just crazy....)
Christian Montoya wrote:
On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 2:51 PM, Jens Brueckmann
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
2008/9/2 Gregorio Espadas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
I like the IE6Blocker from Chris Coyier, check it out at
http://css-tricks.com/ie-6-blocker-script/
ONLY if a web application absolutely relies on certain javascript
methods not available in old browsers may a user be warned about
difficulties in using this application. In these cases, detection
should be done by testing said methods, not by user agent sniffing.
Leave it to WSG to assume that Facebook.com is just another website.
Log into Facebook and profile your session with Firebug or a similar
Javascript tool. What you will soon find is that Facebook is one of
the most complex web applications out there today. It has a huge
number of AJAX & animation events throughout the many sections, as
well as a live chat feature similar to the one in Gmail. Just to give
you an example, Facebook has a continuously running "presence" monitor
that sends information via AJAX to the backend even as the logged-in
user is idle, to track and identify how users interact with the site.
One of the uses for this is to tell other users, with certainty, if
you are currently online.
Facebook has had a warning message on their homepage for a long time;
I remember seeing it at the beginning of this year. It's a way of
letting users know that some features of the site are bound to be
hindered because IE 6 is so outdated. I think this message went up
around the time that Facebook chat was released (April 2008), this is
why:
http://www.theangryhedgehog.com/2008/04/facebook-chat-and-ie-6.html
Currently, Facebook has a redesign of their site which is opt-in until
the testing period is over, which does not work with IE 6. It is well
understood that the new version features a lot more Javascript & AJAX
than the current design, and therefore, will take a while to make
compatible with IE 6, if at all. Facebook has not finished the opt-in,
testing period for their new design, so it is not correct to say that
they are downgrading support for IE 6. We can only say that if those
users are still blocked when the new design is actually released to
all users (which is scheduled to happen soon).
We might not agree with the way Facebook sniffs the user's browser,
but the point I am trying to make is that Facebook is far more a web
app than many people on this list may have ever known, and it
certainly does have different requirements than our blogs and
public-facing brochure sites. Also, since Facebook hasn't actually
finished their latest redesign, there is still a chance that they will
support IE 6 in the end; but I doubt it.
Last link:
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/google.com+myspace.com+facebook.com/?metric=uv
--
Christian Snodgrass
Azure Ronin Web Design
http://www.arwebdesign.net
http://www.numberoverflow.com
http://www.htmlblox.com
Phone: 859.816.7955
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