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bonsvoeux bonsvoeux
 
January 17, 2009 08:31 AM

Why do some secure sites only work with IE6 on a PC? Why do they not support Firefox and safari on a Mac?

Real estate website - Multiple Listing Service and my healthcare provider will only work with IE6 or later. As a Mac user who would never use Windows much less IE to access  due to security and privacy fear. Seems to me that supporting these other browsers would please a lot of users.
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spoon spoon
 
 January 17, 2009 01:33 PM
Short Answer - The webdesigner for the site was lazy and didn't code the site to true web standards so it will work everywhere.

Longer Answer/Suggestion - Email the site you want to access and tell them (politely of course) how stupid it is that they are eliminating well over 25% of the online population by not having their site updated to work in all browsers.  Explain that they need to make their webdesigner aware of the W3C and it's validation processes because that will insure the site works for everyone!

I would also suggest including this link in your email so anyone reading it can see exactly what happens to their site when viewed in different browsers -
Source(s):
Many years as a web-designer



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bonsvoeux bonsvoeux
 
January 18, 2009 06:48 AM
I totally agree. The national real estate multiple listing service has continued to ignore vast amounts of complaints and requests to modify the site for it's subscribing agents. Most the real estate brokers I know want to work on a Mac. Some have taken my advice to get a Mac, buy Fusion and a copy of Windows and switch between the 2 as a workaround.

As for my healthcare provider, they brought their "secure" site on line a year ago using NextGen EMR software that only works on IE6. I have complained and complained and am told they are working on it. What a crock. And, they are using MD5 digital cert that was recently shown to be crackable. I have told them but so far no response. WTF

Thanks for validating what I have been saying for years. I've designed a few sights and have never had a problem having them work on all browsers

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inoycavale... inoycavale...
 
January 17, 2009 12:49 PM
its depend to the website language, i mean the programming language such as php, java or mysql. or maybe because IE is the oldest browser and most of people use it. although in fact its not true, many people use non Ms browser like firefox, safari, opera et

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spoon spoon
 
January 18, 2009 02:42 AM - New Source
Technically IE is not the oldest browser on the web actually...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_web_browsers

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webline webline
 
January 17, 2009 12:58 PM
IE and other browsers often have different ways of rendering the content, html and css of a website. Often times, web sites were designed and tested with IE only, and had no regard for other browsers that were "young" and barely used. With the increasing popularity of Firefox and other browsers, web developers and designers now need to design and test for all major browsers, however there are some sites that still are non functional outside of IE, and it may be that the developer or designer simply hasn't updated the site to do so.

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dophie dophie
 
January 17, 2009 05:59 PM
Yes, you're right. "Secure" sites only support IE6 / Windows is daft!

Often the site designers/developers are working to a tight budget / timeline and simply can't do anything but the most basic site. Throw money at them to fix it :

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spoon spoon
 
January 18, 2009 02:43 AM
Budget and timeline really shouldn't have anything to do with this. It does not take any longer, or cost any more, to code a site to standards... it comes down to the knowledge of the people the site has putting the site together and how lazy they are.

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dophie dophie
 
January 19, 2009 11:35 AM
Sorry Spoon but you're way out.

Whilst budget and timelines shouldn't have anything to do with it, we don't live in a utopia where everything is free and we can take as long as we like. Things in the real world cost money and take time. It does cost more and it does take longer to rescope, redesign and test any website. Chances are that the people who did the website really wanted to do it differently but couldn't because of these constraints.

Also wrong is that lack of knowledge = lazy.

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