A few days ago I found a story on Techcrunch that showed a screenshot of how WalMart’s new online video store was borked for anyone using the Firefox browser. There was much speculation in the comments over there and from other bloggers that it was a design flaw, but now we get the real story, straight from the horse’s mouth.
The screenshot to the right is what loads up when I use Firefox to access the site now. There are also reports today from other bloggers that people trying to access WalMart’s site using Mac and Apple computers are getting a similar message…
I’m using Windows XP on both my computers and only open the IE browser out of necessity, like when accessing a Microsoft site to download OS updates or patches, etc. But it’s out of necessity.
For a company to shut out a percentage of it’s customers who like to choose what brand of computer or software they use is just idiotic.
It was only this morning I was looking at the flyers I got with my Sunday paper. I’m looking for a new TV. Not a cheap one, but one that will end up costing about $1500 with taxes and delivery. There were a couple nice ones in the WalMart flyer… but I think I’ll buy it elsewhere, like from a more forward-looking company with a site that does not exclude me as a customer.
I have choices. I like choices, and that’s what I choose to do.
Will WalMart go under because decide not to buy my TV there? Nope. My $1500 means nothing to them in the grand scheme of things.
Click Here to get Firefox for free from Mozilla.
February 19th, 2007 at 12:43 am
You know, I could just be being egotistical, but I think someone working for Wal*Mart reads my blog.
Less than a day after writing an entry about it, and mentioning that they could degrade gracefully in browsers other than IE with a simple error message — behold…
Being serious though, I believe the reason they didn’t support other browsers is because of the actual product. As I understood it, the videos were only compatible with IE and PC. (I agree that it doesn’t make it right though.)
~ Teli