World’s first IE7 tax

Internet Explorer is a great bashing post for any web developer, and it’s been quite well reported over the last day or so that Austrlian website kogan.com have started to add tax to a users shopping cart if they are using Internet Explorer 7.

I’m always on board with pushing the web forward, and this is a great way to make the point and the user actually get something in return. Developers have added bars and pop ups (like the Push up plugin) for a long time, but to a user they my not see and real benefit. They probably will if they don’t want to be charged 0.01% tax for every day IE7 as been in the marketplace (currently sitting at around 6.5%).

“We all know that IE lags behind in terms of the latest technology. Even IE9 – and no amount of flashy TV adverts will change that.”

But, as with everything, there is a flip side. As I say, almost every developer loves an IE bashing. We all know that it lags behind in terms of the latest technology. Even IE9 – and no amount of flashy TV adverts will change that.

So the flip side.. should we physically punish people for their choice of browser? As the Kogan message aknowledges, it may not even be the persons choice (eg a work machine locked down by IT). I don’t think that should be the case.

And then there’s the question of where the line is drawn. IE8 will be next in the firing line. Windows XP users can’t upgrade from there, although they could switch to a different vendor. And speaking of the different vendors, how about Firefox – version 3 is a bit of a pain these days, and while most will have been constantly upgraded recently, for Mac users on Power PC’s, that’s as far as Firefox goes. So in order to get the best web experience, we’re now suggesting that user actually upgrade their machines as well as their browsers. If this was the case for a vistor to Kogan, I’d not be suprised to see them pay the IE tax.

Browsers are always going to change and modernise as with any form of technology. And for developers, older ones will give us headaches. So I suppose in pricipal, taxing older browsers is a great way to deter there use.

But is the best solution not to ensure all your core functionality works across all browsers, without bells and whistles. Then add the afore mentioned extras for compatible browsers. It’s called progressive enhancement and I think there’s been a few articles on the topic 😉