Some of Alan's views on this digital marketing malarkey ... there's more on: AlanCharlesworth.com

Monday, September 10, 2018

Another techie vs customer ... and customer loses

I've used Firefox browser since it first came out - mainly because it has the best security of the browsers. However, this security sometimes blocks sites. I also run ad-blockers on Firefox browser - which also means the content of some sites is blocked [I assume the software interprets the images as ads].

I accessed a certain page on Firefox. There was an instruction to 'Please select a visual...' - but there were no 'visuals' [I'm going to assume that 'visual' is techie-speak for 'image' or 'picture']. Blocked by Firefox, I assumed. Note that I can put a 'visual' on my website that won't be blocked on Firefox, so it must be possible. Of course, I use simple HTML, nothing technically fancy ... Oh, and Firefox is the chosen browser of around 10% of PC users. Could any business afford to have a 'go away' sign on their door that would be seen by 10% of their customers?

So I put the URL into  Both Microsoft edge and Chrome [the brand leader at around 65%] - and in both got this message ...



Here's the thing: On neither of these browsers do I have the cookies disabled.

This is not my - the customers' - fault.

Neither is it the fault of the browsers. They only 'read' the code of the website ... and something in that code is wrong.

It is the fault of the website's designers/engineers. If the software they are using isn't liked by browsers, they should change it to something that liked. 

But here's the kicker.

Website designers/engineers - those  with computer science qualifications - don't like to 'dumb down' their work. That is beneath them. They want to be seen as being on the cutting edge of technology.

The irony is that they blame everyone else when they are made redundant.

If customers can't get in, there's no money to pay their wages.

And for any doubters reading this: I just went on Amazon in all three browsers. Every page worked perfectly. 

Amazon's not doing too badly for itself.

I rest my case.

FOOTNOTE: 
A few minutes after posting this, I came across ... BA customers complain of having to check out of adblockers to check in for flights

UPDATE:  and another example ... the screenshot on the top is from Firefox, the bottom one from Chrome

 

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