amraam Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 I tried to log into aircanada.ca with my FireFox web browser tonight (to check on prices from YYC to SXM for a spring holiday) and got this message: "We can't provide full features or properly formatted pages because your browser is not compatible with our site. See our Browser Requirements to download a compatible browser or to adjust your settings." Seems the guys at Air Canada who revised the websites didn't revise it to work on the hottest new browser available... Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagger Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 I tried to log into aircanada.ca with my FireFox web browser tonight (to check on prices from YYC to SXM for a spring holiday) and got this message: "We can't provide full features or properly formatted pages because your browser is not compatible with our site. See our Browser Requirements to download a compatible browser or to adjust your settings." Seems the guys at Air Canada who revised the websites didn't revise it to work on the hottest new browser available... Andrew A number of unsupported browsers still function on the site. However, with Firefox and Safari, they will be added over the course of the next few weeks. Try again in January. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neo Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Seems the guys at Air Canada who revised the websites didn't revise it to work on the hottest new browser available... Andrew No offense Andrew, but there's a Hot New Browser introduced about every week or so. An enormous majority of people use Microsoft Internet Explorer, and so web programmers naturally set things up that way. If Firefox sticks around, they'll work to it too. Best, neo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagger Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 To show you how fast things change in the browser world, when the AC website project began, Firefox wasn't even on the radar. Now, it does generate some activity, but it's still miniscule, but AC will go back and make it and Safari (Apple) compatible, possibly others, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deicer Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 I tried to log into aircanada.ca with my FireFox web browser tonight (to check on prices from YYC to SXM for a spring holiday) and got this message: "We can't provide full features or properly formatted pages because your browser is not compatible with our site. See our Browser Requirements to download a compatible browser or to adjust your settings." Seems the guys at Air Canada who revised the websites didn't revise it to work on the hottest new browser available... Andrew You write like a cub reporter at the Toronto Star..... Will we be seeing your article slagging AC tomorrow in the business section ? Iceman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amraam Posted December 14, 2004 Author Share Posted December 14, 2004 As always, thanks for the great comments Dagger and Neo...and Deicer...no....I'm not a journalist... Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jump seat Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 No problem using Firefox on either the travel.aircanada.ca OR aircanada.ca webset. Make sure you have the current version of firefox. You can check in the top right hand corner for a red arrow (if memory serves) and click on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAYDAY Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 I don't agree with the "new browser out every week" argument. When programming a website in this day and age, it would be wise to stick to standard HTML formatting. In the case of multimedia effects it would be smart if they used standard javascript or shockwave code. This would ensure compatibility on ANY browser because they are all designed to read HTML. Believe it or not, you actually have to go out of your way to design a website that only works in IE. Lastly, Firefox is not nearly as rare as some may think. It has gone from being non-existant to having 10,000,000 downloads in the last 6 months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaEH Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 I don't agree with the "new browser out every week" argument. That's because Dagger is good at putting spin on all things Air Canada. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cargo Agent Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 It has gone from being non-existant to having 10,000,000 downloads in the last 6 months. But how many of those downloads are actually used? What percentage of browser's does this acount for? I would imagine its still a drop in the bucket. I was one of those 10,000,000 but I admit I still stick with IE as it does what I want and I'm familiar with it. I would guess that there are a fair number of those 10,000,000 that have done the same as I. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagger Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 That's because Dagger is good at putting spin on all things Air Canada. Actually, that was Neo's argument. You can't even get that right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagger Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 That's because Dagger is good at putting spin on all things Air Canada. Actually, that was Neo's argument. You can't even get that right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neo Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 I don't agree with the "new browser out every week" argument. When programming a website in this day and age, it would be wise to stick to standard HTML formatting... MAYDAY, According to industry news, Microsoft IE has greater than 90% penetration in the browser market. I've heard figures as high as 95%. The idea that you should ignore that and create web sites to strictly open source standards is perhaps noble but not very realistic. Microsoft executed a brilliant strategy around IE. First, they won the browser war, and then they gave their browser abilities that are useful beyond standard HTML, etc. Naturally, site programmers like to use them because they add nice features that almost everyone can see. And even if you do program your web site to strictly open source standards, it's still no guarantee that every browser in existence is 100% compliant with those standards. Subtle differences in the way each browser works makes the site programmer's job difficult. He would have to check the site using each browser to be ablsolutely sure all was well. That's a daunting task when there's so many browsers out there. Do you see things differently? neo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MAYDAY Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Neo, Thanks for your reply. I do indeed see things a little differently. There are so many great looking sites that function perfectly with standard code. I find it difficult to believe that AC can not render a page of the same quality without using IE specific features. The industry, much like ours, is changing. If a company wants to ensure that it gets it product out to the maximum amount of customers, then it should have a website which opens in any browser. Many other large companies have caught on, so hopefully if Dagger is correct, AC will soon follow. The issue really boils down to what type of tools / programmers are creating the page. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fido Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 The problem with the 'new' aircanada.ca website is not so much browser related as it seems that people are able to use other browsers. If they can get on the site . The problem that I am having is that I have only been able to get the website to work if it is the middle of the night. The rest of the time I cannot even get the search button to show any reaction at all. It sounds like someone did not properly scale the server capacity to the traffic load. I still say that this is affecting the gross sales for the quarter and is a boon to Westjet and JetsGo and CanJet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagger Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 The problem with the 'new' aircanada.ca website is not so much browser related as it seems that people are able to use other browsers. If they can get on the site . The problem that I am having is that I have only been able to get the website to work if it is the middle of the night. The rest of the time I cannot even get the search button to show any reaction at all. It sounds like someone did not properly scale the server capacity to the traffic load. I still say that this is affecting the gross sales for the quarter and is a boon to Westjet and JetsGo and CanJet. I don't know, man. I've been on the site several times today checking things and no problem. And I've got the woefully out of date unsupported browser. Speed and accessibility don't seem to be an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest neo Posted December 14, 2004 Share Posted December 14, 2004 Hi MAYDAY, I don't know enough about site programming, etc. to take the discussion too much farther. But I believe it's pretty reasonable to program your site for the browser that 90+% of your visitors are using. The problem the original poster had is also a little vague. It's possible the problem was less about browser incompatibility, and more about security settings and the like. It sounds like he couldn't get on the site at all, let alone see or use its features. A site such as AC's is highly interactive. It's not just a question of viewing things the way the programmer intended. Lot's of information is going to pass back and forth in data entry and such, and that's a whole extra level of complexity with attendant security issues as well. If the client isn't set up properly, it ain't gonna work. I'll betcha you could adjust your IE settings in a way that would make it impossible for the site to work with that browser as well. Best, neo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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