News
'Taxed' for using an old web browser
Posted on the 22nd June 2012.
The online electronics retailer Kogan made headlines this week by charging a fee for people who bought from his web site using the Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) web browser. They charge a fee of 6.8% for people using IE7 when purchasing. Customers get this warning when they get to the checkout while using the old browser:
However, people are upgrading to a later browser rather than paying the tax.
While most likely a promotional stunt, it does raise the issue of people still using old web browsers and it’s impact. There are a number of good reasons for people to make sure their web browser is updated.
Security
Older web browsers have security issues that have been fixed in more recent versions. So upgrading helps to protect your computer from viruses and other malicious software. Microsoft recommends that Internet Explorer users upgrade to the latest version for this reason.New Features
Today’s web sites use features that come standard in the latest web browsers. Using the latest web browser will give you the best browsing experience. Some web sites may not display correctly and may not work at all in older web browsers. The number of people using IE7 is dropping. StarCounter calculated only 1.33% of the total web access was from IE7 in Australia (May 2012). So it’s getting to a point where web site designers will no longer support it.Designing
Kogan’s owner, Ruslan Kogan, told BBC News, “The amount of work and effort involved in making our website look normal on IE7 equaled the combined time of designing for Chrome, Safari and Firefox.” Support for old web browsers pushes up the cost of new web sites.Upgrading
The latest version of Internet Explorer depends on what version of Windows you are running. If you still run Windows XP, the highest version of Internet Explorer is version 8. If you run Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can upgrade to version 9.However, that is not your only option. Safari, Firefox and Google’s Chrome web browsers are more quickly updated to add new features and close security holes. They also are available for Windows XP.
Read the full article on the BBS News web site.
