The Browser Blockers: Is Browser Sniffing Outdated?
It's vexing enough when certain Web sites render incorrectly in your chosen browser (see "When good browsers go bad -- and they all do" ). But what about when you can't get into a site at all? Many financial institutions and some other Web sites restrict access to only approved browsers. As many new users of Chrome found out earlier this year, if you have the wrong browser -- or the wrong browser version -- you're locked out.
"We've been reaching out to Webmasters, and they've been fixing those," says Brian Rakowski, Google's director of product management for Chrome.
Bruce Lawson, Web evangelist at Opera, says, "It's a core issue in that it has to do with Web developers coding for a browser" -- in other words, making use of a given browser's proprietary features rather than using standards, which he calls "not a very sustainable development strategy."
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