World's first 'tax' on Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18440979
The Australian online retailer Kogan.com has introduced the world's first "tax" on Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) browser.
Customers who use IE7 will have to pay an extra surcharge on online purchases made through the firm's site.
Chief executive Ruslan Kogan told the BBC he wanted to recoup the time and costs involved in "rendering the website into a antique browser".
The charge is set to 6.8% - 0.1% for every month since the IE7 launch.

I'm using firefox, but WTF!!
[rant]
Why are they penalising people who use older software!
[/rant]
Sod it I'll buy somewhere else. :pac:

Nerdkiller1991

Anything to get the old folk off of IE6, please.

conor.hogan.2

They should do it for IE8 too tbh.

El_Dangeroso

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

They should do it for IE8 too tbh.

And 9 while they're at it..

El Weirdo

Proper fucking order.

maglite

O I dunno might be "Chief executive Ruslan Kogan told the BBC he wanted to recoup the time and costs involved in "rendering the website into a antique browser"."

DjFlin

That seems excessive. Anyone still using IE7 would either have very little understanding of tech or is using it on a work/college pc where they cant update it.
Either way, they're just causing problems for their consumers.

frozenfrozen

Great idea!

GetWithIt

Great idea - for some free advertising.

Skylinehead

El_Dangeroso wrote: »

And 9 while they're at it..

9 is a surprisingly good browser. Lightning quick. Still wouldn't use it mind, love Chrome too much

Kensington

Who in the jaesus uses Internet Explorer?!
Frankly, you deserve to be taxed if you willingly use it (and you shouldn't be online shopping in work if you're forced to use it there) :pac:

Where To

Good job I'm still on Netscape or I'd be really angry about this.

bokkenspiel

most older computers can't run the new IE browsers so that's why so many are still on IE6. People are idiots and wont understand that firefox or chrome do the same thing quicker. But the choose not to use it because the bar on top looks different and anything they don't something about they avoid in case they do something wrong.

a fat guy

IE 6 is over a decade old and this company has to cater to these people the same as they'd cater to people with modern, more secure browsers.

Maybe it's just that I've been with a company that's had to deal with this problem, but I'm honestly siding with the company on this one...

c montgomery

I use internet explorer and firefox and being honest theres not much difference in speeds.

Best username ever

You know the stupid cúnts are thinking about taxing per megabyte

Canis Lupus

Is this real? Will people who use the older browser be warned that buying a product through IE will be more expensive? Surely if that's the stance they want to take then it would be better to stop designing for IE and simply display a message with links to alternate browsers to users who want to buy from their site?

Biggins

Fastest one of the whole lot, Maxthon: http://www.maxthon.com/mx3/
Few extensions because of new to scene but the ad-block is very good.
The themes/skins for it are very nice and they have a night switch for the tired eyes also (great for Facebook).
Worth checking out. I find it the fastest of the whole lot.

Eoin

Mr Kogan said that even though only 3% of his customers used the old version of the browser, his IT team had become pre-occupied with making adaptations to make pages display properly on IE 7.

Then the problem is with your IT / project managers not your paying customers, you twat. What a stupid story.

conor.hogan.2

Biggins wrote: »

Fastest one of the whole lot, Maxthon: http://www.maxthon.com/mx3/
Few extensions because of new to scene but the ad-block is very good.
The themes/skins for it are very nice and they have a night switch for the tired eyes also (great for Facebook).
Worth checking out. I find it the fastest of the whole lot.

Maxthon pfffft Sleipner is where it is at.

Faith+1

Kensington wrote: »

Who in the jaesus uses Internet Explorer?!
Frankly, you deserve to be taxed if you willingly use it (and you shouldn't be online shopping in work if you're forced to use it there) :pac:

I do?? Never had a problem with it??

D1stant

RyanAir are light years ahead of these guys. They apply an additional tax to everyone with a computer

x_Ellie_x

Instead of taxing them, why can't they re-direct them to microsofts website so they can download the newer version? Some people might not use computers that much and might not even know how to update their browsers.

conor.hogan.2

They do direct people to get a decent browser or else pay a higher price.

mcmoustache

Wtf! When did people stop sending GET requets to servers, receive html and just imagine what the page might look like?

I feel old.

Cookie_Monster

I wish we could start charging customers extra for using cheques... stupid slow outdated tech that causes lots of extra work. It's about time they were done away with

D1stant

D1stant wrote: »

RyanAir are light years ahead of these guys. They apply an additional tax to everyone with a computer

At least I can choose a different airline for a reasonable price after the competiton introduced into the market. So many idiots dont understand what ryanair did for the industry and public.. Even if you hate them, thank them for the cheap prices with other carriers.

This guy in OP is up there with the marketing genius of Ryanair though.. Good work on getting the name out from something so simple.

Coriolanus

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

I wish we could start charging customers extra for using cheques... stupid slow outdated tech that causes lots of extra work. It's about time they were done away with

You could if you want. They're not legal tender so you can impose any conditions you like. Ie no cheques less than 100 euro purchase or whatever.

Alun

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

I wish we could start charging customers extra for using cheques... stupid slow outdated tech that causes lots of extra work. It's about time they were done away with

They are being done away with, not sure of the date though.

smash

Deleted User wrote: »

Why are they penalising people who use older software!

Because ie doesn't like to display websites properly, it's always been a pain in the ass and it costs companies money in development costs when designers and developers have to put in the extra time.

danniemcq

grumble

wonder how much they charge for ie6

stupid work pcs

puffishoes

Ah Morketing, god bless em.

runawaybishop

x_Ellie_x wrote: »

Instead of taxing them, why can't they re-direct them to microsofts website so they can download the newer version? Some people might not use computers that much and might not even know how to update their browsers.

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/60896000/jpg/_60896332_ie7taxpopup.jpg

^^ they explain and direct you to get a proper browser.

krudler

Where To wrote: »

Good job I'm still on Netscape or I'd be really angry about this.

still a better browser than IE6 :pac:

wes

Why not just drop support instead, if its costing so much.....

Kev_2012

As someone who works in the industry, this is a f*cking brilliant idea. I don't care how computer illiterate you are, you run windows update and get the newest version.

Do you try to play DVDs in your VCR?

The amount of time spent fixing stupid issues on older browsers is outrageous.

For Example :
PNGs cant be used in IE6
IE 6, 7 and 8 don't support HTML5 or CSS3
IE 6 and 7 have this really annoying bug that repeats texts in a totally different part of the window for no bloody reason. I know how to fix it, but it took a long time to figure it out!

And there is a lot more :mad:

Eoin

Kev_2012 wrote: »

As someone who works in the industry, this is a f*cking brilliant idea. I don't care how computer illiterate you are, you run windows update and get the newest version.

Do you try to play DVDs in your VCR?

The amount of time spent fixing stupid issues on older browsers is outrageous.

For Example :
PNGs cant be used in IE6
IE 6, 7 and 8 don't support HTML5 or CSS3
IE 6 and 7 have this really annoying bug that repeats texts in a totally different part of the window for no bloody reason. I know how to fix it, but it took a long time to figure it out!

And there is a lot more :mad:

So don't fix them and display a message recommending that the customer uses a different browser, rather than this type of arrogance from this company.

puffishoes

Eoin wrote: »

So don't fix them and display a message recommending that the customer uses a different browser, rather than this type of arrogance from this company.

it's nothing to do with arragonce, it's a marketing stunt and a win win situation.

I think it's rather clever considering IE has lost it's dominance in the browser wars.

runawaybishop

Eoin wrote: »

So don't fix them and display a message recommending that the customer uses a different browser, rather than this type of arrogance from this company.

That's pretty much what they did.

Eoin

runawaybishop wrote: »

That's pretty much what they did.

puffishoes wrote: »

it's nothing to do with arragonce, it's a marketing stunt and a win win situation.

I think it's rather clever considering IE has lost it's dominance in the browser wars.

At a technical level perhaps it might be the same, but there's a world of difference between recommending that someone upgrades their browser to get the best experience, and telling them that they're going to "tax" you because of the software running on your computer.

If their developers spent an inordinate amount of time catering for 3% of their site users, then they need the kick up the hole, not the 3% of their potential customers.

runawaybishop

Eoin wrote: »

At a technical level perhaps it might be the same, but there's a world of difference between recommending that someone upgrades their browser to get the best experience, and telling them that they're going to "tax" you because of the software running on your computer.

If their developers spent an inordinate amount of time catering for 3% of their site users, then they need the kick up the hole, not the 3% of their potential customers.

Did you take a look at the message they present to the users? Its in the linked article. They tell you IE 7 sucks, explain why they will tax you for using it, then link you to other browsers that don't incur a suckage tax. Its all clearly very tongue in cheek and an excellent marketing ploy.

Stark

Deleted User wrote: »

[rant]
Why are they penalising people who use older software!
[/rant]

Would you expect to be able to buy stuff online using Netscape 3?

StupidLikeAFox

Deleted User wrote: »

Sod it I'll buy somewhere else. :pac:

dolan pls

Eoin

Yes I did. The message is snide, not "tongue in cheek". I don't get how this is excellent marketing.

puffishoes

Eoin wrote: »

At a technical level perhaps it might be the same, but there's a world of difference between recommending that someone upgrades their browser to get the best experience, and telling them that they're going to "tax" you because of the software running on your computer.

If their developers spent an inordinate amount of time catering for 3% of their site users, then they need the kick up the hole, not the 3% of their potential customers.

You don't seem to get it.

It's nothing to do with the dev's the time the cost the tax.

It's about exposure, and they got it. O'Learly like almost.

The technicalities are completely irrelevant

puffishoes

Eoin wrote: »

Yes I did. The message is snide, not "tongue in cheek". I don't get how this is excellent marketing.

They were linked around the globe pretty much the whole day yesterday

you can't "buy" that sort of exposure.

It's genius.

runawaybishop

Eoin wrote: »

Yes I did. The message is snide, not "tongue in cheek". I don't get how this is excellent marketing.

snide/snīd/
Adjective:

Derogatory or mocking in an indirect way: "snide remarks".

^^ there is nothing indirect about their mocking.

Dravokivich

Kev_2012 wrote: »

As someone who works in the industry,

...you should know that in corperate environments there tends to be a big emphasise on version control for the software used by the end user.

A lot of people doing online shopping, might wish to do so while on lunch, but would be put off here if they are required to use IE6 in work.

puffishoes

Dravokivich wrote: »

...you should know that in corperate environments there tends to be a big emphasise on version control for the software used by the end user.

A lot of people doing online shopping, might wish to do so while on lunch, but would be put off here if they are required to use IE6 in work.

I would hope there's not a sys admin on the planet that hasn't moved away from IE6

Einhard

Hilarious that on top of all the other petty snobberies in the world, we now have browser snobbery!

Dravokivich

puffishoes wrote: »

I would hope there's not a sys admin on the planet that hasn't moved away from IE6

It is never a Sys Admins decision.