Comments on: PushUpTheWeb.com: Browser detection and Upgrading

By: JeromeLapointe

JeromeLapointe — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:12:28 +0000

Great initiative. I work as an integrator for a high traffic commercial site and will ask my boss if we can go live with this.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:13:12 +0000

@Morquan, matanlurey: I’ve modelled this to look like it could be something from the browser itself because users are familiar with it (window update) making it more likely the link is clicked.
The reason no third party site is used is because I feel that it would only be another obstruction. Websites like microsoft.com and getfirefox.com are more trustworthy then one I could create. The update message alone should be enough information, I will leave the selling up to the browser vendors.

By: matanlurey

matanlurey — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 20:05:01 +0000

I agree with Morquan that it should be more explicit that it is not a system-initiated upgrade request, and should link indirectly through pushuptheweb.com.

By: Morquan

Morquan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 19:52:19 +0000

I think the design of this is really problematic. To moderately savvy web users (those in between your mom and the sort that’s already upgraded anyway), it looks like the very definition of a suspicious link, and is something they will likely just skip over out of visual habit. To the novice web user, if they see it at all, you’re now reinforcing a very bad behavior in clicking that sort of thing.

The spirit of the project is a good one, but it’s something that each host site will have to actually buy into by integrating it in a way to make it look trustworthy, rather than foreign.

I’d also question the use of direct third party linking. Might it not be a better tactic to link people to a page on pushuptheweb.com with available download links and some information explaining why they should upgrade? If you’re looking to improve the usership of the web, do so through understanding rather than indirection.

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:48:45 +0000

@restlessdesign: IE6 is supported, the idea is to get it to upgrade. The versions shown are those that Pushup targets for upgrades.

By: restlessdesign

restlessdesign — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:44:23 +0000

A nice idea, but I don’t see it doing much good, especially if it won’t support IE6. Every browser on that list has acceptable results from using standards-based markup. Furthermore, they all have their own auto-update feature which, if I’m not mistaken, is enabled by default.

By: DarrenKopp

DarrenKopp — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:41:47 +0000

bad. bad. bad. bad. bad. i give it 2 weeks until people start putting malware executables called ie7.exe as what you are downloading.

By: MichaelThompson

MichaelThompson — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:07:40 +0000

SaveTheDevelopers.org may’ve done it first, but PushUpTheWeb.com did it better: browser version checks instead of just a “don’t use IE6″ bubble with a more robust codebase.

Such a clean UI — and with the “remind me again in 6 hours” — it could easily be mistaken for an OS alert by the types that might be running older browsers.

Bravo!

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:00:28 +0000

Thanks a lot Dion.

@fuzzy76: I’ve actually attempted to contribute something similar to savethedevelopers.org but they didn’t pick up on it.

By: kim3er

kim3er — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:57:05 +0000

I like it. We need more personal sites adopting things like PushUpTheWeb & Save The Developers. Maybe even annual day (like Naked CSS Day) where sites break, or are redirected, when viewed in IE6.

Rich

By: fuzzy76

fuzzy76 — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:42:24 +0000

It’s essentially a knock-off of http://www.savethedevelopers.org/ which has been there for ages…