UserAgent != Compatibility

09:10.31 - Saturday 30th August 2008   (Link to This Entry)

In preparation for our upcoming trip to Tokyo I decided to check with airline KLM to ensure that my booking was complete and seats reserved. I toddled off to the KLM website using Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 (since the window happened to be open) and was promptly informed that my browser wasn't supported (click the image to the right).

The stupid thing about the method of detection they've employed is that it's all JavaScript based, since the website loads without problems and then redirects to the error message. Once there, you can simply opt to continue using your current browser anyway and the site works without problems. Amazing!

The problem, of course, extends from using the browser's UserAgent string to make a guess at compatibility. In this case a newer version of an existing browser, which you would reasonably expect to have the same feature set, has caused problems simply through not being recognised.

The answer is not to do any browser detection and - assuming your site is complex enough to warrant it - simply provide a link to a technical problems help page. Writing your site in a non-browser-specific way should be a no-brainer these days, too.