Due to some unholy (not to mention terrible) web designing, Wal-Mart’s new video download service is currently a giant, jumbled mess if you happen to be browsing the site using Firefox. From my understanding, this site/service is still in it’s beta mode but that does not excuse the fact that 100% of browser users currently using anything other than Internet Explorer cannot properly view the site.
According to Digg users who’ve commented (most of whom who use something other than IE, apparently), virtually all other browsers excluding IE will not correctly display this site. I don’t understand the technical mumbo-jumbo behind it, but basically, there’s a flaw in the programming somewhere.
Why a company like Wal-Mart would freeze out 20-30% of internet users is beyond me. Then again, maybe they realize that those of us using something other than IE aren’t going to be downloading full movies at minuscule sizes (I believe I read somewhere it’s 320X240) which can only be watched on the one computer using Windows Media Player, all for $20.
Apparently, using the keystroke “CTRL-F5″ fixes the problem and one can actually see the site clearly, but, when one attempts to add a movie to the cart, the following “message” appears:
Congratulations, Wal-Mart! You’ve managed to sink to a whole new level of crappiness (edited for content)!
Since the site will probably be fixed in the future to support other browsers, here’s a little present from me to you:
February 10, 2007 at 3:57 pm
[...] download service, but has made it available only on Microsoft’s Internet Exploror. News has erupted on the internet about this atrocity, and everyone is talking about it. [...]
February 10, 2007 at 4:06 pm
[...] Wal-Mart fails at the internet: New download service incompatible with Firefox [...]