Everyone knows that using Web sites can create tremendous frustration. Things slow down for no obvious reason. Crashes still occur. And general site wonkiness and weirdness is still common. The latter is especially hard to get right with so many different browser options.
Although Internet Explorer is still dominant, its 61% combined share is down from 68% just one year ago as rivals continue to gain share (Source: Net Applications). Many IE7 users have migrated to IE8, but the increasingly antiquated IE6 continues to stubbornly hold on.
In our last wave of MWES, some manufacturer brand sites were dinged because of browser-specific issues. So, I decided to try out all these sites across the latest versions of four major browsers: IE8, Firefox 3.6, Chrome 4.1, and Safari 4 (on Mac). “Major” flags sites with inoperable navigation or tools. “Minor” denotes errors that are merely annoying, e.g. formatting issues, minor functional problems, etc.
Firefox was the only browser that managed to render more than half of the sites perfectly during my completely unscientific field test. Safari performed relatively poorly, with almost two-thirds of the sites creating some kind of error.
Fortunately, show-stopping errors were rare. The most problematic issues occurred with audiusa.com on IE8: during the vehicle configuration process, the menus went completely nuts and stopped working.
Other major errors:
- BMW. Inoperable menu in IE8. Refreshing the page resolved the issue.
- Chrysler LLC. The shared template between Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep wasn’t able to load vehicles into the competitive comparison tool on Chrome, rendering it completely useless
- Jaguar. CPO inventory search didn’t work on IE8 or Safari.
- Kia. Gallery didn’t load on Safari
- Mitsubishi. Comparison tool threw an error page in both Chrome and IE8.
- Porsche. Couldn’t launch major tools from the model pages in Safari.
- Scion. Configurator wouldn’t launch on Safari.
Minor errors were mostly harmless and sometimes just plain perplexing. For instance, mazdausa.com’s images on its Brochures and Downloads page were stretched out on IE8.
In all honestly, if I invested enough time I could probably create an error for almost every OEM brand site. Still, it is clear that some sites are more at risk for delivering a suboptimal experience to a portion of its visitors.
Tagged with: Browser • Manufacturers • Website
4 comments ↓
Great info, Amit. I tried the Mazda Brochures page on IE8 and didn’t get the same result. The page displayed properly. Somehow we got different results.
Many of these errors didn’t occur on repeat visits, but most Internet users probably expect minor problems on occasion. More serious are the errors that prevent tools from being used, since those can truly drive shoppers away from the site.
Amit, thanks for looking out! However, I can’t seem to replicate the issue you saw on Mitsubishi’s site. Maybe it’s fixed?
Rob, I also can’t replicate most of the major errors I encountered – notably, the Chrysler sites still can’t launch the competitive comparison on Chrome. The remaining major errors were either fixed or my experience was just a blip. Given the volatility of site interaction, however, I could probably find new ones!
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