mezzoblue: It's a Canadian Thing

By praetorian, at 21:25:32 on 2005-02-24.

2005-02-24T21:25:32-08:00

my favorite part of the air canada site is "We can't provide full features or properly formatted pages because your browser is not compatible with our site."

so basically, they're admitting THEY're own failure, yet it's because MY browser (firefox 1.0/mac) is not compatible. hysterical. no, actually, it's quite pathetic.

By pid, at 04:05:11 on 2005-02-25.

2005-02-25T04:05:11-08:00

The BBC News website shows a splash page if it can't find a cookie with your regional preference in it.

By Erwin Heiser, at 14:58:33 on 2005-02-28.

2005-02-28T14:58:33-08:00

I also live in Belgium (hi, len!), multi-language sites are a given here. I usually do a splashscreen but add the posibility to change the language on every page. A good example is the site I did for the Antwerp Ballet School http://www.koninklijke-balletschool-antwerpen.be
I recently tried using a stylesheetswitcher to do the same (on a site for a designer friend of mine http://www.jeanmeirlaen.be so you don't hace to reload the page, just a div with the text.
Oh yeah, the AIR Canada is just pathetic; I thought we were past that cr@@@p.

By tom, at 10:41:36 on 2005-03-01.

2005-03-01T10:41:36-08:00

This may have been mentioned before in the comments (I did not read them all), but the Canada Post site is also a good one to look at - http://www.canadapost.com.

By Simon, at 12:28:33 on 2005-03-03.

2005-03-03T12:28:33-08:00

Just one more gripe about the shocking arrogance and lack of awareness shown by aircanada's browser requirements!

Unfortunately for them, their laughable attempt at getting me to downgrade my browser is likely to be the last visit I'll make there!

I was so gobsmacked, I sent them off an email, not soemthing I'd normally bother doing.

Rant over. Thanks for the interesting topic!

By Geof Harries, at 19:49:29 on 2005-03-03.

2005-03-03T19:49:29-08:00

We use a very simple english/french link at the top of this website http://www.yukoncommunities.yk.ca/ that remembers the preference as you navigate around. I feel it's easy to use and understand, avoiding a lot of unneccasry code in the process.

Not an e-commerce site, but this link system is going to find its way into a online store project we're working on at the moment.

And good luck to all those sending emails off to Air Canada - a colleague of mine phoned them directly (he's non-technical) to complain about the browser "requirements" and was told by Customer Service that it was Apple's problem, not theirs. He was made to feel both stupid and un-valued. Hmmm.

Go WestJet!

geof

By Mike Ward, at 07:39:34 on 2005-03-04.

2005-03-04T07:39:34-08:00

I have done a splash screen with a choice between English and French a few years ago for a site for an American artist now living in France. I am about to do a redesign so this is a very timely article.

Admitly, I have only browsed the comments as of now but I was thinking about having both the English and French sections on the page and having cookie based scripting decide what section to show via CSS.

That wasn't a very eloquent explanation but I hope my idea is clear enough to get this groups opinion on an option like that. I am currently maintaining 2 copies of everything and was wondering if my idea would help.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Ciao, Bye, etc...
Mike

By Danny Halarewich, at 13:26:20 on 2005-03-09.

2005-03-09T13:26:20-08:00

I have noticed this too actually becoming more popular lately when looking at canadian websites, namely retail.

By S, at 21:46:33 on 2005-03-14.

2005-03-14T21:46:33-08:00

I can talk a little bit more about Air Canada's website, having been part of the redesign team.

First, the Splash page: If I remember correctly, it was a client request even if we talk to them about HTTP header. The main reason is to separate the US and Canadian version of the site since they don't have the same flights or specials.

Browser compatibility: Well... Let me just say that Air Canada still use Netscape 4 at all their offices.

Web standard: It goes without saying that their pretty much inexistent considering we HAD to support Netscape4 :-(

And I'm not even talking about the two different group inside Air Canada who were fighting over the direction or the fact that it cost too much to really redo the whole website but I'm going off subject.

Having a splash page show only once (like Air Canada does) is not that bad considering some site you have to hunt to change language or always show the splash. A simpler solution in my mind is an HTTP header AND the use of a language button.

By Bruce Ritchie, at 09:59:07 on 2005-03-21.

2005-03-21T09:59:07-08:00

gmcanada.com actually does use the accept-language to determine which language to present to the user upon initial visit to the site as well as includes a very obvious link to the other official language if the user wants to view the site in another language.