This is what Walmart’s brand new video site looks like in the Firefox browser. It works fine in Internet Explorer, but the CSS is not loading properly in Firefox. One designer’s opinion: “Somebody really fucked up. I could fix this in 30 seconds. Did they even test this in Firefox before launching?”
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Yeah I saw this last night when this was first posted but assumed they were just working on the site. I didn’t bother to check IE, I guess they didnt bother to support other browsers.
I fixed it in 5 seconds by doing a shift-reload. No story here.
Not a story, but a good lesson. Don’t forget to Q&A on a computer other than your own.
Looks like the tag works though!
Awww, it commented out my blink tag reference!
the css is being sent with the wrong headers, plain text instead of css text, that’s why it’s not working
It’s definitely a story. What fraction of FF users think to shift-reload? It seems to be reliably broken on first load.
yep, its working now with a hard refresh.
Tough crowd
In Safari the basket (0 Items) and signed in status (Welcome Guest) are over the top of each other. Look in the upper left.
Yeah yeah I know you probably can’t use the service on a mac anyway. But still it would be nice to see some good web design.
@Sam Davyson, looks the same in firefox.
Anyone see the beta in the title?
Anyway, if it works like other Windows video download services (i.e. CinemaNow, Movielink), you will need to use IE.
Sorry Jake - that’s not why
The w3c is there for a reason, and I guess Wal-Mart didn’t use their free validation service. All easily fixable, if they would just take a look.
http://validator.w3.org/check?.....reHome.jsp
Works fine on Safari. Walmart is not a software company nor is their Walmart.com a good e-tail store. This (and other problems) should be expected.
-Amit
http://www.ipatrons.com
Actually the hard refresh in Firefox doesn’t necessarily work. Everything looks fine, but it’s not functional. The site states that it doesn’t support browsers other than IE.
They didn’t test non IE browsers becuase windows DRM requires Windows Media Player and an IE browser.
It may be ‘fixed’ or never meant to suport non-IE, but quite amusing that the snap preview of it has all the bad formatting still (at time of this comment anyway).
Well, they all still suck (video downloads). I prefer Macs and iPods, but even that takes forever to download. It’ll take time. In the meantime I’ll say it again, forget Netflix and Blockbuster. I prefer Redbox if I want a new release.
I can’t believe this!
How would they release such a big product without EVER testing it on Firefox!
I know, it’s a conspiracy! I think Microsoft paid them some money and they made an effort to mess it up
What’s Firefox?
- Lucas
http://www.lucasmcdonnell.com
I show close to 80% IE users across my sites…Is that what you all see? Still its a pretty big botch for a company like Walmart to not tes on FireFox.
Ironically my designers always get everything working in Firefox first which drives me insane because when something breaks it is always in IE which is again 80% of my visitors…not that I don’t love Firefox, it is my default and using it as I type, but at least Walmart got it working in IE and not the other way around…and this is what is great about the web. You can post crappy software and have all of us test it and then fix it and all you get for it is more publicity for your new launch.
sick
What average firefox user will know to do a hard refresh? Not many. I’ve been designing sites with firefox for several months now, but I still make an effort to check the pages in IE so I know that the rest of world can see them the way I do. I just checked walmarts page, and it looked exactly like that screen shot, a hard refresh fixed 90 percent of the problem, but part of the page up near the account settings (top left under the walmart header image) is still broken a bit.
to Andy Swan
- my friend, you commented “tough crowd”
- we are nice, compared to the average person.
- when your site looks like this, expect them to never come back.
—-
*we shouldn’t make a excuse that they are not a web company or software company. They have enough revenue to pay an expert they should.
-Rbowles
HAHA,
Walmart messed up. That is the problem with some designers, they design for ie and completely forget to design for any other browser. I went to this website and got the same thing. I thought there was too much traffic and it didn’t work for me but I guess I was wrong. Webmasters are supposed to test for multiple browsers not just one. Walmart must going crazy that this is happening. All I remember people telling me, make for firefox and hack for ie.
Walmart isn’t the only stupid big company. Salesgenie.com ran a Super Bowl ad and their website also has CSS problems in FireFox. They paid $2.5M for a commercial and they couldn’t spend $100 on an outsourced web designer?
I wrote a blog article with some screenshots http://www.xobni.com/blog/2007.....beat-them/
Hilarious. Just couldn’t believe it messed up so hard. Any random website would at least preserve some styles in FF. This is the worst case I’ve ever seen, especially from a company rich enough to hire Bill to do it, virtually. Just couldn’t believe it.
the only thing worse would be not linking to the site in your post and instead linking to another one of your posts to get the link…
What a bunch of idiots… It looks like they are using the ‘Walmart’ of web design teams as well.
Man.. unbelievable mess. How did they do it? Its not an easy mess to get into. Walmart seems to be flopping hard lately.
Re: “Anyone see the beta in the title?”
Completely ignoring browsers outside of IE is inexcusable in today’s world, especially if your product has any sort of appeal to the tech savvy. That stuff may fly on your corporate Intranet where IT only officially supports IE, but not online.
I understand “beta” means it’s a work-in-progress, but I think something like this pushes the understanding of the term too far. =)
definitely screwed up in firefox, displays fine in safari though…
BWAHAAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!! As of 5:30p (EST) it’s still broken.
Gigaom captures the sentiments best:
“That’s ……… corporate stupidity. If you go through the archives of The Industry Standard, I am sure you will find more. Well into the first decade of the new century, you see delusionary behavior making a strong comeback.
Today, WalMart, which has enjoyed little success with its previous technology expansion plans, announced its desire to get into the movie download business.”
http://gigaom.com/2007/02/06/w.....downloads/
obviously, firefox users are not part of their audience
It’s disappointing to see only 26 titles in Children/Family category.
It’s disappointing to see only 26 titles in Children/Family category. I would expect more.
http://www.fairyland.tv
OMG, it looks even worse in Lynx!
it choked my machine on load (Mac, firefox), so I viewed source: 8481 lines of code.
junk, i tell you. junk.
granted there are many empty lines amongst those 8481, but geez…… still a choker.
nice, i kinda like it that way…
Reports are out that they were ffox hacked by Netflix and Blockbuster drove the getaway car.
My bet is that those at WM who tested it already had the css sheet and therefore did not experience this.
Me-ouchhhhhhh. The site is just as jacked up in IE (IE6).
Those enterprise Java guys probably forgot to commit CSS files to CVS/SVN.
But it’s been over 7 hrs since the 1st comment. I wonder if there was a new shipment of Wii’s or PS3’s and the package manager said screw it
Sorry Wal-Mart but it’s funny. Best Tech Virual Campaign - you’ve got my vote!
Well it doesn’t work in FF on my PC even after a refresh.
Sort of a rookie move. Perhaps not actually such a surprise for something that really isn’t that core to Walmart (DVDs are, but not selling DRM video over the net).
It’s plain dumb though. FF is not a techie haven anymore. Most of our users are pretty darn mainstream (15% dial-up), but they still are also 15% FF …
I used to work for Wily Technology in Brisbane, two office buildings away from Walmart’s web team. I took the bus from the BART station accompanied by a legion of Walmart folks. Not to pass judgement on these folks, but I have no other way of describing them than arrogant & green. It’s a deadly combination. Many of them had chips on their shoulders, and talked a little too loudly about the ivy league colleges they graduated from (last year). They were also completely in the dark about some of the social issues facing Walmart. How can you work there, live in the Bay Area, have an ivy league diploma, and have your head so buried in the sand that you can’t articulate people’s opposition to the most hated corporation in America? This crew had rookie written all over them. And, unfortunately, they had smirky smug looks on their faces. Hopefully, rookie moves like this will help flatten that smirk out a bit.
yep had this same problem with one of the sites I was helping someone work on was a easy fix though like someone said.
Extra points for anyone who figures out the cause of the problem?
Anyone?
weird, I just went there for the first time ever and it was all messed up, but then did a hard refresh and it was fine. oh, then did another refresh and it was messed up. looks like the fix is only some of the servers…
onload:
[icon] INVALID PASSWORD!
Your user name exists but the password is not valid.
Yup… those guys are rookies, green and have no experience.
http://www.linkedin.com/search.....Criteria=4
and they aren’t a software company…
http://jobs-walmart.icims.com/.....searchZip=
http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/Compa.....Jobs_16427
they certainly look like a software company full of and seeking experienced people to me.
rather, what portion of walmart.com users do you think even know what FireFox is. They all use IE and don’t know the difference. The impacts this audience, not the real audience of walmart.com