The msnbc.com website displays differently according to what browser is being used. With Internet Explorer, the nice menu system on the left side displays a submenu when the mouse hovers over the section heads.
With Mozilla or Firebird, the page displays but the menu either doesn’t work correctly or isn’t displayed.
With Opera identifying as Opera, you don’t even get the page. You get three stories from each section and that’s it. Not even a link at the bottom of the page to contact them.
That’s fine. I’m used to some sites not working well in Opera and it is a cross I’m willing to bear. And I would expect a site that is a joint effort including Microsoft to be biased towared IE.
But here is the fun part:
In Opera’s quick preferences, choose “Identify as MSIE 6.0” and reload the page. It tries to display everything.
Now choose “Identify as Mozilla 5.0”. It tries to display everything.
Now choose “Identify as Opera”. You get the heavily deprecated page.
The mundane pointless stuff I’m trying to share is that sometimes, when a page doesn’t display correctly in Opera, it’s intentional.
Everything displays in Konqueror on MSNBC as well. I hate sites that pull that nonsense. I remember one page that would redirect when I identified as Konqueror to a “Update your browser” page, yet the page would display flawlessly under Konqueror if I identified as IE.
But does the fly-out menu work with Konqueror and Firebird. When you hover over the Business link in the left panel, does another menu appear listing the top stories or do you have to click the link and go to another page to view the headlines?
With Mozilla/Firebird, I get the page to display just fine. It’s the bells and whistles that don’t work. Unless it is Galeon.
MS has been pulling this crap for quite a while. Some time ago, Opera retalited by releasing the Bork version of Opera, which translated the MSN site into Sweedish Chef (http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2003/02/14/). MSN has also pulled crap like blocing al non-Explorer browsers (http://news.com.com/2100-1023-274944.html?legacy=cnet).
It extends throughout the Microsoft empire. For a while, I had to tell my Opera to identify as IE or it wouldn’t allow attachments “because some functions may not function properly.” Nevermind that it handeled attachments perfectly as long as I lied about my browser.
Navigator 7.1 has a pop-up stopper? 7.0 doesn’t. I’m surprised since AOL owns the end product and they live or die by ads along with the outrageous $25 a month they charge for internet access.
All the interactive stuff works using
Navigator 7.1 on M$NBC?
I use Mozilla 1.5 and Firebird 0.6 which are superior browsers to Navigator 7.1 and the interactive stuff like looking at the photo slideshows no longer work.