To hell with JavaScript sniffers

To borrow the now legendary phrase from Zeldman's rant about old browsers, I've had enough of old / poorly written JavaScript "sniffers." These are the beasts that web developers stick in the index of a site, and depending on what platform / browser you're using, you are redirected to a page more suited to your setup.

Sounds great, right? In theory, it is. When designed properly, they can be very useful, especially for those developers pushing their sites to the brink of web standards. But the problems arise when developers get lazy.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.5 for the Mac was quite possibly the biggest hunk of crap ever handed down. I have my opinions about Microsoft's software in general, but this one was a joke. CSS, Flash support, JavaScript, all of 'em, were pathetic. As a result, web developers across the web created sniffers that booted anyone on a Mac, regardless of their browser, to a "Sorry" page, assuming they were using IE 4.5. The problem is that 5.0, a browser that in many ways (especially with CSS) is better than the Windows version (and not even close to 4.5), has been out for quite a while. Yet these old, buggy JavaScript sniffers still only detect for "IE" in general. So no matter what version you have, you're shit out of luck.

For an example of this, just try to enter Giorgio Armani if you're on a Mac.

Okay, so maybe the script doesn't work quite right, and you get bounced to an alternate page. Fine. But here's where lazy developers screw up again. They'd rather flat out tell you "no" than provide a workaround. God knows how many sites I've visited where the script, for whatever reason, fails to detect my Flash plug-in, and I'm sent to an obnoxious page telling me to upgrade. That's it. Go away.

JavaScripts, like any programming language, can screw up. It's a fact of life. The interface designers are placing all their faith (and online business success) in a buggy sniffer, when they should be placing the control in the user's hands. Provide a link, damn't, that reads "If you know you have the Flash plug-in and want to enter, click here."

How hard is that?

This isn't a Mac-rant, but common sense that should apply to anyone doing effective, user-centric interface design. Don't close the door on your users, help them inside.