Yahoo! doesn’t love Camino

Most companies and sites have come to accept/embrace the fact that their users should use whichever browser they would like. If they, for some reason, decide to choose an archaic relic from the Stone Age, you’re just supposed to smile and thank them for coming to your site and add:

“Oh by the way, are you sure you wouldn’t like to upgrade to Netscape 1.0, much less a modern browser? No? You’re good with the flickering all-text product you’re running with now? That’s awesome.”

Obviously I’m exaggerating, but it bothers me to no end when sites still mandate the use of IE (or anything else). Over time though, that type of obtuse behavior has been relegated to just the most boring sites anyway.

What you don’t expect is a ‘cutting edge’ company like Yahoo! to get it so wrong. Here’s a screenshot of their recommended browsers page that I was practically forced to see (more on that in a bit):

Now there’s nothing really wrong with the page. Would it be good for them to show a little more flexibility in those browsers? Probably, but it’s pretty much fine as-is. Now you might be asking yourself how I got to this page. I am currently rolling around with Camino (http://caminobrowser.org/) on my Mac machines, which is a nice lightweight thing built on Gecko. I like it a lot, but apparently Yahoo! doesn’t:

Now that is what I call obnoxious. In case you can’t see the small text, it reads:

Upgrade your browser now for the best Yahoo! experience. It’s free and easy

Upgrading will allow you to use all of the Yahoo! features that make your life easier. Upgrade now and enjoy all the benefits of Yahoo!

[Upgrade Now] or [Remind Me Later]

How about some thought process into ALL of the browsers people might use? Using Camino certainly isn’t hindering my usage of Yahoo! Sports, I checked. That in and of itself isn’t a terrible mistake - Camino’s not all that mainstream.

But how about a button to get rid of this absurd enormous yellow box taking up a significant portion of my screen? Or how about an option to do something other than “Upgrade RIGHT NOW” or “Bother me again whenever you see fit”?

Or how about just some simple humility in considering the possibility that I like my browser, you may not have thought of every single possible modern browser, and there’s a possibility that I’d like you to just stop bothering me about this FOREVER.

Update: it gets even better…