According to Ruslan Kogan this is the world's first Internet Explorer 7 "tax".
Posted on 06/15/2012 8:11:39 AM PDT by ShadowAce
According to Ruslan Kogan this is the world's first Internet Explorer 7 "tax".
The Australian online retailer Kogan.com has introduced the world's first "tax" on Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) browser.
Customers who use IE7 will have to pay an extra surcharge on online purchases made through the firm's site.
Chief executive Ruslan Kogan told the BBC he wanted to recoup the time and costs involved in "rendering the website into a antique browser".
The charge is set to 6.8% - 0.1% for every month since the IE7 launch.
Every month the surcharge will rise by 0.1%.
According to Mr Kogan the idea was born when the company started working on a site relaunch.
Mr Kogan said that even though only 3% of his customers used the old version of the browser, his IT team had become pre-occupied with making adaptations to make pages display properly on IE 7.
"I was constantly on the line to my web team. The amount of work and effort involved in making our website look normal on IE7 equalled the combined time of designing for Chrome, Safari and Firefox."
Mr Kogan said it was unlikely that anyone would actually pay the charges. His goal is to encourage users to download a more up-to-date version of Internet Explorer or a different browser.
Mr Kogan told the BBC his customers were very happy and he had received a lot of praise for his efforts.
"Love your IE7 tax. I hope it becomes effective" was one of the messages posted to Kogan on Twitter.
IE7 was launched in 2006, but since then Microsoft has released two major updates to the software.
The launch of Internet Explorer 10 is due in the autumn.
Just don't go ripping my Firefox 3.6 out of my hands.... :)
It’s not voluntary, I avoid them as much as possible, but the world is what it is.
I’m sure you tell everybody what idiots they are.
Do you keep the install CD with your collection of AOL install discs?
It’s a very small percentage of users, and they were spending more time that it was worth to them maintaining compatibility with the browser. They’ve gotten a lot of PR with this move.
Seems pretty smart to me.
I’m using Crosstalk over a 300 baud Smartmodem talking to a BBS that is in turn connected to the Internet.
This is a general question for the FR “Geek Squad.” Anyone have the lowdown on Uniblue ResistryBooster2012 Registry Cleaning Software that’s supposed to clear out the clutter and speed up the computer’s performance? Should I use it?
Seems like you just want to start a flame war, so I’m done here.
Man, 300 baud, you lucky bastard. I bet it only takes you 18 hours to download Leisure Suit Larry!
I find this interesting following a recent statement by another company saying they flat-out won’t support IE7 since they estimated an additional $100,000 to design their site to support it.
I have an IE7 installation in a VM, and you wouldn’t believe how slow it is on any modern site using heavy JavaScript, and how incompatible it is with any site using heavy CSS. Basically, you can’t make an advanced site that fully supports IE7 with the same user experience. Not paying this fee will be the least of the benefits of moving off IE7.
Bye.
Seconded. CCleaner is the gold standard for this, these days. Even if anything else isn’t crapware, chances are it’s not as good.
Chrome, IE, Firefox but no love for Opera.
A pox on all of you....
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