Godaddy's Bad Page Design Loses Them Customers

And They're Proud of It

May 29, 2005

The problem is that when I visit the Godaddy.com web site, I get redirected to a "your browser is too old because Godaddy sucks and does not support the internet and is not interested in your business" web page. There is no excuse for this page. This page states that building a standards compliant site REQUIRES that older browsers be "left behind." First, this statement is untrue. The web standards acknowledge - and are even founded upon the principle that the internet is platform independent. Any browser on any operating system should be able to access any page. your statement on this page is some browsers on some platforms may be able to access some pages. These two statements are contradictory. If your site was, in fact, built to be standards compliant, the information on the page would be presented to the visitor whether they were using Mosaic 1.0 or Internet Explorer 7, and whether they were using Windows 3.11 or MacOS 10.3. This page, by its very existence, demonstrates that Godaddy is not building a standards complaint web site. So, toward that end, as I am using the newest browser available for my system, and it does work with other standards complaint web sites, I need to know when Godaddy will be sending me a computer that meets the system requirements for using the Godaddy site.

Unfortunately, the information Godaddy responded to this complaint with is not relevant. I was citing examples as generalizations and, instead of interpreting them intelligently, Godaddy support took the apparent anti-customer Godaddy stance and decided to try to justify Godaddy's incompetence by reflecting on minor and irrelevant details. Yes, some browsers for Windows 3.11 do not support animated .gif images, but others do. However, sites built to standards sill work regardless of the support for minor issues like animated .gif images. Building a standards compliant site may limit the ability of some browsers to complete some tasks on the site if their browser does not yet support some elements of the standard, however, there is no excuse for a site to fail to deliver basic information to the user, regardless of the browser being used. Furthermore, using standards to build the site not only makes the site better, but it makes browser compatibility EASIER. Backward and forward compatibility have been and are built into the standard. As I have read much of the standard released by w3c, I would recommend that Godaddy web designers read them before calling them to Godaddy's defense. Yes, there are features that are not supported by the current standard, but a standard compliant site still upholds the underlying premise of the internet - which is still platform independence. Furthermore, Godaddy has still not even pretended to address my question: When will Godaddy be sending me a computer that supports the strict and limited requirements necessary to view the Godaddy site, or will Godaddy be building a site that actually supports the internet.

The Godaddy site is not working correctly. The only thing I would have any chance of possibly finding out from The Godaddy web site is that Godaddy does not know how to build a web site - and possibly I could infer that Godaddy does not want customers. Am I correct in understanding from Godaddy support's replies to my queries that Godaddy do not intend to support the internet with the Godaddy.com site? Because, as it stands, it does not support the internet. I still require a reply to my initial question. The answer will be in the form of a date, and this date will have to be some time in the future. When does Godaddy plan to develop a web site that supports the internet, or, when does Godaddy plan to start sending computers that meet the Godaddy web site's strict and ridiculous requirements to potential customers that do not currently have hardware that is up to Godaddy's exacting and ludicrous requirements?