“I have been among the developers and observers who have praised Yahoo for the technical strength of their recently launched User Interface Library. In my tests for the Ajax/DHTML Scorecard project in March, Yahoo’s library was a clear ‘A’ in its cross-browser credentials, and I was very impressed with Yahoo’s development team, which published clear and exacting browser standards for their library. According to Yahoo’s own Graded Browser Support table, Safari is an A-graded browser, meaning it achieves the highest level of support possible with the Yahoo interface library,” Leland Scott writes for Musings from Mars. “Clearly, the thought that went into this table is impressive, and the authors conclude the explanation that precedes the table itself with an appropriate quote from Tim Berners-Lee on the importance of cross-browser support.”

“Anyone who slaps a ‘this page is best viewed with Browser X’ label on a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor, or another network.” – Tim Berners-Lee

“It is therefore highly disappointing and disillusioning to discover tonight that Yahoo has released a preview of its new, Ajax-enabled home page with support only for Internet Explorer 6.0 and Firefox 1.5. The only logic one can use to justify such a move is based on a totally PC-centric viewpoint, which argues that only Windows users are worth troubling with, since they comprise the vast majority of potential viewers. But this is precisely the viewpoint that must cease if Web 2.0 is to become the fertile melting ground for truly cross-platform interdependence that it wants to be. It’s simply not the viewpoint of any company that really cares about Berners-Lee’s vision or about the millions of users on platforms other than the virus- and malware-riddled mess that is Microsoft Windows today,” Scott writes.

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Based on our site stats, quite a strong sample of Mac users, Safari is used by the large majority of Mac users today. It is the strong number three browser on all the Web after IE and Firefox – despite being a Mac-only browser. Yahoo, and any other company that does a poor job of supporting everyone, is a disappointment, and we Mac users – a group proven to have above average discretionary income and the willingness to spend it (at least on quality products and services) – should remember companies that fail to include all users. We will remember.

We respect our customers above all else and never forget that they come to us by choice. We share a personal responsibility to maintain our customers’ loyalty and trust. We listen and respond to our customers and seek to exceed their expectations. – Yahoo! – What We Value

It’s not just Yahoo’s preview site that won’t work correctly; Yahoo games and other services frequently don’t work or work well on anything but Windows Internet Explorer. It’s been like this for years. It takes virtually no extra effort to code a site to work for all users when that is one of your goals at the outset. Those companies that ignore us should be ignored by us until they wise up and include all users. Do the right and smart thing, Yahoo. Please use Yahoo’s simple web contact form to request that they make their services fully available to all here: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/support/contacts/ideas.html

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