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Workarounds for Opera Mini

wtfoperamini.com

1–10 of 53 posts

Re: Workarounds for Opera Mini

#2
It's not the browser which is breaking the site; it's the site's developers who are using features which are not universally available.

Guess what? If you use simple, clean HTML and progressively enhance with JavaScript, CSS and HTML5 features then everyone can browse your site. Or you can use the absolute bleeding edge of everything, requiring every user to give your code a full VM on his machine (a JavaScript VM, granted — but it's still a VM), requiring that the user be on the absolute latest and greatest smartphone or highest-end desktop.

It's up to you.

Re: Workarounds for Opera Mini

#3
post #2

It's not the browser which is breaking the site; it's the site's developers who are using features which are not universally available. Guess what? If you use simple, clean HTML and progressively enhance with JavaScript, CSS and HTML5 features then everyone can browse your site. Or you can use the absolute bleeding edge of everything, requiring every user to give your code a full VM on his machine (a JavaScript VM, g…

It's not fair to blame web devs for not trying to support a browser that doesn't try to support any standards. We have clients pushing us for cool things that they have seen on other sites, or some interesting (to them) feature that they must have. If we refuse? They go to someone more accommodating.

Re: Workarounds for Opera Mini

#4
For many many sites it really doesn't matter if they don't support 3rd world countries - what value do we gain from working hard to support people with no money to spend? Advertisers aren't interested in them, we can't sell anything to them. It sounds selfish but society is based on exactly that way of thinking.

Re: Workarounds for Opera Mini

#5
post #4

For many many sites it really doesn't matter if they don't support 3rd world countries - what value do we gain from working hard to support people with no money to spend? Advertisers aren't interested in them, we can't sell anything to them. It sounds selfish but society is based on exactly that way of thinking.

If thousands of users are desperately trying to use your site everyday even when it's broken for them then I'd wager the business is missing out on profit.

Our company sell to developing countries too, and there's definitely money to be made.

If you don't want to support people who you automatically assume have no money to spend, go ahead and leave it on the table for us to collect. :)

Re: Workarounds for Opera Mini

#6
post #2

It's not the browser which is breaking the site; it's the site's developers who are using features which are not universally available. Guess what? If you use simple, clean HTML and progressively enhance with JavaScript, CSS and HTML5 features then everyone can browse your site. Or you can use the absolute bleeding edge of everything, requiring every user to give your code a full VM on his machine (a JavaScript VM, g…

The users don't want a site. They want an app.

It's like expecting the developers of the latest, greatest PC game to write a progressively enhanced game that the same executable will run on DOS 1.0 all the way to the latest Windows version. They will spend time and resources on making sure it works with DOS 1.0, even though there are next to zero users for it, making it completely uneconomical, basically working for free.

Or you can have them click the download Chrome/Firefox link.

Re: Workarounds for Opera Mini

#7
post #2

It's not the browser which is breaking the site; it's the site's developers who are using features which are not universally available. Guess what? If you use simple, clean HTML and progressively enhance with JavaScript, CSS and HTML5 features then everyone can browse your site. Or you can use the absolute bleeding edge of everything, requiring every user to give your code a full VM on his machine (a JavaScript VM, g…

I strongly disagree. If 1 single browser out of 8-9 in common use doesn't support web standards, and represents a fraction of a percent of my target audience, then I'm not going to spend time crafting workarounds to target that browser.

I already make compact web sites compared to my peers -- no jQuery, optimized images, mostly text-driven. No JS is required to navigate and view the site. A hair over 100 kb for most of sites, including blog and header image. I use global CDNs. So my sites are friendly to users in developing countries, as long as they don't use Opera Mini.

There's nothing "bleeding edge" about supporting JS and CSS that IE8 supports. That's as low as I'm going, and no guilt about it.

By the way, have you actually tested any of your sites on Opera Mini? You may be surprised at just how poorly it renders, unless you're still working with tables.

Re: Workarounds for Opera Mini

#8
post #6
post #2

It's not the browser which is breaking the site; it's the site's developers who are using features which are not universally available. Guess what? If you use simple, clean HTML and progressively enhance with JavaScript, CSS and HTML5 features then everyone can browse your site. Or you can use the absolute bleeding edge of everything, requiring every user to give your code a full VM on his machine (a JavaScript VM, g…

The users don't want a site. They want an app. It's like expecting the developers of the latest, greatest PC game to write a progressively enhanced game that the same executable will run on DOS 1.0 all the way to the latest Windows version. They will spend time and resources on making sure it works with DOS 1.0, even though there are next to zero users for it, making it completely uneconomical, basically working for…

The reason many users are using Opera Mini is to use less data and to load pages faster. An app won't scratch that itch.

-posted using Opera Mini

Re: Workarounds for Opera Mini

#9
post #5
post #4

For many many sites it really doesn't matter if they don't support 3rd world countries - what value do we gain from working hard to support people with no money to spend? Advertisers aren't interested in them, we can't sell anything to them. It sounds selfish but society is based on exactly that way of thinking.

If thousands of users are desperately trying to use your site everyday even when it's broken for them then I'd wager the business is missing out on profit. Our company sell to developing countries too, and there's definitely money to be made. If you don't want to support people who you automatically assume have no money to spend, go ahead and leave it on the table for us to collect. :)

That's the politically correct way to look at it but I don't think you're right.

With the advent of the $30 smartphone, by the time these countries have disposable income that you can indirectly or directly profit from, its likely that one of their first purchases is a better phone with a capable browser. Until then they're a waste of time and resources.

On Black Friday you could get a Moto E, unlocked and off contract, for $10. This phone has a quad core processor, an LTE radio, a gig of ram, and a 5 megapixel camera. Ten dollars gets you something that can outperform flagships from 2 years ago.

Re: Workarounds for Opera Mini

#10
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If thousands of users are desperately trying to use your site everyday even when it's broken for them then I'd wager the business is missing out on profit. Our company sell to developing countries too, and there's definitely money to be made. If you don't want to support people who you automatically assume have no money to spend, go ahead and leave it on the table for us to collect. :)

That's the politically correct way to look at it but I don't think you're right. With the advent of the $30 smartphone, by the time these countries have disposable income that you can indirectly or directly profit from, its likely that one of their first purchases is a better phone with a capable browser. Until then they're a waste of time and resources. On Black Friday you could get a Moto E, unlocked and off contra…

And which magic exactly does that phone perform to reduce the bandwidth prices of their provider?
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