January 20, 2005

FareChase Still Not Supporting Firefox

FireFox 1.0 vs. FareChase beta

"Browser Not Supported

The Yahoo! FareChase hotel search and car search do not currently support the browser you are using.

We do support Internet Explorer 5.1 and higher. Download the latest version of Internet Explorer.

We plan to support additional browsers and platform in a future release." (screenshot)

To be fair, the problem likely existed before Yahoo bought FareChase. Still, Yahoo has a habit of breaking stuff for "other" browsers, so I'm not optimistic about browser compatibility being a top priority.

Yo, Yahoo:

* Your beloved Internet Explorer is owned by Microsoft, a company that is ditching your search results in favor of their own search engine. For this and other reasons, you might want to consider them a competitor, and start getting cozy with their competitors.

* Another funny thing about this Internet Explorer. After installing the SideStep toolbar, it open a sidebar whenever I do a search at FareChase. Surely, SideStep is a competitor, with their seven million downloads? Hint: their toolbar is only a threat on IE.

Is FareChase doing anything special on Explorer that any of the other travel search engines have not been able to do on Firefox? To the untrained eye, it looks like all they are doing is throwing away market share in an ultra-competitive market.

added: I just received an email from Yahoo, which included this clarification: "Currently Yahoo! FareChase hotel and car search supports Windows Internet Explorer 5.5 and higher." (emphasis mine) Flights work with Firefox. I should have caught the last sentence of the FareChase FAQ.

FareChase Still Not Supporting Firefox
Posted by Sean O'Rourke on January 20, 2005 at 10:25 AM
Archived at Shopping Search Usability | Travel