UPDATE: The issue with IE discussed below is fixed. But IE still sucks.
There apparently was a point in time that something went wonky on this blog. But the problem only happens to visitors using Internet Explorer (either version 6 or 7).
The problem seem to be that when you hit the back button, IE crashes.
Every time.
There’s not a problem at all with my browser of choice, Firefox.
Hence the fact that I don’t know when this problem reared it’s ugly head. Francy uses IE (I know, I’m trying to convert her) but, she never uses the back button for navigation.
I can only imagine that this is highly annoying to IE and back button users. Annoying to the point, I suspect, that they may run away and never come back.
And that’s a big deal.
Problem is, I have no idea how to fix it.
I thought it might be a piece of embedded code from the last post I wrote. But it looks fine and more significantly when I removed it the problem persisted. I’ve also tried removing pieces of script here and there that are hosted elsewhere, thinking someone might have “pulled a Sitemeter” (a reference to back in August when Sitemeter tweaked some code, and brought tens of thousands of sites to their knees). I haven’t had the patience or the caffeine to try every third-party javascript yet (there’s not that many, it’s just a time factor thing).
Alas, I’ve yet to find anything that stops this dreaded back button IE crashing nonsense.
Until I do, you’ve got a couple of options:
1) Avoid the back button if you’re using Internet Explorer.
or
2) Get Firefox.
If anyone has a clue, I’m all ears. I suspect it won’t, but I’d also love it if someone could confirm for me that the back button doesn’t crash other browsers they may be using, particularly Safari or other Mac flavored browsers.
Here’s my list so far:
Firefox 3 – Check
Chrome 0.3 – Check
Safari – ???
Opera 9.6 – Check
IE 6 and 7 – FAIL and FAIL
Internet Explorer sucks.
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{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
Yeup even on Vista with IE7 it crashes
first guess would be the page flip?
after that it’s like all that fun we have to do to resolve a problem. Remove 1 piece at a time and test
Loren Nason´s last blog post..How NOT to act on the Internet
Jay,
Sure is bizarre. I didn’t encounter this problem on your blog until just recently :(. I actually only encounter the error when I hit “back” and then go “forward” again.
Joe and I developed large applications for big companies for years with IE as the preferred browser because it was coder friendly :), so I can’t say it sucks (not saying it doesn’t have issues) but this sure is an odd one.
Jamey Bridges´s last blog post..A recent conversation with a rep from realtor.com
Safari 3.2 on my mac works ok.
Jim Duncan´s last blog post..Are You a Complete Moron?
Hmmm..
I use Firefox exclusively.. so when I opened up IE7 ( on Win Vista Home Premium), I was stunned to see IE crashing when I loaded your blog and then used the back button.
I know my solution wasn’t a popular one in the eyes of a lot of bloggers, but this is just another example for me as to why I am glad I switched to the Typepad platform.. I can’t deal with “snippets” here and “code” there..
Jim Gatos´s last blog post..Sneak Preview of the "New Look" of our office.
Just for good measure, I tried loading the page with IE7 from within Fx 3.0.4 via the IE Tab plugin, and it crashed and burned, but I bet you already knew that.
Jay, have you ever thought maybe it’s the “Thesis” theme?
I mean, I tried your site on 3 different computers with IE7, all crashed when I pressed the “back” button. None had a problem with FF 3.1 Beta 1. This is a bizarre problem. Ask those “Thesis” guys, or better yet, change the theme temporarily to something simple..see what happens.
Jim Gatos´s last blog post..Sneak Preview of the "New Look" of our office.
@Jim Gatos
NO way its the Thesis theme - i just tried 3 other sites running Thesis with IE7 and no issues!
Loren Nason´s last blog post..How NOT to act on the Internet
Loren’s right, it’s not a Thesis issue as other blogs I have on Thesis run fine, as did this one at one point. I haven’t changed the Thesis code, so it’s got to be something I did with modification, or a hosted script did.
It’s typical IE choking on something that other browsers handle perfectly well. In a perfect world, IE would just go away. Sadly, it’s only going to get worse with the release of IE8. Then we’ll have three versions of IE that all do things differently to deal with.
Not to mention the upcoming release of WP 2.7
Curious. Has to be a simple explanation. I’ll see if someone I know can stop by & offer you a solution …..
Have you tried IE on the MAC? I had a similar issue that to further complicate things, worked on the IE version of the MAC but not on the PC. Go figure that…
Huh. The honorable Loren Nason in comment #1 appears to have been spot on.
It seems it was the page flip thingy.
I had removed the call to the javascript and still had the issues. BUT, when I took the script itself out of the header, all seems well in IE land.
I’d appreciate it if anyone out there with IE could test a little for me, cycle through the back/forward buttons a couple of times and let me know if IE crashes!
THANKS LOREN!!
I still think IE sucks. And I’m gonna miss my corner page flip thingy…
Great use of Photoshop! Agreed, IE is the worst especially for blogs. Sometimes it distorts whole websites, puts information that should be on the right sidebar all the way down at the bottom, I exclusively use Firefox and wish all my readers did too.
Page Flip javascript appears to have been the culprit. Just navigated forward / backward 2 or 3 pages each way …. no crash with IE7
Yeup, no crashes now.
I am even typing this comment from IE7
wonder if there is a better way to implement the page flip
I guess you figured out the fix? I’m on IE and it works fine for me….Susan
I occassionally have that problem. If I am doing a lot of backwards and forwards, I have had internet explorer crash. I just never thought about before reading this post. I try to use Firefox as often as I can.
Jay, seems to be working in IE7 now, also I have a macbook and it’s also working correctly in Safari.
Oh no, Jay, I miss the flip thingy, too! It was kinda cool. Oh well, IE misbehaves similarly on my site with Imageflow, and I haven’t had the time to fix that, either. You know, so many of us use and swear by FF, but it seems all my peeps use IE, so you just kinda gotta…
Agreed, it sucks and firefox is great!
Aloha,
Keahi
Good to see the ie problem seems to be sorted. but ie still sucks , I think.
I think Knox has page flip on his blog. Jim let him know if you see him on twitter.
You forgot Flock. Yeah, all Mircosoft products suck. I use Firefox / Flock and even Open Office instead of Microsoft Office.
As Loren knows all too well, I’m one of your site stalkers. You have all the cool ideas and all the cool toys Jay. I’ve had ‘flip envy’ for some time. Sad to see that it’s gone but there is no question - IE sucks.
Linsey´s last blog post..Time to Talk Absorbtion Rates
you fixed it uh? i didn’t have problems with IE but i still think it’s sucks and Mozilla is much better
Although IE does suck, you’d think the developer of that Page flip thingy would’ve done something to get that script to work in IE…
That’s the problem..
If it doesn’t work in IE, it aint 100% compatible. My MLS, MLSPIN, doesn’t care about Firefox. If I want to print certain things in MLSPIN’s interface, I HAVE TO USE IE AND THEY DON’T CARE! This is at least a 3 year issue with them. After numerous complaints, they have this basically “go away, you’re bothering us”, attitude…
Jim Gatos´s last blog post..Sneak Preview of the "New Look" of our office.
Okay, I must admit… I am a secret IE lover… However, I am slowly making the transition to chrome.
One thing I did notice was though when using my iPhone to log into your site was your really cool WPtouch plugin. However, It doesn’t allow me to view or type in the anti-spam # when posting a comment. Therefore, I was unable to comment from my iPhone in iPhone mode.
Brendan´s last blog post..Government 2.0 - Obama’s First Weekly Address!
According to statistics 95% of websurfers use Firefox these days! As soon as the first version was launched we understood that IE is in the past! back then in 2006 i presume, i started getting problems with IE and dropped it for good without a second thought
Please provide me with proof to these statistics if you would please. I’m going to send this proof to the MLSPIN tech support staff. All they’ve ever done is ignore me and give me this “Y0u’re weird” look every time I brought Firefox up to their attention….
Jim Gatos´s last blog post..Sneak Preview of the "New Look" of our office.
I’ve never had any issues using your blog and I have IE6 and I’m addicted to Back button. Maybe there’s a conflict between one of the plug ins you have installed and the user’s local IE settings.
“According to statistics 95% of websurfers use Firefox these days!” Sorry HM, but I think your numbers are WAY off. Everything I’ve read says Firefox has around a 30% share or the browser market. This blog’s stats also support that:
Previous 30 Days (Browser, Visitors, Percentage of Visitors):
1. Internet Explorer 28,746 61.95%
2. Firefox 14,957 32.23%
But, 30% is nothing to sneeze at. Sites that run on IE only are starting right off the bat annoying a third of their users. EVERY web designer/developer should take both IE and FF into consideration. That would be much simpler if they both behaved the same way.
@Russell - I suspect it was some sort of conflict, and probably just recently happened. But I could get it to repeat on the 5 PCs here at home, and all are set up differently. Easiest fix was to toss the corner flip thing.
I Couldn’t agree more! As a real estate web designer I am hindered by IE almost every day. While there are many other browsers out there, and all react differently to websites, IE seems to be the odd-ball and it is always creating issues for every real estate website I design! Thanks for the post, I’m sure this will help more than a few frustrated website owners.
I’m glad to hear you got it fixed! I have to agree though, IE stinks. I use Firefox for that very reason.
Margaret Safford´s last blog post..Metro Atlanta Selected to List of Best Cities
We had several issues with IE6 and IE in general. Anywhere from Java to RSS to just plain using # sign on a link. (long story, but it replicates window after window if you close a window and javascript is not finished loading). Some of the issues are resolved once you enable 3rd party cookies in advanced settings but factory default settings are always with that disabled. But checking our stat page shows that a majority of our site’s viewers still use IE a chunk of them IE6 so, unfortunately for us, we have to deal with these issues specially if a 3rd party provider decides to upgrade. i.e., IDX
I also have to admit that I absolutely hate IE. The only time I will use it is to check to see how one of my websites looks using it. Have been using Firefox for 2+ years know and never looked back.
John´s last blog post..Baltimore Real Estate
I am FireFox all the way!
Jeff Buettner - Scottsdale Short Sale´s last blog post..The Bank’s Short Sale Negotiators
That’s why I use Chrome. I just wish my Firefox addons would work in Chrome though!