Gap Inc. locks Safari users out of clothing sites
Gap Inc., one of the world's largest specialty clothing retailers, has made changes to several of its websites that prevent users of Apple's Mac OS X Safari Web browser from browsing and shopping its brands.
This week Safari users began reporting problems when attempting to visit the websites of Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy -- three trendy brands owned by San Francisco, Calif.-based Gap Inc.
"It looks like the new gap.com, bananarepublic.com and oldnavy.com do not support the latest version of Safari," said a disappointed Safari user shopping online for a new pair of jeans. "The pages just reload continuously with no content."
The Gap websites appear to be redirecting Safari users to this page, which says: "We're sorry, but we do not support the version of the browser you are using."
For Mac users, Gap recommends "Netscape 7 and above" or "Mozilla (Firefox) 1.0 and above." Both browsers are popular amongst Mac users but are not as widely used as Safari, which ships as the default browser on the Mac OS X operating system.
Data recently released by Apple indicates that there are now well over 10 million active users of Mac OS X and counting. The growing popularity of the Mac platform has also helped Safari become the third most popular Web browser on the Internet.
In April, real-time website analysis firm OneStat said Safari held a 1.26% share of the browser market, which was up approximately 0.05% from February. Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer are the only two browsers with more users; they hold a 8.69% and 86.63% share of the browser market, respectively.
It's unclear if Gap plans to restore Safari support on its websites in the near future. Representatives for the company were not immediately available for comment.
Ironically, it was Apple and Gap who teamed on a joint promotion in August to offer shoppers a free Apple iTunes song download if they tried on a new pair of Gap denim jeans.
The two companies have also had a history of consulting one another on business initiatives. Millard Drexler, now heading J. Crew, joined Apple's Board of Directors in May of 1999 while he was CEO of Gap. Less than four months later, Apple's Steve Jobs took a seat on Gaps board -- a position he held until October of 2002.
This week Safari users began reporting problems when attempting to visit the websites of Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy -- three trendy brands owned by San Francisco, Calif.-based Gap Inc.
"It looks like the new gap.com, bananarepublic.com and oldnavy.com do not support the latest version of Safari," said a disappointed Safari user shopping online for a new pair of jeans. "The pages just reload continuously with no content."
The Gap websites appear to be redirecting Safari users to this page, which says: "We're sorry, but we do not support the version of the browser you are using."
For Mac users, Gap recommends "Netscape 7 and above" or "Mozilla (Firefox) 1.0 and above." Both browsers are popular amongst Mac users but are not as widely used as Safari, which ships as the default browser on the Mac OS X operating system.
Data recently released by Apple indicates that there are now well over 10 million active users of Mac OS X and counting. The growing popularity of the Mac platform has also helped Safari become the third most popular Web browser on the Internet.
In April, real-time website analysis firm OneStat said Safari held a 1.26% share of the browser market, which was up approximately 0.05% from February. Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft's Internet Explorer are the only two browsers with more users; they hold a 8.69% and 86.63% share of the browser market, respectively.
It's unclear if Gap plans to restore Safari support on its websites in the near future. Representatives for the company were not immediately available for comment.
Ironically, it was Apple and Gap who teamed on a joint promotion in August to offer shoppers a free Apple iTunes song download if they tried on a new pair of Gap denim jeans.
The two companies have also had a history of consulting one another on business initiatives. Millard Drexler, now heading J. Crew, joined Apple's Board of Directors in May of 1999 while he was CEO of Gap. Less than four months later, Apple's Steve Jobs took a seat on Gaps board -- a position he held until October of 2002.
Comments
Nuff said.
Would be a sad if Gap simply left it at that.
There is absolutely no excuse for making a site that blocks Safari other than lazy or arrogant programmers/designers.
I guarantee the design/dev company is gonna be hearing from Gap very soon.
On top of that, all their stuff has their lo0gos all over it, why the hell pay twice as much to advertise?!?!?!?!?!? If I were gonna advertise for someone, I want them to pay ME!!!
Originally posted by a_greer
Why do people shop at the Gap anyway? stuff costs 2x as much as it does at LS Ayres, Pennys, Macy's and so on
On top of that, all their stuff has their lo0gos all over it, why the hell pay twice as much to advertise?!?!?!?!?!? If I were gonna advertise for someone, I want them to pay ME!!!
You do realize, a_greer, that that's what a lot of Wintel guys say about Mac users ;-)
http://www.gapsucks.org/gwa/new/2001.html
And BTW, if they can't program for Safari, there's a simple action you can take to punish them. Just try to load their page... and keep your browser going, trying to load the page (just do it in a tab and move on to another tab). If a bunch of Mac users do that, it will effectively take down their servers. No fault of yours... you're just trying to access their site.
Originally posted by TheToe
The best reason not to shop at the Gap... Their parent company is trying to destroy 235,000 acres of old growth redwood forest. Oh, and they run sweatshops as well. Great folks.
http://www.gapsucks.org/gwa/new/2001.html
What? A corporation trying to make money regardless of all else? And a clothing manufacturer that runs sweatshops? Crap, I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!
Oh, and taking info from a site called "GapSucks.org" (and a 2001 article as well) doesn't exactly hold itself up for impartiality. If you quoted something like "All Mac users are gay egomaniacs who just like to think their not inferior to the rest of the world" from some MacsSuck.org site, you'd get blasted.
By the way, the best reason not to shop at gap is that their stuff is way overpriced, and not that special. But, then again, people waste sooooo much money on clothes from one designer or another ("hey, let me get a new shirt with "Tommy Hilfeger" written all over it!", so I'm sure there's idiots who think shopping at the Gap is not a pointless venture.
Originally posted by Louzer
What? A corporation trying to make money regardless of all else? And a clothing manufacturer that runs sweatshops? Crap, I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!
Yes, corporations do indeed suck that way: http://www.thecorporation.com/
But it particularly sucks to destroy old growth redwood forest. When it's gone; it's gone forever. And fwiw, there are quite a number of clothing manufacturers and retailers who are certified as not using sweatshops and/or child labor.
Originally posted by Louzer
Oh, and taking info from a site called "GapSucks.org" (and a 2001 article as well) doesn't exactly hold itself up for impartiality. If you quoted something like "All Mac users are gay egomaniacs who just like to think their not inferior to the rest of the world" from some MacsSuck.org site, you'd get blasted.
Well, OK, here are 190,000 other links:
http://www.google.com/search?q=gap+redwood+Fisher
Originally posted by rawhead
You do realize, a_greer, that that's what a lot of Wintel guys say about Mac users ;-)
Well, sort of...With the Mac you get a superior OS, few people buy mac for the hardware -- With a t-shirt, or golf shirt, we are talking about the same thing, same quality, the only differance is the billboard effect on the OldNavy/Gap/Abacrombie put on their stuff and the price...
Originally posted by rawhead
You do realize, a_greer, that that's what a lot of Wintel guys say about Mac users ;-)
That was good.
A_greer, don't try to justify it, just wipe the salt off your shoulder and move on. I am sure it was meant in good fun.
Originally posted by Placebo
Who in their right mind would use Safari when Firefox is available.
I would. Not that i have anything at all against FireFox, but i just enjoy Safari more. I could switch if something came up that facilitated the need but for now, i just prefer Safari. The quality of both is really at the point where it comes down to personal preference.
Originally posted by TheToe
Yes, corporations do indeed suck that way: http://www.thecorporation.com/
I've lost count how many times I've wanted to mention that film when the topic of corporations comes up, with a comment like "if you haven't seen it, come back after you, then we'll continue the original conversation". So, I'm grateful you exploited the brief off-topic moment to mention it here, TheToe.
Finally saw it last year (unfortunately not sooner) and it still has a profound impact on me and seems at least as relevant now. It's one of the few movies I'd recommend to everyone (excluding anyone unable to understand it, like a young child, of course).
Originally posted by Placebo
Who in their right mind would use Safari when Firefox is available.
Safari has a better feel (when you drag URLs from the address bar, they appear as little floating windows, etc) but the plugin support, theming, and overall support and stability of Firefox is something I really like.
All dandy for you, but spare us the insult. There's no need to rudely accuse anyone (myself including) of not being in their right mind because they prefer Safari, for as equally valid reasons as you have for preferring Firefox.
Who the fsck really cares which browser someone prefers? Well, I guess you might care if someone's choice has irresponsible side effects