Safari and Ancestry.com

[henandlin]

I have upgraded to OS X 10.4.4. and am using Safari 2.0.3. My problem is that parts of Ancestry.com do not work with Safari but yet they work with IE and vice versa.

If you go to 'Online Family Trees'. Scroll to the bottom where it says 'Online Family Trees' there you will find the saved tree. Click on the saved tree to open and when it opens you will see across the top on the left the following: File - Edit - Add - View - Search - Share - Help.
All of these should drop-down when clicked on. Underneath this row is a row of icons all of which when clicked on enable you to enter more information. NONE of these work on my computer when using Safari but they do with IE. However their enhanced image viewer does not work with this computer when using IE but with Safari it does.

Ancestry.com owns almost all of the genealogy programs available on the internet. They are only compatible with IE and don't seem to be interested in changing.

Can this problem be solved?

[timster]

Hello, and welcome to Webmasterworld!

I wasn't able to follow the directions to see the error on this site, but here's some general advice:

I'd recommend downloading a copy of FireFox ([getfirefox.com ]). Occasionally a site will work in FF that won't in Safari. Even the laziest webmasters are under pressure to make their sites work in FF, since it's got a pretty significant usage share these days.

Sometimes changing the user agent reported by your browser will help by tricking a site into thinking you're using MSIE, but I'm not sure that will help in this situation.

If none of this works, you can pester the webmasters again with how hard you've tried to use their site. If you really want them to fix something for you, you can do half the work by finding where the problem is. Turn on the debugging options in your web browser and report the exact error to the webmaster.

You can also report the problem to Apple. From Apple's Safari help documentation:

To send feedback about Safari, choose Report Bugs to Apple from the Safari menu.

The dialog includes the address of the webpage open in the active window. This information can be useful in evaluating the problem you are experiencing.

Type a brief description of the problem in the text box. If possible, describe what you were doing when the problem occurred.

To send a screen shot or the source of the current page, click More Options and select what you want to send. You can also choose a category for the problem.

When your report is ready, click Submit.

If you simply must use a site that will only work in Windows IE, you can do something drastic like buy Virtual PC or use a friend's PC. (Before getting our your credit card, bear in mind that not every problem on a website comes from using a Mac: a lot of sites are just plain buggy.)

[Caranne]

I've got a similar problem since Ancestry 'updated' its software. Whichever browser we use, we have no problem accessing images from census record books but we can't access transcribed records/synopses.
Previously, clicking on a name downloaded a transcribed record/synopsis that allowed various options: print, view neighbours, etc. Since the update, 'view [census} record' has replaced clicking on the name in a search list and this just takes us to the 'refine your search' page. Annoyingly, even if we refine a search down to just one name, clicking on 'view record' takes us back to the same 'refine your search page'.
I've got an on-going correspondence with Ancestry customer services. They say it's a problem with my browsers (Safari 2.0.3; Netscape 7.2; Firefox 1.5.0.1; IE 5.2.3) or OS (10.4.5 but 'twas the same with 10.4.4).
I say it's disappointing that their new software ignores Mac users because the overwhelming majority of subscribers to Ancestry (.com or .co.uk) use PCs and that their webmaster could resolve the problem.
A bit of a standoff that I don't think perstering will resolve. HELP!

[whoisgregg]

If a website developer doesn't want to make their site work, the visitors have little choice but to move to the competition. No competition? Time to start a new business. :)

[Caranne]

Would that setting up in competition with Ancestry.com/.co.uk could be done, let alone as easily done as recommended, given this most recent message in a long, and pestering, correspondence with Ancestry.com:

<snip>

Anne Parry

[edited by: engine at 6:17 pm (utc) on Feb. 28, 2006]
[edit reason] See TOS [webmasterworld.com] #9 [/edit]

[whoisgregg]

I understand your pain Caranne. I'm not saying it's easy to setup and compete with any particular business. I'm only making the point that they can't be forced to support any particular platform.