As a classic film aficianado, I recently became instantly thrilled to learn that Walmart is offering classic film downloads on their site. I was using my husband’s Mac laptop at the time, which has Camino, Safari, Opera and Firefox as browsers. I can’t remember which browser I was using at that particular moment, but as I eagerly clicked my way through Walmart’s website, I was supremely disappointed to find that Walmart requires video download users to use IE only.
Maybe you’re thinking that I’m lazy. After all, my husband also possesses a dual-screen PC (for his Autocad programming and film editing) that is set up in our lovely home office. And ironically, I just purchased from Walmart, a swank futon that can be transformed into a chaise lounge faster than you can say “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” But I would much more prefer to download movies on a laptop that I can view anywhere.
SEOMoz’s Matthew recently stopped by my company’s staff blog to comment that 60% of SEOmoz users use Firefox. This is in the wake of news that up to 31% of internet users are jumping on the Firefox bandwagon. That’s alot of people who don’t want to be hassled with using IE just because Walmart is too lazy to develop for not ready for alternate browsers, and alot of potential dollars not being spent on movie downloads.
No doubt, the rest of the internet will catch up eventually. YouTube recently inked a deal with Digital Music Group, which distributes independently owned music, tv, and movies. As a result, classic TV series will soon be accessible through the newly Google-acquired site.
And with Viacom and NBC Universal developing their own videolicious sites, well, I’m not holding my breath for anything immediately spectacular. But hopefully something quite nice will eventually develop (why it hasn’t yet is beyond me).
In the meantime, I’ll stay tuned to Turner Classic Movies, which I can view from any of three TVs in my house, one of which thankfully has TiVo which can be programmed from Yahoo. And I’ll be dusting off the good ol’ DVD player to watch “Charade” which my husband graciously gave me for Valentine’s Day.
