DoTheGoogle – A WordPress Plugin That Politely Prompts Users to Upgrade to Google Chrome
Written by Aaron Lumsden on 06 Sep 2012
It can be quite annoying when you’ve created the latest greatest website only to find that the site wont function correctly on older browsers.
I’ve created ‘doTheGoogle’ a WordPress plugin that politely asks users who aren’t using Google Chrome to upgrade to it. I’m sure some of you will not agree with this and would rather go for a graceful degradation approach but I’m not saying don’t use that approach because that is important. We shouldn’t penalise our users just because they don’t happen to have the latest browser. I mean they’re probably nice guys and just aren’t aware that better browsers like Chrome exist. It’s our responsibility as web designers and developers to educate our users and allow the web to move forward.
This is the reason why I created the plugin.
I’m a great fan of Google Chrome. It’s the only browser (in my opinion) that really is trying to push the web forward. It seems to introduce some of the best api’s and features before its competitors. This is because Google care about the web and this shows in the browser that they have produced.
doTheGoogle setup
To install the plugin download it and upload it to ‘wp-content/plugins’ and then activate the plugin. Then navigate to ‘Settings’ in the main left hand sidebar in your wordpress admin and select ‘doTheGoogle’.
You’ll then be able to select which browsers you want to display the prompt to. I’ve decided not to include Safari as it works in a similar way to Chrome. The prompt appears in the bottom left hand corner of the users screen and allows them to remove it. This will stay removed un till they close their browser and then visit the site the next time
a screenshot of ‘doTheGoogle’ WordPress settings page that let’s you choose which browsers you want to target.
Have you installed the plugin? Let me know if you like it or if you find any bugs.
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