Your Computer Needs This Plug-in to Continue

Don't misunderstand me: This isn't about the irritation of sites requiring plug-ins. It's the phrasing that's at issue: my computer is missing a plug-in? Seeing the message on the screen of an iPhone or tablet is laughably anachronistic. Smartphones and tablets are "computers" in a literal sense, I guess, but so is my pocket calculator.

We live in an full of traditional "computers" along with all kinds of mobile devices, as well as things like games consoles that can access Websites. Website creators who see the world only in terms of desktop and laptop computers are living in the last century, as convenient as that view might be for them.

The solution is simply a matter of rephrasing the error to something like: "Fully accessing this Website requires the X plug-in..."

Better still, of course, is . Browsers are ready, so why isn't your Website?