Category : Digital Blog

Internet Explorer falls behind Firefox in Europe

Posted by Dave Forber at 8:25 pm

Quoting the Guardian:

Microsoft’s browser – all versions – now trumped by open source product, with the losses apparently due to rise in use of Google Chrome.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/jan/04/internet-explorer-falls-behind-firefox-europe

You can hear it now, can’t you? All the web designers and geeks cheering?  This is the genuinely exciting news that Firefox usage in Europe has overtaken that of Internet Explorer.

Except there’s not really anything to cheer about.  This isn’t the triumph of Open Source over the behemoth that is Microsoft as you may have been led to believe, and it certainly isn’t the end of Internet Explorer.  If you look at the data, you’ll see that Firefox usage is fairly static at around 40%.  Internet Explorer’s lead has been eaten away by Chrome.  The only thing to cheer about is that Internet Explorer is now a minority browser, but it has been for well over a year.

The rise of Chrome

In fact, the only browser on the move up from these statistics is Chrome.  This isn’t a real problem from a website design and development point of view because both Firefox and Chrome – and other browsers that use the same rendering engines – largely behave themselves when doing what we tell them.

But why Chrome? Firefox has, seemingly, more press and Internet Explorer is still the default browser in Windows.  The answer is probably one of brand.  When Windows, as forced by the EU, introduced its browser ballot, which asks users to choose a browser, Chrome, Firefox and IE were all on the first screen.  But when users “go on the internet”, where do most of them go? Google.  Google is the internet for a great many people, and its rise may be related to that simple association.

Europe is not your website

Do not forget that statistics, whilst interesting, are not necessarily relevant for your audience.  Each site is different, and if you’re a corporation working with businesses, you’ll probably find that most of your users still use Internet Explorer because that’s the browser they’ve been given.  If you’re working with ‘real’ customers, the browser usage will again be different.

Also, there have been government warnings in Germany and France about using Internet Explorer 6 because of its age, compatibility and security.  These warnings, that weren’t issued in the UK, will probably have skewed the results given the population and technology uptake of the countries.

Stop the press! No change!

Of course, while an interesting diversion, all this really proves is that browser compatibility is still an issue.  Websites now have to work with all three main rendering engines, i.e. Trident (Internet Explorer), Gecko (Firefox) and WebKit (Chrome & Safari).  And they have to because that’s what users are using in roughly a 40/40/20 ratio, at least in Europe.

Reputable agencies will always build compatible sites and test them across browser and across operating system. We are aware of companies with IT departments that still build and test for Internet Explorer 6 only, which represents a now pitiful proportion of the user base.  For your users’ sake, get them some outside help.  We recommend us!

How Facebook Privacy Settings could become a killer feature

Posted by Adam Beizsley-Pycroft at 5:11 pm

Recently in the blogosphere, on Twitter and within traditional “dead tree” media there has been a great deal of controversy around Facebook’s attitude to privacy settings. Digital advocacy groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation believe that the recent changes to simplify them haven’t gone far enough. Meanwhile, Facebook have stated that the instant personalization program is “widely misunderstood” and “the only information the three partners currently in the program receive from Facebook is users’ public information.”. Whilst this debate is likely to rage on for the foreseeable future I’ve been considering how a further tweak to Facebook’s privacy settings could turn it into a full blown CRM solution.

One of the main barriers to using Facebook for account management is that the vast majority of professionals have a personal and business “persona”. In certain industries, various quotes, opinions and photographs that users may post in a personal context would be considered completely inappropriate.

One solution, which Facebook have already developed is pages, usually branded as an organisation or product rather than an individual (celebrity Facebook pages are the obvious exception). However, conventional wisdom on the subject dictates that it’s best to have an employee “personify” a company rather than appear as a monolithic corporate entity. Furthermore, whilst pages are OK for reaching a wider audience they’re inappropriate for customer relationship management of key individuals.

At present, people tend to use LinkedIn to communicate in a business context. However, LinkedIn has several barriers including the subscription and the fact that the userbase is only 60 million versus Facebook’s 400 million. Facebook is clearly more feature rich and has the money to invest in research, development and design which should result in a better platform.

Facebook currently allows users to tailor the audience for statuses and restrict access to various profile sections. However, the killer feature that they’re missing is the ability to present different profile information by audience. In order to do this at present a user would have to create one Facebook account per audience. This would create confusion (the user would appear multiple times in the search) and demonstrate that the customer wasn’t dealing with the “real” person. Whilst the vast majority understand that people behave differently in a personal and professional setting this isn’t something usually discussed. By introducing this feature there would be a more seamless user experience as the recipient of the “Friend Request” could determine whether a user would be presented with their personal or business information or indeed both.