Is your site ready
for Firefox?
By: Dominic
Jones
YESTERDAY was the official
launch of the new Firefox browser from the non-profit
Mozilla Foundation. I've been using a pre-release
version of Firefox for a couple of months and
count myself a big fan.
This browser is a huge improvement on Microsoft's
Internet Explorer, which hasn't seen an upgrade
in years and has been plagued with security
vulnerabilities.
I've tried switching fulltime to other browsers
before, including Opera and various Netscape
browsers, but I've never quite developed a liking
for them. The problem has been that these other
browsers are too different to Internet Explorer.
Firefox, however, doesn't have this drawback.
It feels and works like Internet Explorer but
comes with many more features. It has a built-in
search toolbar for popular search engines
like Google and Yahoo! It also has a one-click
capability for subscribing to RSS feeds.
It's such a good browser, in fact, that I think
industry analysts are underestimating its potential
against mightier Microsoft's IE. Currently,
the prediction is that Firefox will reach 10%
market share but not get much bigger. This
seems to be based on people voluntarily switching
to Firefox on their personal computers.
However, it seems people may be underestimating
how attractive Firefox will be to the corporate
market. Company IT managers looking for a way
to improve security will find in Firefox a browser
that any IE user will have no difficulty using.
There'll be little push-back from employees
(they'll love it), and no need for expensive
training because it is a comfortable transition
from Explorer. Firefox makes the transition
even easier by allowing users to import their
IE favorites and settings when they start
up the program for the first time.
Employees who use the Internet as a core activity
will find Firefox helps them to be more productive.
The RSS favorites tool that lets you add newsfeeds
and syndicated content into the browser could
be what gives Firefox a foot in the corporate
door. For analysts, investors and others who
track companies and industries closely, RSS
delivers information from multiple sources to
the browser. This allows you to keep track
of a portfolio of companies more readily
and easily than email or websites.
Some IR websites don't
work in Firefox
In the past few weeks, I've been noticing that
quite a few IR websites don't work the way they
should in the Firefox browser. One company with
a particularly nasty problem was Reuters
Group plc.
In Internet Explorer, Reuters' IR website was
one of the best. However, in Firefox the site
was distorted and unsable. After alerting Reuters
to the problem, the site was quickly fixed and
now works just fine in Firefox.
But I'm still seeing similar problems on other
sites. Just yesterday, I was on the site of
Spain's Gas Natural and it too didn't
render the same way in Firefox as it does in
Internet Explorer. In Firefox, the site lost
the left-navigation bar as well as all text
formatting, leaving the site unworkable.
In this case, Gas Natural did something it
never should have done -- design its site for
one type of browser. Sure Internet Explorer
has a 90 to 95% market share, but it makes no
sense to deliberately exclude a part of the
online audience if all you need is good coding
to make a site work for multiple current browsers.
Since a broken site in Firefox is a problem
with how the site is coded, its the company's
responsibility to fix the problem, as Reuters
was quick to do. The links below show you the
Gas Natural in both Internet Explorer and Firefox.
Other sites have similar problems to Reuters
and Gas Natural. Mostly these revolve around
how sites have implemented cascading
menus. On some sites, these menus are not
aligned properly, leading to situations where
it can be impossible to use the navigation scheme.
Many sites will experience
smaller issues
Many other sites have lesser but still important
problems with Firefox. On sites that use popup
windows for webcasts, Firefox's popup
blocking feature may prevent the webcast
console from opening. This isn't really a coding
problem on the sites themselves, but rather
an issue with how the user's browser is configured.
But if you don't want angry investors and shareholders
calling you for technical support, then its
a good idea to include a link that lets users
manually launch webcasts. Help pages
or instructions telling people how to turn off
the pop-up blocking feature might also be good.
 |
| Make
sure you have a manual link to launch webcasts
because Firefox blocks pop-ups by default.
|
Another problem for Firefox users is likely
to be Java stock charts. These don't
load in Firefox. Instead a puzzle piece tells
the user they need a plug-in. When they click
to download the plug-in, a message may tell
them none exists, depending on which version
of the browser they are using. This is an issue
for Mozilla, but investors may end up blaming
companies for providing content they cannot
see.
Furthermore, even if they can get the Java
plug-in, don't expect everyone to do so. Inexperienced
users and those who worry about downloading
malicious software may not feel comfortable
installing the Java plug-in required to view
Java charts.
The solution is simply to show HTML versions
of charts by default and make Java versions
optional. This is what Thomson Financial
has done with its stock charts.
 |
| If you
show advanced Java charts by default, this
is likely what many Firefox users will see.
Show HTML charts by default and give users
the option to view the Java version. |
Sites with Flash content also seem to
be causing difficulties for some Firefox users.
I had to download the latest Flash player
before I could view Flash pages. A look around
Mozilla's support forums indicates that many
people are having Flash problems.
So what to do?
If you haven't already, download the new Firefox
browser and browse through every page on your
site cataloguing any problems you find.
Companies that outsource their sites will find
that most of their suppliers have already ensured
that their pages are compatible, but even so,
it's still a good idea to check them yourself.
You can download the Firefox browser at http://www.mozilla.org/
They have some cool t-shirts, mugs and caps,
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