browser wars
Sep. 17th, 2010 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimac"I asked Levine how you get people to upgrade their browser. His response: 'If I knew the answer to that, I'd be a billionaire.'"
I can tell them a few ways to get people not to upgrade their browser, and some of them are right in the article, quotes from it in italics.
1. Entice users with crap they don't want. "Those browsers supported next-generation coding tools like HTML5 that allowed for dazzling graphics, elegant games, and interactive tools." I know what that means. That means that there will be even more web sites whose home page navigation is interfered with by annoying video introductions, slow-loading graphics, and cryptic picture layouts with the basic links hidden, hard to find in the background, like a Where's Waldo game. "When one-quarter of your users are running a browser made in 2006 or earlier, you can't use all the gee-whiz tricks that are now at your disposal. To reach everyone, you've got to keep things simple." Yes! That's exactly right, except that it's good, not bad.
2. Lie and pretend that updating is easy. "Suddenly that five-minute installation is worth it." On your planet, maybe, but just try installing anything complex in five minutes, without restarts, mysterious freezes, and cryptic error messages, on a computer here on Earth.
3. Force them to shell out $$ for new hardware and firmware. "Older machines won't have the juice to display tricked-out Web sites in all their glory. ... You can download a beta copy and try it out, but check out the requirements first -- sorry, XP users." Software pushers like to disclaim responsibility for the system upgrades they impel users to undergo, but it's their doing. And it's deliberate. I've seen an interview with Bill Gates in which he explains that software bloat is a deliberate business strategy to keep users buying new product; because if everyone's satisfied with their computer system, what will Microsoft sell?
4. Threaten them. "Maybe the solution is just to bribe people -- or punish them. I'm guessing that Facebook could help kill off IE6 in a single day by cutting off support of old, rickety browsers. Sure, he'd lose a lot of traffic for a few days, but what's a bigger hassle for Web users: installing a new browser or bidding farewell to their online selves?" We already know that Facebook is the most antagonistic company to its customers' interests on the Internet; why prove it further?
5. Insult them. Every time I go to YouTube with my two-year-old version of Firefox 2, I get a message reading, "Your browser is no longer supported. Please upgrade to a modern browser." You know, if it said "to a current browser" or even "to a newer browser," I might consider it. But "a modern browser"? As if one that's two years old is some medieval manuscript version, hand-calligraphed on vellum by monks? Way to get your users' backs up, guys.
I can tell them a few ways to get people not to upgrade their browser, and some of them are right in the article, quotes from it in italics.
1. Entice users with crap they don't want. "Those browsers supported next-generation coding tools like HTML5 that allowed for dazzling graphics, elegant games, and interactive tools." I know what that means. That means that there will be even more web sites whose home page navigation is interfered with by annoying video introductions, slow-loading graphics, and cryptic picture layouts with the basic links hidden, hard to find in the background, like a Where's Waldo game. "When one-quarter of your users are running a browser made in 2006 or earlier, you can't use all the gee-whiz tricks that are now at your disposal. To reach everyone, you've got to keep things simple." Yes! That's exactly right, except that it's good, not bad.
2. Lie and pretend that updating is easy. "Suddenly that five-minute installation is worth it." On your planet, maybe, but just try installing anything complex in five minutes, without restarts, mysterious freezes, and cryptic error messages, on a computer here on Earth.
3. Force them to shell out $$ for new hardware and firmware. "Older machines won't have the juice to display tricked-out Web sites in all their glory. ... You can download a beta copy and try it out, but check out the requirements first -- sorry, XP users." Software pushers like to disclaim responsibility for the system upgrades they impel users to undergo, but it's their doing. And it's deliberate. I've seen an interview with Bill Gates in which he explains that software bloat is a deliberate business strategy to keep users buying new product; because if everyone's satisfied with their computer system, what will Microsoft sell?
4. Threaten them. "Maybe the solution is just to bribe people -- or punish them. I'm guessing that Facebook could help kill off IE6 in a single day by cutting off support of old, rickety browsers. Sure, he'd lose a lot of traffic for a few days, but what's a bigger hassle for Web users: installing a new browser or bidding farewell to their online selves?" We already know that Facebook is the most antagonistic company to its customers' interests on the Internet; why prove it further?
5. Insult them. Every time I go to YouTube with my two-year-old version of Firefox 2, I get a message reading, "Your browser is no longer supported. Please upgrade to a modern browser." You know, if it said "to a current browser" or even "to a newer browser," I might consider it. But "a modern browser"? As if one that's two years old is some medieval manuscript version, hand-calligraphed on vellum by monks? Way to get your users' backs up, guys.
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-20 10:36 pm (UTC)What information would you find useful in further evaluating issues around browser security? I'm reasonably certain I can find specific information about problems in IE, particularly IE6. Not sure if you're interested in going any further in looking at these issues, though.