Check which version of Firefox you are using:
1. Go to "Help" in the browser toolbar
2. Click on "About Mozilla Firefox"
3. The number under the big, red "Firefox" is your version number
Poll #753641 FirefoxVersion
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

I'm reading this poll in...

Thanks for your help!

Tags: browsers, usability, work

Officially we're supporting Firefox 1.0. We've been doing that since last year. Our measurements don't support version information for Firefox yet, so I have no way of finding out which version is more common on our sites. Judging from the Wikipedia article about Firefox, it looks as if there are still many more downloads of earlier versions of Firefox than 1.5 as of January this year. But that number doesn't include automatic downloads of 1.5.

None of the browser statistics web sites I've found had any versioning for Firefox either. The reason I'm asking is that I'm looking at a page that's absolutely fine in 1.0 and still readable but not very pretty in 1.5.

Anybody here have any input? Data? Speculation? Best practices?

Tags: browsers, usability, work

Joris Evers at Cnet has a round-up of many of the flaws that users are now discovering in the recently released beta of IE7. According to the article, Microsoft themselves have said that the beta is "not fully baked." Among the more serious issues that users have found are compatibility issues with McAfee security applications.

My own experience is that the browser crashed once early on. Later on, after I had turned off the browser and was shutting down the operating system, it crashed too. Less serious was that the browser did not accept compressed stylesheets.

Cnet editor Robert Vamosi has reviewed the beta of the new browser, although the "review" is mostly a listing of new features and comparison to Firefox. The page also includes a link to a video review.

Cnet say that the final version of the browser will be available in autumn.

Tags: browsers, links, usability

LifeHacker has an article about the new IE7 beta today. The comments section is very informative, with people writing in with their experiences and comparisons to Firefox.

Tags: browsers, usability
mood: informed

Microsoft are really pushing the phishing filter. You may remember that I chose not to activate the phishing filter. When I navigated away from the tour page, I was prompted again to activate the filter. This (left) is how the pop-up looked, except that none of the options were ticked as if I hadn't already made a choice. Ignoring the user's decision is a good way to appear pushy and patronising.

I chose again not to engage the filter. When I clicked the OK button, the pop-up disappeared and at the bottom of the browser a speech balloon showed up that made me aware of the button (shown to the right) there, that allows me to check if the site I'm looking at has been reported as a phishing site. It's the little white and orange button to the left in the screenshot.

When I checked the settings, it turns out that the phishing filter is still active.

Tags: browsers, usability

I had barely time to go to Google before the browser came crashing down around me. But I did manage to take a screenshot.



Some Initial Observations

• The address bar is now at the top, which makes a whole lot more sense than having it somewhere in the middle of the dashboard, as is traditional.


• The back and forwards buttons are to the left of the address bar and the reload and stop buttons are on the right. Again, I think this makes more sense than the traditional placement.

• Other familiar buttons have moved to the bottom right of the browser controls: the Homepage and Print buttons.


• In the same region new buttons have been introduced. The one that will garner the most interest is probably the RSS button. I foresee most paid RSS services biting the dust within the next six months or so. Cunningly, Microsoft have named the button "Feeds" rather than RSS. That's a much more appealing word to non-techies.


• To the left of the new control region is the famous tabbed browsing. The true blue square next to the tab, shows an icon when hovered over and the tool tip says "New Tab (Ctrl+T)"

• At the bottom right of the browser window, there's a magnifier with the text 100% next to it. That's a magnifier for the whole page, not a text size regulator as I was hoping.

Starting to Browse
When I'm starting to browse, I come to a run-once page at Microsoft. It exhorts me to activate the phishing filter. That sounds about as useful as Thunderbird's email scam filter, so I'm not going to do that.

I'm also asked to choose my location and language. Welsh fans will be gratified to see that United Kingdom/Welsh is one of the choices. Sweden has four language choices, three Sami dialects and Swedish. Finland has five: three Sami dialect, Finnish and Swedish. France has five language choices. You get the idea, they've included lots of obscure languages and dialects to pad the list. What I'm missing is a link that explains what this setting does. The instructional copy just says that the setting "helps websites show you content specific to your location." My immediate guess would be that the setting has no effect whatsoever, particularly if you choose something exotic. Still, I'll choose United Kingdom/English just to be safe.

There's also a checkbox if you're interested in participating in the Customer Experience Improvement Program. Finally you can save your settings. Alternatively you can go to your homepage and either do the customisation later or never show this page again.

Huh?
When I click to save my settings I am taken to a page on the Microsoft site that gives me the option of taking a tour of the new features on my brand spanking new browser. Rather confusingly I am also offered to "skip the tour and download Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview." I thought I just did that. This looks like the result of a disconnect between different usability efforts, those regarding the browser and those regarding the presentation of the browser. They were likely done by different teams and nobody had a complete overview at this level of detail. Been there, done that.

Tags: browsers, usability
mood: intrigued

I'm downloading IE7 to my laptop at home now. The size of the download is 11.2Mb. As a comparison Firefox 1.5 is 5.0Mb.

Started installation at 20.10. The installer calls the software Windows Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview.

I am asked to validate my copy of Windows. There does not appear any way to circumvent this check. Then I'm offered to install the latest updates, including a malicious software removal tool. Spybot reports a number of changes to bookmarks, including one changing from a Sony page to a Microsoft page. This happens just before I am told that the install was successful and that I now need to restart Windows.

I'll just send in this entry before I restart. If you don't hear anything from me for 24 hours, send out a search party.

Tags: browsers, usability
mood: worried

Microsoft have released a beta of Internet Explorer 7 for public download. Anybody here tested it yet? I'm particularly interested in if it simply overwrites the previous installation of IE6 because I have to use IE6 for testing purposes.

Tags: browsers, usability