Ubiquity from Mozilla Labs - and a question about browsers...

This is fairly amazing to watch. Think of Ubiquity as user-generated mashups. I'm still digesting this but I wonder what would happen if you mix a little Prism with Ubiquity....

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo. Here is my final question - why are so many corporations and organizations standardized on IE? I'm not asking this facetiously - I really want to know if there is data used to make these decisions or if it is all based on perception. I really don't think this is a small issue either since the browser is now the most powerful tool on our computers. Really...is there any data/studies that suggest enterprises should use IE instead of Firefox or even Opera? I mean one of the reasons I ask is that I really don't see this level of innovation coming out of MSFT...wow IE8 will have a privacy mode...stunning...it took MSFT until IE7 to start on tabbed browsing...I'm just saying, think of it (the browser) as a piece of equipment - there is another piece of equipment available for the same price (free) and the 2nd one seems to show more innovation, attention to security, speed - essentially does better in just about every comparable metric you can find...which one do you pick?

Comments

[jay cross]

Mark, you want options. I want options. Most users prefer simplicity. Don't confuse me with the accessories. Also, from an IT perspective, if you go with a brain-dead browser, there are fewer opportunities for users to screw up.

[Manish Mohan]

1. I guess the fact that the OS comes preloaded with a browser might have something to do with this.

2. We are lazy and don't really want to take the pain of installing a new browser, especially when we don't know the advantages.

3. We are too lazy to learn new tools. After all just installing Firefox is not enough. Vanilla Firefox will not provide the advantages that it does with plugins added.

4. We don't pay attention to teaching using tools like a 'browser'. Imagine have you ever seen a training on browser on any corporate productivity improvement training? Good case for 'Work Literacy' like initiatives!!!

5. The new plugins (like the Ubiquity) don't come with "business" or "corporate" examples in their videos. Heck I won't be able to make a good business case with the above video of showing that Firefox will improve productivity.

6. Applications run only on IE. Many (I am guessing all though I haven't tested all) internal application in our organization don't run very well on Firefox. So I need to have both browsers even though I use Firefox as my main browser of use.

Gosh, this is turning into a blog post of its own!!!

[Nicola]

Hi, I don't think a switch from one to the other is essential, like you say Firefox, Opera and Safari, if you are a Windows user are all free to download, although some may be firewalled. One of IE's biggest user 'annoyances' is that it caches badly, the temporary internet files are not removed as quickly as Firefox.

I currently lose count of the amount of times I say during a week when someone is trying to doing something with a VLE at work, have you tried doing the same thing in Firefox.... and the same with any LMS/ web based CMS when editing (actually I think I lost count of the amount of times I said it during a day when I was previously in a web role :-))

That said, I prefer the look and feel of IE (maybe it is a comfort / familiarity factor) and can't at the moment imagine a situation where I would want to stop browsing with it. I have Firefox, Opera and Safari on a home laptop and generally switch between IE and Firefox depending on what I am trying to do (e.g some of the Firefox add-ons I can do more with when dabbling with web design).

I do think there needs to be an acceptance of flexibility of choice for the user, with a mix of free and paid for browsers being available for them.

[mark oehlert]

Wendy,

You're dead-on right and shame on me for not adding that in when I know that to be the case in my own org. If we start over from there though, what kind of ROI needs to be shown to get people to start thinking about the switch? I swear I don't what would be harder, getting everyone in my org to use a Mac or Firefox.

[Wendy]

I know that in the organizations I've worked in, the ubiquity of IE (mostly IE6) is a result of it being the only browser that the primary enterprise web application works in.

May be a chicken and egg thing. Companies have IE, therefore the vendor makes sure the application works in IE. Because everyone is so busy "new and improving" their application, the vendors never quite get around to making the application work on other browsers, which means that the company is stuck using IE.