Science Addiction

Back in May, I published an article here that highlighted how MSN AdCenter kept non-IE users out of their service. As a Mac user, it is a mild irritation whenever a major online player keeps non-IE customers out, but this one took the cake. Their customer service rep asked me to buy Windows. Think about that for a second- a major corporation asking a potential advertiser to drastically change their computer usage behavior for the privilege of advertising with them. I’m sorry, but Yahoo and Google will gladly take my business.

In any case, earlier this month- about 3 months after the service launched- Firefox support has been introduced in MSN AdCenter. They listened. I doubt building a standards compliant web site actually took 3 months, but I am glad that it happened. Also glad to see it works in Safari on my Mac.

AOL has put our privacy at risk by publicly disclosing the recent search history of 650,000 users. This wrong in so many different ways- and yes, your search queries say a lot about you, including your identity. The New York Times discovered just who AOL Searcher #4417749 was just using their search strings. Read more »

Thanks to Digg, my article on the curious behavior of Microsoft towards their advertisers wherein Microsoft builds a web site for their advertisers that does not work for Firefox users. Cut out 10% of your potential advertisers before you even go in to business- that’s a great strategy. We have feedback from users, the blogosphere and Microsoft.

Today, two weeks later, the site is still Firefox-unfriendly and in fact, even more so:

It has gotten worse; it doesn’t even fail gracefully any more. It does not inform you that the reason the site looks wonky is that you are using Firefox. It looks the same in Safari- so that locks out all Mac and Linux users… but I am repeating myself.

Since the original article got on the Digg.com frontpage, there were many comments, on my site, at Digg and directly from Microsoft. Let me discuss a few: Read more »

In a strange development in the aftermath of my article on lack of Firefox support in MSN adcenter Windows Live Beta Email has started supporting Firefox as of a few days ago. This is good news and a positive step from Microsoft. Lack of Firefox support when it came out of Beta would have been a horrible move.

UPDATE : It seems like I spoke too soon! They actually took the support away; apparently their last update- the one that brought Firefox support- broke some integral things and now they have gone back to fixing it. Fix it fast, guys. Everyone else (including Yahoo! mail’s new beta) supports Firefox without any problems.

UPDATE (5/31/06): And Firefox support is back. Thanks Microsoft (sincerely)- now can we have Safari support?

Microsoft has chosen the growth of IE over every other division in the company for 10 years now. Windows versions from 95 onwards have suffered enough. Now, the company’s IE-centric view of its business is hurting younger divisions of the company that have a chance of becoming a major force as the company looks to take on Google. Read more »

Everybody’s doing it so now, I guess, so will I. Here are my favorite Firefox extensions, in no particular order.
PDF Download: This extension allows me to view PDFs within my browser as a pdf, convert it to html to view. A dialog box that gives you pdf options also shows you the size of the pdf so you can decide what to do with it before downloading. Highly customizable, lightweight and highly recommended! Download PDF Download
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del.icio.us: I use del.icio.us like a maniac and cannot live without my Del.icio.us plugin. It allows you to add the link you are viewing to your del.icio.us with a button on your main toolbar. Clicking on it pops up a window that will ask you for tags and a description of the link. When you submit that form, it will automatically submit the link you were viewing to your account. Again, highly customizable and easy to use. Download del.icio.us extension

SessionSaver: This one is a life saver. Some times your computer freezes up, or Firefox hangs, or you just have to shutdown or restart your computer- and you have 17 tabs open that you cannot afford to loose. Well, all hail Session Saver, a Firefox extension that will keep track of all the tabs you have open and when you reopen Firefox it will reload all of them (either automatically or when you ask it to). Can’t live without it. Download SessionSaver Read more »

Let me give you a lesson in the small part you can play in fighting the battles you believe need to be fought. I am a member of a website called GoZing Surveys which pays petty cash to participate in surveys. Yes, I know some people may find this intrusive but I like having enough free money for an ice cream in exchange for telling people whether I prefer Johnson & Johnson Q-tips to store brand. Read more »