August 2008 Archives

.. from this Web page:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/

 

Latest from Mary Jo Foley's blog. Guess I got excited too soon ..

(To be clear: Microsoft isn't confirming it will have the same kind of "private browsing" functionality that Safari already offers, and some are speculating that all Redmond will end up doing is identifying which sites are porn sites, which won't be very useful to those who are hoping IE 8 will help them cover up their online tracks. )

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1543

Now do I have your attention? ;) Seriously, privacy controls as outlined in Mary Jo Foley's blog post .. 

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1550

.. are an idea whose time has already come (Apple got there first by putting them in the latest version of Safari for both Macs and PCs) and are finally being included by Microsoft in the next version of Internet Explorer.  Expect Firefox to follow suit if they want to continue to put up a good fight in the browser wars. 

http://security.itproportal.com/articles/2008/06/27/icann-backs-custom-domains-gives-brand-owners-nightmares/

Upon approval of the implementation plan, it is planned that applications for new names will be available in the second quarter of 2009.

.. according to Nielsen Consumer Insight Study (Website Magazine, August 2008 Issue).

• Experienced: In the U.S. two-thirds of online shoppers have been surfing and shopping for more than 7 years
• Dedicated:  60% of shoppers buy from the same sites they regularly buy from
• Mobile:  3.5 million mobile users visited shopping or auction sites via their mobile phones during December 2007

Clearly the time has come for all sites to be optimized for mobile phones.

Jakob Nielsen, the God of Web usability, explains in his Alertbox, August 12, 2008: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/application-design.html. 

Summary:
Many winners employ dashboards to give users a single overview of complex information and use lightboxes to ensure that users notice dialogs. Also, the Office 2007 ribbon showed surprisingly strong early adoption.