Ever more users enjoy their browsing experience with Firefox (check out Firefox 3, it’s great). Moreover, being aware of information security issues many Firefox users protect themselves better against script-side attacks, they take advtange of the Java noScript add-on for Firefox.Unfortunately, ever more often blogs require one to give temporary permission for certain scripts to run on one’s PC in order to enjoy the site.

For the visitor it is inconvenient and risky. So why does your blog or web site require scripts to run on my machine. Are you asking me to lower my security guard?

Quite a while back we pointed out that we must watch for cultural (e.g., religion, language), commercial (e.g., no credit cards used here) and technical factors that could result in different usability or interface requirements across countries.

b – browser usage varies enormously – ignore Firefox at your peril

a – Alexa.com continues to fail businesses with inaccurate usage numbers

Here we focus on more technical matters. Usability and interface perceptions can differ greatly across countries due to, for instance, security awareness and prevention.

Technical features

Focusing on technical differences or peculiarities is important because these are the most likely ones to trip up your site.

If need be, get a nicer looking screenshot showing how many scripts you have to temporarily allow to make full use of Ian Fernando’s great website.

Too many scripts are a pain for your visitors. Users want your web page or blog to load quickly without having to watch out for scripts (see above screenshot). In the above screenshot, the right-side rectangle shows that the site requires your okay to run numerous scripts on your machine. Only then are you getting access to the various features the site offers.

The page loads faster without scripts. Full enjoyment of the above web page requires the activation of too many scripts (at least temporarily). Scripts make a web site more cumbersome for the surfer. Moreover, even a regular visitor may find it a hassle to have to activate scripts each time when coming to the site.

Scripts make it less secure for your visitors. Not requiring scripts to read your text or view your site makes it more secure for the visitor or surfer. So avoid requiring the user having to activate some scripts when he or she just wants to read content.

However, for security purposes one cannot give all these sites, such as feedburner.com, unlimited rights to use script beyond one’s current visit to this web site. That would be dangerous. Therefore, the user clicks on the ‘allow scripts temporarily’ option. In turn, this requires that one has to go through this tedious exercise each time one visits the above site and others of its kind.

KISS – Keep it simple, stupid

The screenshot below shows, no scripts must be run to view and search the site’s content. In fact, not even posting a comment to a story requires you to allow ComMetrics to be able to run script on your machine, simply not needed.

If you need a nicer looking image of the above see here – no script activated to view and enjoy siteThe screenshot above illustrates that ComMetrics offers a nice surfing experience without making use of scripts. The user does not have to activate scripts at all.

My take on this issue

We expect users to protect their privacy. Minimize the risk for a possible infection by malicious code. Not requiring visitors to give permission for JavaScript to run on their PC in order to get access to all the features is the easiest and fastest way. Web sites that require visitors to lower their security guard by having to activate scripts seem inconsiderate.

A web site should neither require one to activate scripts to enjoy the site, nor having to install a program update to view a document or a video.
Let us remember, many organizations still use Windows 2000. In addition, let us not forget, millions of PCs run on Windows 98. Can we afford to ignore these surfers?

Tips

Ever more often websites use audio or video. However, please consider the following:

1. pick the right music to reach your intended audience and convey your intended message carefully (PS. this is not always the same as the preferred choice of marketing directors or their children!),

2. make it very easy to opt in or out of audio, lest your choice of audio branding is not music to every customer’s ears AND

3. make it unnecessary to have to install a special plug-in to be able to listen to an audio file or view your site

Bottom line

Does my web site or blog follow the KISS principle – Keep It Simple, Stupid
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- why Firefox helps your security efforts, while Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 fails you terribly

We have stories filed under the main category:

• good practice preventing flops (you are here – main category browse down for more info)
  • data and statistics
  • marketing 101
  • usability and friendliness

What is the difference between good practice and best practice? The terms may be used interchangeably but mean different things.

Here we outline how we use good practice and best practice at ComMetrics in order to benchmark your online activities.

What is Best Practice?

Best Practice is a superior method or innovative practice that contributes to the improved performance of an organization, usually recognized as “best” by other peer organizations.

It implies accumulating and applying knowledge about what is working and not working in different situations and contexts, including lessons learned and the continuing process of learning, feedback, reflection and analysis (what works, how and why).

What is Good Practice?

Good Practice means to carry out a function or testing using only recommended or approved methods (e.g., food regulation).

Good practice documents may include guidelines, codes of practice, procedures manuals, regulations, and other documents as is the case in occupational health and safety. Employers must document that they follow regulations. Required is the documenting of procedures and privacy violations.

To illustrate:

Canada’s Good Importing Practices For Food (GIP) is a voluntary code of practice to be used as a guideline for Canadian importers. It is designed to encourage them to create their own hygiene controls to help improve food safety and meet regulatory requirements.
The GIP is broad in scope and nature. It deals not only with the key controls necessary to limit safety risks but also provides direction on control measures related to fraud, and on preventing deviations in standard, grade and composition of imported food

Why should you browse through AND read content in the sub-categories of good practice preventing flops?

Sub-categories under the main heading bring you examples that others and we would categorize as being best practice or following good practice. However, discussing flops to learn from mistakes is part of our coverage.

To illustrate, record company executives expect 8 out of 10 records to flop, and pay for that with the 2 expected hits.

We help in making your marketing efforts a success. So start learning from other people’s flops. Join the conversation!

Read our filed-stories ==> visit the sub-categories to get the inside stories:

• good practice preventing flops (you are here – main heading)
  • data and statistics
  • marketing 101
  • usability and friendliness

Bottom line

Making the cash register ring is important. So is building your your brand with the help of social marketing.

Knowing what works, how and why as well as avoiding making too many mistakes will save you money and time. ComMetrics empowers you to learn from success stories as well as flops — read on.

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If this post was helpful to you, please consider stumbling it or subscribing to feeds from CyTRAP Labs. Cheers.

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Also of interest:

- why women buy black high heels – the girl’s guide

- the mission of ComMetrics

- 1 sensible metrics – how to measure success of a blog – the basics

- 2 sensible metrics – a framework for measuring blog success

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We all know that one must watch for cultural (e.g., religion, language) and commercial (e.g., no credit cards used here) differences. As well, technical factors could result in different usability or interface requirements across countries. Here we focus on technical differences or peculiarities, since these are the most likely ones to trip up your site.

We started this series with:

a – Alexa.com continues to fail businesses with inaccurate usage numbers

A good way of loosing visitors to your webpage or your blog is to have a site that fails to work properly on surfers’ computer(s).

Did you know that for 2007, there are countries where the use of Firefox has grown by four or more percent? Try Belgium, Croatia and Greece for starters.

Moreover, in such new European Union Member States as Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary more than 40% of Internet surfers use Firefox.

We took the above graphic from the browser barometer – in French

If the above is not legible, get the graphic here:

ignore Firefox and loose surfers

Hence, ignoring Firefox in Europe is a serious error, since it continues chipping away at Internet Explorer’s overall share.

CyTRAP Labs’ take on this issue

The simplest conclusion is that besides Microsoft Internet Explorer, one must make sure that a web page or a blog is also easy to view and navigate using the Firefox browser. In some countries, one may loose many of the home-based surfers for sure if the webpage or the blog fails to view nicely in Firefox.

Bottom line

Whenever you come across some idea regarding the design of your webpage, just ask:

When a website visitor or blog reader surfs to my/our site using the Firefox browser instead of Internet Explorer, will things work properly?

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If this post was helpful to you, please consider stumbling it or subscribing to feeds from CyTRAP Labs. Cheers.

==========>

Also of interest:

- why women buy black high heels – the girl’s guide

- the mission of ComMetrics

- 1 sensible metrics – how to measure success of a blog – the basics

- why Firefox helps your security efforts, while Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 fails you terribly

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We will bring you another interesting tidbit soon. It will address plugins and script usage, so stay tuned.

Usage varies enormously across Europe.

- bloggers may want to boycott Alexa.com rankings, and

- Silicon Valley may not always get it right.

Things around the world are getting more complicated for sure. Hence, firms that focus on understanding and respecting differences across cultures and countries will do better.

In that context, we came across a great map showing social network penetration across the world. Information from the Alexa toolbar was used to draw this map.

Get the original map including more explanations here:

Valleywag.com – data junkie the world map of social networks

Where do these data come from?

Here is how Alexa.com explains how it collects data visualized above:

Alexa could not exist without the participation of the Alexa Toolbar community. Each member of the community, in addition to getting a useful tool, is giving back. Simply by using the Firefox and IE toolbars each member contributes valuable information about the web, how it is used, what is important and what is not. This information is returned to the community as Related Links, Traffic Rankings and more.

The above makes it obvious, install toolbar and Alexa keeps track about which web sites you visit, time spent by leaving your browser tab bar open with that URL and so on. All needed to generate usage statistics a la Alexa.

Why are some important networks not included in the above map?

Therefore, why is such a site as Xing not being included in the above statistics?

It is surely larger than StudiVZ (Studiverzeichnis), at least in Germany.

ANSWER: Xing is a social network site for business folks. Moreover, as we all know, most corporate users do not have admin rights required to be able to install the Alexa toolbar on their PC at the office. The toolbar is, however, the way Alexa collects user data for its statistics. Hence, Alexa’s usage statistics exclude any corporate visitors without an Alexa toolbar checking their Xing account daily or more often.

Same goes for B Kontakte, a Russian network site. It is the forth largest site in the country, according to traffic data and has just about 700′000 registered users.

B Kontakte Russia – network

As well, people who do not speak English will not have the Alexa toolbar installed. I just wonder, how many users you think will have an Alexa toolbar installed in Mongolia. Here hi5 is the dominant social network (see map above) but how many users provided these statistics (= sample size)?

Do your customers and blog readers participate in these social networks?

Social networks serve different clientele with different needs. Xing.com, LinkedIn.com or Plaxo.com serve business people. Each has a slightly different focus, of course. In contrast, Facebook or StudiVZ (Studiverzeichnis) serve students. However, students are more likely to have the Alexa toolbar installed on their personal notebook than the corporate types on their employer’s machine.

It could be that your current and potential clients may participate in Xing.com in the hopes that it will help their work or just help them waste much time – see here for an analysis:

- 5 Netzwerkmarketing fuer KMUs – Soziale Netzwerke und Effektivitaet

Second, what are the chances that they use the Alexa bar? Third, how likely will they spend much time in those social networks?

CyTRAP Labs’ take on this issue

If you do not sell to retail customers and, most importantly, your product is not a branded household name (e.g., Mr Proper or Kit Kat chocolate, Dell computers) the question is – are social networks useful to you?

Do they help reach clients or at least potential customers if you are a chartered accountant or CPA?

Alexa data are not representative of the usage of social networks.

So do you have the Alexa browser plug-in? No? Then you viewing this page will have absolutely no impact on the Alexa ranking for this site. You simply do not count.

- Bloggers Boycotting Alexa.com Rankings

Besides this limit, however, the map shows different folks around the world use different social networks. That in itself is important information. In addition, do not always head for Facebook and MySpace to tap the social networking market. Things are different in Europe, Asia or Africa as the map illustrates.

Tidbit – yes Virginia, you can plan but things may work out very differently

Google set up Orkut.com to target the U.S. market but, interestingly, 55% of its audience is now Brazilian and probably another 10% comes from India.

Tip

Whenever you are shown usage statistics from the internet, ask yourself:

How were these data collected and, in turn, how were they used to arrive at the conclusions presented to me?

Alexa is a perfect case in point on how data may not represent the true situation for you. If you have no Alexa toolbar installed, you are not part of their usage numbers. Having no right to install programs on their corporate PC, most business people are not likely to be part of their sample… However, it may be that your site is targeting those users in particular. If so, Alexa numbers tell you little if anything about usage of the web by corporate types.

Bottom line

Whenever you come across some data and/or statistics just ask:

Can they be meaningful to my business?

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If this post was helpful to you, please consider stumbling it or subscribing to feeds from CyTRAP Labs. Cheers.

==========>

Also of interest:

- Why women buy black high heels – the girl’s guide

- the mission of ComMetrics

- 1 sensible metrics – how to measure success of a blog – the basics

==========>

We will bring you another interesting tidbit about browser usage across Europe and what it means soon, so stay tuned.