Asa Dotzler: Firefox and more

My favorite browser is definitely Google, aside from your blog of course. :)

It sort of makes sense if the blue e is the Internet...

My dad told me the other day that he was trying to view some science website and "his Google" crashed. He's my perfect use-case tester!

All you punk kids downloading illegal songs off the world wide interweb keep wrecking it for the rest of us!

In my day, all we had was a stick, and we liked it!

[/end attempt at humour]

Then again, I totally get this. When I do "tech support" on occasion for friends and family over the phone... it used to go like this:

Q.) Ok, so what kind of computer do you have?
A.) Its a Dell.

Q.) Do you have any detailed information about it? (specs, product #, etc.)
A.) Uhm... no, but I think its running on Windows.

Q.) Ah, ok, which version?
A.) How do I tell?

- - - - - -
Thus now, I have changed my approach...

Q.) Ok, so you are in front of the computer?
A.) Yes

Q.) What color is the Start Button?
A.) Green/Gray/Lots of colors

Ok, so if its Green, they are running XP, Gray Win95->2000, Lots... they're on Vista.

And from here, I'll start diagnosing stuff...

Need them to open a web browser?... don't ask that... ask them to go to their homepage... etc.

Even with experience... you'll find it doesn't mean expertise...

I've seen 5-10 year computer users writing documents while Clippy is scribbling in the corner... minimizing every window on their desktop one at a time, to get to "My Computer" to find files... searching frantically through dozens of "grouped" taskbar items trying to find that elusive web page they were at...

To this day I can't believe how many people even function in a windows environment without knowing/using (Alt+Tab)

Now where's my Vic-20 again...

I don't think they're calling Yahoo! or Google browsers. I think it's just poor wording. I think they were trying to say:

"By using an RSS reader -- whether it be Yahoo! or Google -- in your Web browser of choice, you can view a feed from The Blotter..."

*cough* http://kalsey.com/2004/09/why_i_dont_recommend_firefox/

Gee, I recall getting beaten up when I wrote...

Most Web users don't know what a browser is. That blue E they click on the desktop isn�t a browser, it's "The Internet." Or maybe it's 'Yahoo' if that's what their home page is set to. Tell them to download a new browser and they don't understand what you mean.

You'd be shocked how many people don't understand what a URL is and what the address bar is for. When they need to go to a site, they close the browser, re-open it so they get the MSN or Yahoo home page, and enter the URL into the search box.

It's important to realize that for the vast majority of people, the computer is a tool and they don't know all the right names, or all the different things they can do with the tool. And for the most part, they don't want to learn, they just want to get things done.

well as i last heard "google" has became a common word. verb? i hear people say "google it" all the time. i think "google it" is diffently googles unofficial catch phrase.

some nice web 2.0 going, no? http://www.google.it/ (too bad it's the language and not marketing.. hehe.)

Forget RSS, until myspace hooks RSS up to the comment system, it won't hit that critical mass for a few years yet.

Flash is the new web. Check out all the popular sites, they all use HTML for the bread and flash as the meaty filling. (except google)

We need to get SVG + animation + movie and music streaming up and running. Or make an open source flash thingy.

Kids want text that is at angles, 3D stuff, music, movies. Animations.

We are so far behind what people want it is scary.

monk.e.boy

Gary: those experienced users are still a step ahead of those I know, who always close an application before starting another one. Single-tasking still lives...

Andy: "In some browsers, such as Firefox, [...]" In others, like Yahoo!, [...]

Well, the comments section for this post is nice:
(Quote)
What can one person do here? I am mad at the treatment of our boys in the hospitals and how they are declined disability and their families are left to care for them the rest of their lives, these soldiers should get the best treatment, their children free tuition to college, and deeply discounted housing for their families and retrained to continue to serve our country in another capacity or retrained for civilian workforce.
(/Quote)
Not the best place for the comment, I suppose.

I've got friends who know how to write HTML code and have a homepage, but never heard of RSS. However, my mother had some conference and there she learned, what a blog is, how to use RSS (she didn't exactly learn what it is) and so on. She already forgot again. She even forgets her 3-letter computer keyword.
But the weird thing is: At work she not only manages to get into her PC, but also to phone someone using Skype. I was stunned.