Due to our recent lack of broadband, I have been reminded how the 60% of the world that does not have high-speed access gets to experience the Internet. Frankly, I think there should be a backlash against all these Web sites that don’t load quickly on a dial-up connection.
The trade press always seems so stunned to find out that sites like CraigsList.com are really popular. They ooh and ahh about how it’s such a wonderful marketing concept. Here’s a news flash: the reason CraigsList became popular and remains popular is because the whole dang thing is just a bunch of text. The site is blazingly fast and usable by absolutely anyone. No matter HOW bad your Internet connection is, you can surf around that site without agony using virtually any browser on the planet.
At the other extreme, we have Microsoft. This week, I got an email saying that it’s time for us to reenroll in the Microsoft Partner program. We’re developing software using their tools and to get a few benefits, we enrolled a couple of years ago. It’s free and you get their newsletter and other information.
Anyway, I tried to reenroll using my default browser: Firefox. After two tries, it turns out that the form actually doesn’t work with Firefox. And it takes forever to discover this problem. Each Partner page sits and redraws ever so slowly. Then you find that the buttons don’t work.
After this unpleasant experience, I switched to Internet Explorer, figuring that the site would have to work with Microsoft’s own browser. Well almost. On the first try, the site loaded SO slowly in IE that it actually timed out with an error. Eventually, I finally got to the required page yet again and discovered that the reason the form didn’t work in Firefox was that a button was completely different in IE. Why? Who knows?
The whole experience was a huge waste of time and only because some stupid developer was too lazy to create a site that’s cross-browser compatible and fast. Frankly, it’s just not that hard to do it right.
The good news is that during this time, I’ve also been reminded how fast OUR sites are. Disturbingly enough, we may be one of the last Web development firms that actually creates sites that are usable on dial up. Of course, that benefit is partly just a side effect of creating sites that focus on content and search engine friendliness. We create sites we wouldn’t mind visiting ourselves.