As I See It...

A weekly commentary
by James E. Felton

No. 3

Last Saturday morning I was cruising down the Information Superhighway looking for good sites to link to. I came to what appeared to be a very interesting game site. Great, I thought! There isn't much that I like better than a good video game!

When I scrolled down the page I saw a box that said, . Nothing will put you in touch with your feelings faster than something that steps right on them!

I decided to write a letter to the site's owner, so I looked for a "feedback" address. There wasn't one. No problem. I just used WHOIS to find the site's business name, address, phone number, and e-mail address.

The following is a copy of my letter:

Dear Ray,

Your XXXX site is very interesting. However, 80% of the market (including myself) will not link to it as long as it says it is optimized for Explorer ONLY. That is comparable to saying it is optimized for whites, or blacks, or Canadians only.

I completely understand the problem with optimizing for multiple browsers, but your viewers will choose which browser they prefer, and they won't likely choose it based on your site.

I have recently become convinced (by testing the Phillips/Magnavox WebTV) that the best browser is the one you don't see (the one that doesn't clutter your screen). While WebTV (http://www.webtv.net) currently will not work on your site it gives the best overall viewing experience (of any currently available browser), and presages the browser of the future. And instead of using a mouse it uses an infrared keyboard, or a remote control!

Common sense should tell you that at some point the "brand" of browser you use will matter about as much as the "brand" of TV you use. Can you imagine what would happen to a TV show that said it was optimized for Magnavox ONLY?

Over the next few years hundreds of low cost Internet appliances will bring the Web into hundreds of millions of additional homes, and businesses. Most of those viewers won't care "beans" about Microsoft, and will likely be able to spend the money viewing the Web that they didn't spend buying a PC. Surely you don't want to exclude them from your site. I have a gif on my site, viewable at (http://www.ncns.com/sglasste.gif), that illustrates Spyglass' (the guys that made Explorer for Microsoft) vision of the future of the Web. You may also want to visit Spyglass' site (http://www.spyglass.com).

Sincerely,

James E. Felton

President, NCNS News

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