Firefox Support

by Devanshu Mehta

Let me give you a lesson in the small part you can play in fighting the battles you believe need to be fought. I am a member of a website called “GoZing Surveys”:http://www.gozingsurveys.com which pays petty cash to participate in surveys. Yes, I know some people may find this intrusive but I like having enough free money for an ice cream in exchange for telling people whether I prefer Johnson & Johnson Q-tips to store brand.

Now a lot of their surveys do not support “Firefox”:http://spreadfirefox.com/community/?q=affiliates&id=76836&t=1 and this is totally unacceptable. I refuse to use IE- the web site can lose my business. However, in the spirit of “SpreadFirefox”:http://spreadfirefox.com/community/?q=affiliates&id=76836&t=1 I believe that the battle will be won by not opening IE AND by informing businesses that they are losing customers. So this what I wrote them (OTX Research is a company that does the surveys on GZ’s behalf):

OTX Research,
I find it deplorable that you require your users to use Internet Explorer. I refuse to participate in any research until this issue is resolved. I believe you will not have any accurate research until you can find a way to include ALL participants. Until then your research can only be qualified as ‘based on a sampling of avid Internet Explorer users’.

As the market share of other browsers increases (as it has and will), ultimately you will lose more than you can imagine. I believe you must already be aware of the issue- however since it is not that difficult to build standards-compliant web sites I cannot imagine what reasons you may have to continue this practice.

Here’s hoping your support for all platforms comes soon,
Devanshu Mehta

I come from the land of “Gandhi”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi , my friends. “Civil Disobedience”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0486275639/galaxyfaraway is in my blood. The browser wars are only going to get better.

UPDATE: These people are more insidious than I thought. The mail bounced! Now to go searching for the true email address. I have emailed the GoZing people and the OTX corporate email.

UPDATE 2: The GoZing help email bounced as well. Just emailed their corporate parent Greenfield. I have too much time on my hands.