EliHorne

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Let’s get the full disclosure out of the way: I am a huge Apple fan. I’ve catalogued my Cupertino gadget collection more than once, and froth at the mouth when someone mentions “Special Event.” I personally find additional value in their attention to detail and relentless pursuit of “faster, thinner, sleeker.” I also understand that many people are turned off by Apple for these very same reasons. Price tag, smug users, those damn “I’m a Mac” commercials. I’ve come to understand that it’s not the machine, but how the user interfaces with it. To each their own.

I’m also a “standardista” web developer. I know what you are thinking, “strike two.” right? 7 days a week, I evangelize the semantic web, CSS, and that every visitor deserves the best browsing experience possible. Rich interaction that degrades gracefully for those with disabled features or slower internet connections.

An often overlooked part of my work, something that I find rewarding, is what happens to the page when something unexpected happens, like when CSS is disabled, or JavaScript is blocked. Or when a visually impaired person wants access to the same information as a sighted person, and uses a screen reader to navigate your information structure. Similar to the height of Flash when every site had to have two versions (Flash and HTML), competent web developers design and build for a handful of different scenarios that may never be called upon, but MUST be there at all times.

I believe that everyone deserves to experience the web, that the internet belongs to everyone. I enjoy knowing that my site will still look good if the client has a smaller than average screen, because it resizes gracefully, that graphics will appear “instantly there” even on slower net connections by using sprites, and that screen readers will find “H” tags even though I’m using image replacement on titles. Obviously there are some situations in which you can’t satisfy everyone, so you try your damnedest, and do what the available technology allows. Because you can’t demand people to shell out for the latest hardware just to see your site if they simply can’t justify the expense.

Earlier this week, the world (online, that is) went nuts over Apple’s “heavy handed” pushing of the latest Safari release (3.1) on PC users via iTunes’ Auto-Update. Mozilla’s co-founder spoke out on his personal blog and called it “undermining” the greater good. PC users have long been trained, and rightly so, to question any application trying to automatically do anything to their computer. Blame it on the “lack of applications” available for mac and through association, the lack of viruses, but attempting to auto-install anything on anyone’s computer is a ballsy move that must be weighed carefully at the risk of being branded spamware, or worse, malware, even on OSX.

Which is what got me thinking: Apple knows this. They have studied the PC population incessantly while trying to figure out the best way to take a bite out of Microsoft’s empire. They’ve spent millions on advertising and research to get what limited ground they have (last I checked it was around 12%). This was a measured and conscious choice. The King of PR and spin committing a mortal sin and possibly alienating their most sought after demographic. They saw an opportunity to push their software to a massive swath of PC users. People who use Windows, but have had a taste of Apple. Because they are running iTunes to manage their iPods (likely). The hope that the iPod’s halo effect extends beyond hardware and into the software world. Because Apple doesn’t create spamware or malware.

As a fellow computer user, and as someone who was once a PC guy, I am disgusted by Apple’s choice. It is suspicious behavior verging on manipulative. With a single window, they likened themselves to the Real Players and Bonzii Buddies of the 90’s and early 2000’s (Aughts?). The fact that Safari was automatically checked and prepared for installation along side iTunes (the program seeking an update) demonstrates without a doubt that they were counting on computer users who are either too computer illiterate to know any better, or people who are simply too busy to read all the fine print and click “install” impulsively.

Now, as a web developer, I get down on my hands and knees and thank God, Buddha, Allah, Thor, Zeus, and Jobs for attempting this Trojan Horse of good intent if you will. While a PC user may have to live the knowledge that they are using yet another Apple product, they have also installed a browser that passes ACID2, supports CSS3, and a slew of other things that will enrich the internet greatly. Local databases, embedded fonts, and technologies that enable web developers to deliver new features without proprietary API’s, costly software licenses, and required plugins. These are pre-discussed standards that we’ve been waiting for, but have been told are years if not decades away. Except that Apple has delivered them, out of beta, before Firefox 3 got to do it.

The past couple months have been ripe with announcements and promises. Internet Explorer 8, which was going to render as IE7 unless a meta tag was present, reversing its decision and promising standards support like we’ve never seen from Redmond. Firefox releasing Beta 4 of their revolutionary browser, a browser that freed PC users from the clutches of IE6, freed us from struggling and closed competitors like Netscape, and provided a glimpse of what life outside the “wall” was like. A wall behind which sites that followed the rules broke, where security risks and crippled feature sets meant that clicking a link was a gamble that might compromise your computer. Firefox was extensible, Open Source, and cross platform compatible. The wave of the future.

Now, Safari isn’t the best thing since sliced bread by any means. It isn’t Open Source, although their occasional contributions via WebKit have been generous, but it is free. It doesn’t support as many plugins and extensions as Firefox, but that is just Apple’s way. Guaranteed user experience through control. I use Firefox (2) daily (at work) because of things like the developer’s toolbar and firebug, and I use Safari (3) daily (at home) because it is faster and crashes less on OSX. Six of one, a half dozen of the other.

While I was working at Playboy, I developed a feature (Rock the Rabbit) that used Z-index and the :hover pseudo-class extensively. Out of curiosity, I asked my boss what playboy.com’s analytics were like, namely browser usage, and he in turn pulled up the HBX records. Less than 6th months ago (Septemberish, ‘07), more than 65 percent of their visitors were still running IE6. I was shocked. And then I pictured the demographic: Mid-30 somethings using an older, less updated computer. Not the company machine, or something that might report URL activity to IT (or worse, the spouse and children). The latter is an assumption based on today’s attitude towards erotic material and corporate culture (respectively), but the first part is fact, reported by those same HBX entries.

Initially released on November 9th, 2004, Firefox has aggressively converted internet users to their superior experience. According to Wikipedia’s Webapps.svg, almost 4 years later, Mozilla has claimed roughly 18% of the market share. They did this through high profile moves like a full-page New York Times ad, and incredible grass roots support from its fans and supporters. Sounds similar to Apple’s story. Unfortunately for Mozilla and Firefox in particular, they didn’t have an existing “in” with the users. Netscape was successfully dismantled by MS, and purchased by AOL. Instead, Firefox depended on the “little guy” image. A hot new logo from Jon Hicks, a new image for the parent company, etc. And it has been working. My visitor stats (via Mint and Google Analytics) show that slightly over 50% of my visitors are Firefox users, followed closely by Safari at 30%. My readers are not the norm; they are a tiny sampling of the tech chic and geek elite. Firefox doesn’t come pre-installed on computers. It depends on the net savvy to install it themselves, recommend to friends, or even install it for them. Browsers are browsers to people like my parents. And IE (6 and 7) has over 50% of the real world. It kills me.

Now look at the iPod. They have over 80% percent market share for mp3 players. You can’t get into a subway or coffee-shop without seeing dozens of tell-tale white headphones. We can only guess how many are hidden inside of pockets and powering restaurant stereos, unbeknownst to the casual observer. With every iPod comes an install of iTunes, Mac or PC. The iPod got huge not because of it’s flexibility or extensibility, but because of it’s ease of use. 4 buttons and a scroll wheel. No malware or spamware to slow down the system. Very similar to Safari, they hope. With that 80% market share of iTunes comes the bundled Software or “Auto” Update. If you had the opportunity to use that 80% and get a 100% standards compliant browser on each of those machine, how could you pass it up?

Firefox co-founder John Lilly freaked out, but I think he’s threatened where he shouldn’t be. No one installs Firefox by mistake, for better or for worse. They do so because they either know enough about computers to have sought it out, or they had it installed for them by someone who knows what they are doing. My guess is that they will continue to run Firefox whether or not Safari is installed. It’s the people that don’t have Firefox that Apple is targeting. Because if they can get even 25% of that 80% population, then the web as a whole is better for it.

Obviously everyone makes money from Google via search results and ad displays via their browser, but whatever. Install Ad Block if that knowledge bothers you (I find the Safari AdBlock more reliable than Firefox, FWIW). If there is any hidden agenda, its that Apple wants more iPhone/iPod Touch apps because both devices run Safari, and PC people need to debug. But there’s no bundled plugin, no misinterpretations of the box model, nothing. Out-of-the-box developer tools like Activity Window and Inspect Element, and did I mention its the single fastest browser on the market today?

I can only pray out of sheer desperation that Safari 3.1 sets itself as default browser by, well, default. I would give up my killer yahoo css reset kit for the knowledge that IE was the minority and that standards compliant browsers (by whatever means) were sweeping through the community. People still running IE aren’t doing it by choice, they are doing it because they don’t know any better. They only stand to benefit by this decision. Sometimes, negotiation breaks down and you have to storm the base. As a web savvy person, can you blame them?