Question of the day: why most israeli websites are not optimized for FireFox?

Even if i can't read hebrew i had no choice but to surf on local israeli websites (i am not referring to websites of startups that have international ambitions and usually build their offer for IE and FF). I found out that most of them are not working well or not working at all with Firefox. Can someone explain me why?

My tests were on  Yes (registration does not work), Issta (calendar does not work), The ministry of interior (navigation does not work) Keshet TV (the player does not work). I have many others

I am talking here about BIG websites. Possible reasons

• no one uses Firefox in Israel. i don't buy it
• website creators think no one is using FF in Israel. i don t buy it
• Companies that decide to create a website think no one is using FF in Israel. Likely. Some of them probably don t know FF and don't even include it in the brief
• Including FF means more dev and QA. no budget for this. likely

 

Technorati Tags: Firefox, Israel, internet

Comments

[Account Deleted]

Answer of the day - they don't care & they don't know internet...
A few days ago I entered a government site and saw: prime minister - Rabin, president - Ezer Weizman...
Take a look at the bottom:
http://www.galilee.gov.il/Galil_Eng/Templates/ShowPage.asp?TMID=84&FID=431

[Idan]

I actually had a conversation with a web design professional here in Israel. He said that most firms charge 10-15% extra to support firefox (instead of using web standards like CSS and giving the customer a better website that will work anywhere, including future browsers).

That, coupled with the Israeli attitude of "What, but everybody uses IE! I don't care if some wierdo freaks with purple hair in Greenwich Village use Firefox!", basically means that a lot of them don't even try to learn something about their trade, which pretty much everybody else has learned outside of Israel.

For all of our "advanced" education and technology, Israel is often a few years behind the times when it comes to certain things (attitudes towards firefox, smoking, women, etc... )

[zorg]

agree with Idan - they just don't care, and sometimes loose customers (I know the guy who switched a bank because it was impossible to use firefox with banking website, and he was not ready to buy vmware+windows just to access his bank account)

another 2c against israeli government websites at all: it looks like webdesign tenders have been spread between absolutely incompetent companies sitting pretty close to people offering those tenders, it's not just about w3c standards, it's about unusable interface and outdated design too, take a look on brand new (released a month ago) russian section of Knesset web site (http://knesset.gov.il/main/ru/home.asp), the general message is smth like: "welcome back to 90s, dear tax-payer, that's the way we've spent your money", well I understand that all web developers need to eat, but please, some more respect to users :-)

btw, sign if you do care:
http://www.mac-it.co.il/petition/index.php

[Raanan Bar-Cohen]

I see this IE-only world as well with most Israeli sites I visit.

One of my favorite stations, especially for the morning show, is 102FM in Tel Aviv. The site loads w/ errors in FF, and the media player doesn't work in anything but Windows IE from what I can tell: http://102fm.co.il

I wonder if the low penetration rates of Mac OS X machine in Israel is part of the issue. Many developers here in the U.S. use Macs and therefore test on FF and Safari.

Regardless, sites should be built using standards for better accessibility, SEO, and future proofing when new browsers come out / are upgraded.

[Jeff K]

Idan is right on the money. I would add that the problem is beyond not just optimizing sites for non-IE browsers, but a thorough lack of any user interface design considerations when designing these sites.

Even the ones that are geared towards the Anglophiles (which tend to have a larger international reach) are horribly designed (hello Jpost.com!).

[Julien CROUZET]

IMHO, you're not asking the right question Ouriel. No one should "optimize his site for xxx" ; this sounds like the 90's (Best viewed on Internet Explorer) ; a website should not be "optimized for" but COMPLIANT.

I think that they only test their site on IE, and they do not check for W3C compliance.

A W3C compliant site works on FFox, IE, Opera, Safari, Lynx, your Mobile, you watch, ANY browser.

"Works on FFox and IE" is absolutely not a good thing.

[Gab]

This is a strange things.

The tools for developers are really good on Firefox. I mean "firebug", "web developers", "Dom inspector". I would say we have the problem in the other side... IE is really a crap to debug.

Of course some ""professionals"" still think that Ajax is a washing powder, IE is the only available browser and Linux/Mac are something that nobody use.

[Ross]

So true. A lot of functionality on sites ranging from Bank Leumi to Israir doesn't work on firefox, safari...frustrating.

[Shy Dar]

Hey, I must say from my experience that some customers just don't understand or know their site not functional at all. Apparently someone did create a status of FF cost more to develop, which is nonsense. Web people in Israel should get this profession more seriously and learn the material.
I come across more and more web studios who are proud of creating cross platform browsers, but once you go and check the portfolio, its all one big lie.
Shana Tova everyone,

Shy Dar

[Steven Silverstone]

You think you FF PC guys have it bad? Spare a thought for the Israeli Apple users who prefer to browse with Safari! Israeli websites are primitive and the their designers need to get outside more - smell the roses and feel the pulse of the people. These so called 'designers' don't appear to have left their cubicles since 1998. Useless!