Lamar Morgan wrote:
Garland,
Have you tried Mozilla's new web browser, version 1.0 of Firefox? Is it
really better than Internet Explorer? Since it does not have Active X in it,
does that mean I cannot use it and view multimedia? And, since it comes with RSS
feed capability, does that make programs like Pluck are unnecessary or redundant
when using this web browser?
Lamar, your approach to this question is from the point of view of assuming
that something always supersedes everything else. Sort of the "winner takes
all" approach.
Internet marketing doesn't work this way. Many tools are useful in different
many situations and are not suddenly obsolete the way that 8-track tapes are.
(Ah, 8-tracks...that takes me back!)
For example, Google is the #1 search engine. But if we focus on it and
ignore the other ones, we would be missing some huge opportunities. Here are
the most recent statistics I've found for search engines.
-
Google ? 36.8%
-
Yahoo ? 26.6%
-
MSN ? 14.5%
-
AOL ? 12.8%
So if we focus on Google only because it is the leader, we are ignoring 63%
of our potential market!
Firefox's and Mozilla's recent gains are impressive and I like the thought of
a dent being made in Microsoft's monopoly, but the reality is that the majority
of Internet browsers are still using Internet Explorer. So, it is definitely
too early to abandon recommending RSS readers that IE users can use to can see
your material. Pluck is only one of these and may not even be the best solution
for most people.
When we publish, we need to try to make our materials available in as many
ways as possible. This is why web sites, electronic newsletters, blogs and RSS
work so well. They can be accessed in so many ways with tools every can use
whether you use Windows or Mac, or IE or Firefox. RSS is especially great
this way because it can be read with so many different readers, many of which
are free.
If an RSS reader is built into Firefox, so much the better. Our focus as
Internet marketers should be on publishing in RSS and other formats easily
accessible to our readers, not necessarily on which reader, browser or operating
system they are using. We can offer our readers some suggested tools if they
don't yet have a reader, such as Pluck, Awasu, Firefox, Quikonnex, etc, but we
need to be aware they will make their own choices and we can't force every
reader into a proprietary channel.
Yes, Firefox users may not need a reader, but you should have links to some
free readers for people who are using other browsers that don't have one.
As far as your questions about FireFox and multimedia, I believe there is a
QuickTime plugin for Firefox, but not Windows Media Player. Check out Firefox's
support forum at
http://forums.mozillazine.org/ for more help with this.
Garland Coulson, "The E-Business Tutor"
Last Updated Saturday, November 27 2004 @ 02:26 PM CST 
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