If you’re a Firefox user, you may have noticed that there have been several updates to your browser recently. Starting with Firefox 4, Mozilla instituted a rapid release model for Firefox that not only upgrades a user’s browser automatically, but is upgrading a full version nearly every 6 weeks. With default settings, Firefox automatically updates a user’s browser without any prompt to the user, and can cause a lot of frustration for website maintainers.
Why did Firefox move to a rapid release model?
This is yet another volley in the Browser Wars to gain and retain market share. Google’s Chrome browser has operated on this model since its inception and there are a lot of benefits to the rapid release of Browser Versions. Newer versions of browsers give faster page loads, better security, better support for HTML5 and other web standards to end-users.
At the same time, the new rapid release model poses a lot of challenges for website maintainers and content providers.
What do I need to do as a website maintainer?
As website maintainers, it’s our job to make sure that our web content is accessible and our sites look good on a wide variety of browsers. Some websites simply need to render correctly whereas other websites include features and functionality that rely on javascript, flash, or other add-ons for functionality. The problem with the rapid release model is that we have to make sure that our websites function for each new version of a browser.
With each new version of browser released, you should check to make sure your site still appears without broken tags and proper alignment because as the technology matures, it becomes less forgiving of improper code. Next, verify that forms can be filled out, submitted, and the end-result from your business-end is what you expected. Slideshows and video displays can also pose a challenge as many use javascript to render. If you have a web application such as a content management system or blog, check to make sure that your plug-ins are up-to-date and compliant. If you are reliant on an external developer’s plug-in you might have to wait for a solution to be provided for you by the external source.
Businesses that are reliant upon internal websites to accomplish day-to-day business are challenged by this new release model and are formulating methods to address accessing websites with this new model. For now, most companies are not supporting newer versions of browsers due to the increased risk of internal users becoming unable to perform his or her work.
You can help here at MIT by testing your own websites on new and beta versions of browsers as they come available. Make sure that your web presence stays highly available!
This edited post was first published on the MIT WebPub blog on September 1, 2011.