Last week I had to use IE6 for a web shop to work. The total session included the payment via PayPal, and I had a very unsafe feeling about all this.

I know it. Many front-end developers like me don’t really like the browser because of the numerous bugs in its rendering engine. But my feelings were because of the security bugs. Since the release of IE7 over a year ago, Microsoft only fixes the most threatening exploits. The total usage of IE7 is fifty percent, so the other fifty percent is IE6 (and sometimes IE5.5).

However, I think I have a solution to make users aware of browsers. Unlike us as developers, they simply use ‘the Internet’, and not ‘a browser’. And because they’re not aware enough, they simply do not update them.

My solution is as following. I may assume all banks and web services like PayPal care about security. And since they do, it is very important their costumers safely use their online banking. I mean a safe and up to date browser and OS. The ‘client side’ is the only thing they cannot control.

So, what if your bank’s website simply detects if you use a safe browser and OS? The first one can easily be done with a conditional comment. Detecting the last one is impossible (you cannot fetch what updates are installed). If the web service detects an unsafe browser, it can simply display a text including a link with more information. This would work much like the IsItAFuckingIrritatingBrowser web page, made by my Fronteers friend Krijn.

By the way, in The Netherlands we had an awareness campaign a while ago. Some commercials explained that users had to ‘check’ the security, website and payment. However, it was not explained how to do that, and the conversion rate is quite low. It is much more effective if you want to pay 300 Dollar or Euro with your online banking and you see a message that it might be unsafe to do with your current browser (of course not called ‘browser’).

I’m interested if any bank or service does something like this. Links? Screenshots? Anyone?

For my non-Dutch readers this post will not be very interesting. I’ll review the Dutch book Webdesign Rules!, written by Ruben Bos. This book helps people to find the good directions in the web development world.

The whole book is aimed to make clear for everyone who doesn’t make web sites, how a good web site works. Moreover, how to find a good company to build such a site. This also includes ways to check your current web site.

A good web site, according to the book, is a good combination of content, marketing, usability and technique. But how good is this book for people who make web sites? We know how to do that, or how to get to know how to do that, don’t we know?

I’d say yes. For me, nothing is really new in this book. But the best part of this book is to describe in a few words what a web site needs, to make the client happy. Everything is very clearly written, and the illustrations are sometimes exactly right. We, as developers, can better assist clients through the whole process.

There are no real downsides of this book. Maybe you could be disappointed about how fast you’ll have read it. But in my opinion that a very good point about his book.

The book can be ordered via the website, and I’ve heard also in book stores soon.

Lately I’ve been talking with Johan Stokking about several interesting things. One point was the growing the Internet bubble that is growing at the moment. The current bubble will grow larger than the previous one, and also will have more impact if it bursts.

I’m talking about all Web 2.0 companies, like Google but also several others. Those companies are interesting because they are personal. People can do things in a personalized environment, a huge difference from static web pages. One point to care about is the privacy. There is a lot of discussion around Google and that kind of thing (so I won’t go into depth about this).

But there is even a larger problem those Web 2.0 companies need to solve, if it even is solvable. I’m talking about advertisements. People hate them, even when they are personalized. All those Web 2.0 companies rely on those advertisements. Also business plans of new Web 2.0 sites include being purchased by Google (or Yahoo, etc).
The popular Firefox extension AdBlock can easily block advertisements on a web page. Several websites blocked Firefox because of that extension. Something I think it indicates the need of the web site owners to display advertisements, as well as the need of the people who browse to block the advertisements.

So, when will Google die? I don’t know. But for a company where over 99 percent of the incoming money is earned from advertisements, it is just waiting for the day people stand up and advocate their own privacy.

A few days ago I had some time and wanted to play with my PSP. But no game did interest me at that time, so I decided to check out the PSP Web site for some demo’s. The first thing I thought when I saw the new download center they introduced a while ago, was: wow!

The download center is very user centered and simple to use. It acts like a Web shop, and that was the main thing what was changed: paid downloads will be introduced soon. Nice games, music, videos and photos all available to download now for free, but soon also some where has tom be paid for.

I think thats a good way to go in the gaming industry. As far as I know this is the only download shop for a handheld game devices. I hope the downloads will not be very expensive, then I think I want to pay for those games via the Internet. Not a UMD anymore, only a file on my Flashcard. Luckily you can re-download games, in the case you delete it or something.

What I liked of the web shop, was the interface techniques. The AJAX interface was so developed that the back-button in my browser worked, very nice usability technique. The techniques not viewable for unregistered visitors -like the download applet- also work nicely.

So, what’s next?

The way Sony improved on this, I like. But other handheld devices can also have such thing in the near future. For a PDA you could think in terms like e-books, but also applications for download. In the near future I think -that can be 2007 but also ‘08 or ‘09- many more download stores like this will appear. Since web developers have more abilities (e.g. latest Adobe Flash), the technique for usable, accessible and not at least safety of download shops will grow tremendously the next years.

Do you also have some future predictions about download web shops?