When I read that Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) website didn't officially support the world's second-largest web browser until just recently, I was stunned. The Mozilla Foundation, maker of the super-popular Firefox web browser, now commands about 19% of the global web browser market, behind Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT)'s Internet Explorer web browser. Yet, many (many) websites I visit (some very high-profile ones) were made for Internet Explorer only. These websites break at various points when using the Firefox web browser, mine, and millions others, favorite.
What are these Fortune 500 companies thinking? If a product has nearly 20% of any market, you darn well better pay attention to it. With more and more time being spent online instead of in front of the TV, website publishers need to recognize the value of supporting more than just the leading web browser. I can easily understand not designing a web experience for products that have lower single-digit market shares, but that's not what we're talking about here.
So, it was with disdain that I recently read that a Bank of America web support representative stating, "Please note Bank of America does not support Firefox." With email, actual workflow applications, multimedia and an entire media consumption empire existing on the web, the challenge for many websites will be to not forget the other large pieces of the pie. Ignore web browsers with growing market share at your peril, I say.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-16-2008 @ 6:41PM
william lindblad said...
AOL does not support it either.
7-16-2008 @ 8:52PM
Ashwin Narasimhan said...
Ironically, even Microsoft supports Firefox for some features of their website.
7-17-2008 @ 6:49AM
Syed said...
william lindblad said...
AOL does not support it either.
--This is just false. Open Firefox and log into www.aol.com, it renders fine.
The only problem with firefox is it leaks a lot of memory. It consumes so much that at times I have had my computer just stay not doing nothing without having to clost all the firefox sessions.
7-17-2008 @ 7:00AM
Tarik said...
Its not really that "Bank of America" doesn't support FF. Your experience is likely related to Consumer Online Banking.?
There are numerous online channels under bankofamerica.com domain that do support FF and that trend will only grow.
7-17-2008 @ 10:24AM
natophonic said...
That's odd... I've been using Firefox for BofA online banking, bill pay, etc., for well over a year, and never noticed any problems or limitations. In fact, when ShopSafe on my (previously MBNA) credit card that's linked to that account got screwed up on their backend servers a few months back, the phone support guy did ask which browser I was using, I told him FF, and he didn't mention non-support FF or tell me to use IE instead.
8-01-2008 @ 3:36PM
J said...
I think you all are confused as to what "support" for a particular browser means. It does not mean that a website will not work with a particular browser. It does mean that, if you have a problem with an unsupported browser, they are not going to support you. (Hence the term, unsupported!)
7-17-2008 @ 9:20PM
Jackson Leung said...
It's in my personal opinion as a professional programmer that websites should work the same across most if not all browsers. I'm actually quite surprised that it took them this long to latch onto it. I'm also disappointed in their investment website and how they haven't put as much effort into it's design as they should have.