I took the plunge today and upgraded to Firefox 3 … my second try, since the first time around I found a few annoyances that I couldn’t resolve (and it was too early for many of the add-ons I use to have caught up to a major change in versions).

So now I’ve gone from 2.0.0.17 to 3.0.3.

I try to balance between waiting awhile while new release bugs are sorted out (I never download the x.0.0 version!) and add-ons and plugins are updated, and then not too far behind that old versions are no longer supported.

The biggest frustration was the way FF3 handles bookmarks: in FF2, I’m used to grabbing the icon in the address bar, and dragging it to the sub-folder where I want to place it.

But I can now only do that in the first folder level down in FF3, not sub-folders. Aarrrggghhhhhh, that’s crazy and frustrating!

However, I’ve managed a workaround by using a new add-on called Add Bookmark Here 2 — seemed the best of the options I found in the add-ons after a little Google research.

This nearly emulates the FF2 way of bookmarking by dragging — you can just navigate to the folder you want the bookmark in and click on “Add Bookmark Here…”. In fact, in one way it’s better, because as you do, the Properties box pops up automatically to allow you to change the name (which I often do, especially to remove “Welcome to” from the names of websites!).

The only downside is that the bookmark is added at either the top or the bottom of the folder — you can’t specify exactly where in the folder it goes (you can go back into the folder and do that manually) — but, at least it’s in the right folder. Saves going the long way via the sidebar or “organise bookmarks” — which are too clunky and time-wasting for me.

The second issue related to my actual bookmarks: because it’s previously installed FF3 and reverted to FF2, somehow I had lost my new bookmarks. This mozillaZine knowledgebase article on recovering bookmarks after upgrading to FF3 fixed the problem for me.

The only other annoyance I’ve discovered to my usual browsing habits is how FF3 shows you your address bar history as you type in a URL. This nifty article helped me clean up my address bar history.

Now these issues are sorted out, I think FF3 and I will remain friends.

I’d still like them to fully revert bookmarks back to the FF2 way, but I can live with it for now. There is one good change though to the FF3 bookmarks: when you have a folder open, and delete a bookmark (right click and choose delete), the folder stays open — like it used to way before FF came onto the scene (probably the way it was in Netscape — it’s too long ago to remember!). So it ain’t all bad!

And now I’m here, I’ll also be checking out the 15 coolest FF tricks.

Do you have “brick walls” blocking the positive user experience of your customers when they’re on your website?

Here’s an example I’d suggest you avoid.

MySpace has a feature where you can specify your high school — not a bad way of tracking down old friends. However, my old school isn’t in the database, so I contacted MySpace.

The first reply — obviously automated — answered nothing about the detailed information I’d provided about the school not being listed.

A week later, a second email turns up — telling me to try what I’ve ALREADY done to find out my school isn’t in the database!

MySpace then suggest if the problem still exists, to contact them.

I’ve ALREADY done that — several weeks ago! Did a real live human being actually cast eyes on my message? I doubt it.

From the customer’s point of view, this response is both irrelevant (covering areas I’ve already considered) and in part offensive: they don’t care enough to read my detailed submission to know that I’ve already advanced past their suggestions.

And, if I do submit this again — what’s to say that I won’t just go through the same run-around frustrating waste of time? There’s no assurances in the message received about that concern.

Have you looked for virtual brick walls? What can you do to assure your customers of a responsive, relevant reply?

Just for fun (!) today I signed out of Amazon’s website (part of an inadvertant cookie cleanout) — so I was faced of course with signing in again to add a couple of books to my Wish List.

When you visit the Amazon home page, you’re even greeted with:

Hello. Sign in to get personalized recommendations. New customer? Start here.

Trouble is, there’s no obvious link to Sign In!

You’d think the words “Sign in” in the message above would be linked. Or somewhere obvious would be a prompt to sign in.

Alas, no such luck.

Now, I know I only have 13 years of online experience (been online as long as Amazon, since 1995!)… but you’d think the Sign In feature would be more obvious, and not hidden in other links. Here’s how it does work…

• You can sign in by clicking the words “personalized recommedations” — which is not obvious.
• You can NOT sign in by clicking on “Your Account” up in the top navigation area — which to me would be the most intuitive place to do so.
• You can sign in if you click on the button “Your Amazon.com” and then click on a really obvious, yellow Sign In button.

So why isn’t this yellow button an obvious inclusion on the home page (when the system recognises the visitor isn’t already signed in)? It makes sense to me from a usability point of view!

I see Microsoft have launched Expression Web, a web building tool stepped up from Frontpage (ugghh!) program. Here’s 2 reasons why I’ll never use it:

1. No support for the PHP coding language: Australian Personal Computer magazine report “completely ignores PHP”
2. And this from APC: “There are built-in Accessibility and Browser Compatibility checking tools, though Mozilla, Opera and Firefox are absent from the list of browsers that Express Web checks your code against.”

Enough said. What a ridiculous approach. Firefox is a growing force in the browser wars, and it’d be silly (as many websites do, as they fall apart in Firefox) to ignore this market segment.

Next.