The day is finally upon us: Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 7 to the world. To put this in perspective, this is the first major browser update from Microsoft since August of 2001. In Internet time, that’s like a billion years. Currently available only via download, IE7 will be installed on all PCs running Windows as an automatic update on November 1.
The good news
Microsoft has added lots of new features including tabbed browsing, RSS detection, Shrink-to-Fit printing (finally) and some others which you can read about here. More importantly, IE7 does a much better job supporting web standards. Kudos to the IE7 team for working hard to improve a notoriously buggy browser.
The not-so-good news
Despite progress, IE’s support for standards has a ways to go. The rendering engine – that’s the bit that displays web sites in all their glory – is still lacking. In short, aspects of some sites across the Internet will appear ‘broken’ in IE7 until the new kinks have been worked out of the system.
At Duo, we’ve built standards-based sites since 2002, and have been following the development of IE 7 for some time. Since the final spec of what would and wouldn’t be fixed changed many times throughout the development of IE’s new browser, we took the approach of blocking our IE specific layout “hacks” from IE 7. We are now able to test against the public version of the browser, and will quickly find the issues that will require further “hacking.”
The better news
Most of the problems we’ve seen so far are fairly easily remedied. However, every site is a little different, which means we have a lot of testing to do.
Initial impressions: thumbs (cautiously) up
New browsers (most notably Firefox) have raised the level of standards support to new heights. IE is catching up, but as we’ve mentioned, they’ve still got ground to cover. Fortunately, they’re moving down the right path. We’re looking forward to coding fewer IE-specific styles, and to more uniform browser support for standards.
After considerable effort you’ve just launched your firm’s new website and you want the world to be in as much awe as you are. What kind of website launch promotion is best to achieve your objectives?
Many of our clients have multiple offices, some throughout the United States or even around the globe. For those who work at the firm the new website is a source of pride and a unifying brand representing their company to the world. Sure, they want to see your shiny new toy but they also want to play with it. So give them a game, a purpose and an incentive.
When Duo’s skillful project manager, Amy Westerling, was responsible for marketing at Cincinnati law firm Graydon Head & Ritchey LLC, she promoted a scavenger hunt to promote the new site launch. Amy prepared a set of questions supported by the rich content on the website. The challenge was to find the information on the website and submit the answers. Scores of firm members who may only have looked at their own bio or clicked aimlessly around the website now were motivated to find specific information. In their pursuit, they learned more about their own company, discovered the wealth of information contained on the site and developed an appreciation for the ease of navigation resulting from the thoughtful information architecture. With the recent launch of international law firm Clausen Miller PC, Amy again proposed the scavenger hunt and a global hunt ensued from the convenience of the desktop. The volume of responses produced a measurable indication of the promotion’s success.
Without debate, your new website should look good. But at the end of the day what matters is the depth of content and how that content helps your site visitor achieve what they want. Try a scavenger hunt for content on your new website to prove to the world that the hard work publishing your new website was focused on satisfying your site visitor’s need for information. And, as always, measure your success.
P.S. We haven’t yet tried this as a promotion to external clients. If you embrace this suggestion and promote your new website to your external contacts, send us an email and let us know how it went.
