I was keen to download and try out the latest FireFox release today. I’ve been using the beta versions of Release 3 since the first release, and I’ve been pleased with the clear progress being made with each release. The “Release Candidate” typically means development is stablising, with a focus more on bug fixing rather than feature development. So in many ways this release is the closest we’ve seen yet to the final version.
One of the interesting new features in FireFox 3 is the site identity dialog. It’s a clever idea and should go a long way to boost people’s confidence when using the web. If it’s used. Essentially, it gives the user a quick way of getting further information about the website they are connected to. It’s an extension of the padlock principal, which has been used to indicate a secure connection for a number of years. As well as just showing the padlock, an extra section is added to the address bar that displays the name of the site. Or to be more specific, the owner of the secure certificate. Clicking on this new section produces a pop-up containing some site details.
There’s a problem. When you download FireFox 3 Release Candidate 1 and run it for the first time, you’re presented with a page that triumphantly proclaims
“Find out who you’re talking to by clicking on the website icon.”
Except this isn’t strictly true. In fact, even clicking the site icon (favicon to the rest of us) for that page doesn’t give you any information. This concerns me on two levels. Firstly, this new feature is meant to build confidence in the user. If you are thinking of giving personal information to a site, you can click its icon to get some additional information that will inform your decision. Except this isn’t really the case. Site information is only displayed for secure sites. And while this may help if you’re handing over your credit card number, it’s unlikely it will help you where a site requests some personal details, these are rarely secure and therefore won’t be displaying any useful information. The second thing that worries me is the implication cast upon sites that don’t supply information. It’s certainly implied that if you don’t supply information, you have something to hide.
I think some more robust language should be used within this pop-up. Something that makes it clear that in the vast majority of cases not supplying site information is perfectly fine. I’d love to see this feature become truly useful to users, and it wouldn’t take much work. All that needs to be done is a rewordoing of the dialog box, making its purpose and implementation completely clear in non-technical terms.
By the way. I’m assuming that the site information is only displayed for secure sites. There’s very little documentation on the Mozilla website regarding this feature. If what I’ve said above isn’t true, it’s more a damning indictment on the lack of documentation than anything else.
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