RSSMicrosoft Opens Public IE Bug Database
By Nate Mook | Published March 27, 2006, 1:12 PM
Taking a page from Mozilla's playbook, Microsoft on Friday launched the Internet Explorer Feedback Web site, a public database that enables users to submit bugs and make suggestions for the ubiquitous browser. The system will be used for IE7 and all future releases.
Built atop the Connect platform Microsoft uses for beta testing, Internet Explorer Feedback will track issues discovered in IE7 much like the open source Bugzilla software used with Firefox. A Passport account is required, but a forthcoming update to the site will enable anyone to view existing bugs without logging in.
Beta testers will also be instructed to utilize the system to report any bugs they come across during testing. Microsoft says the site likely has a number of kinks that will be worked out, but it wanted to put it live before the IE7 Beta 2 launch, which is slated for the coming weeks.
"After much discussion on the team, we've decided that people are right and that we should have a public way for people to give us feedback or make product suggestions," IE developers said in a blog posting. "We wanted to build a system that is searchable and can benefit from the active community that IE has here."
The effort is a shift in policy for Microsoft, which has long kept bug information restricted from the public eye. Now, anyone will be able to see the number of outstanding problems with Internet Explorer, and even potentially security vulnerabilities.
Microsoft notes that "truly time sensitive bugs" should be sent through the Redmond company's normal security channels to ensure they are addressed immediately. Bugs can also be marked private, which would limit their access to Microsoft developers.
The company promises to carefully listen to feedback it receives, but acknowledges not all requests will be filled and some bugs may remain unfixed.
"Not every bug reported will necessarily be fixed. Issues reported during the IE7 Beta 2 will be looked at and we will do our best to fix issues reported to us," said IE team member Al Billings.
"We have committed to doing regular releases of Internet Explorer moving forward. Anything that we cannot fix during IE7 that is a valid issue will be considered for the next IE release following it."
Someone should enter a "suggestion" that MS just drops IE and use Firefox!
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|Well it sure can't be any worse than the nightmare that is Bugzilla... they post duplicates and insufficient details there all the time!
Which is why ultimately solutions come down to the developers to decide what really makes sense and what is just user ranting and incompetence.
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|Tried to use it and told Error no access.
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|You have to be 'in' the beta to participate, not just a user of the public it seems.
Buggy
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|now there, lets analyze this, ….
will there only “serious” bugs be allowed
or
will just any idiot having issues opening their favorite porn page be allowed to post ??
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|If someone can't open a page, regardless of what it is, then it needs to be looked at.
I only wish Microsoft would take a page from Opera's book and have a forum or something for IE responses.
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|Even a blind squirrel finds a nut.
Any idiot could find something useful, so they may potentially eliminate a real bug by discounting a simple idiot. So I doubt they will.
What they should do, is force people to follow a prompt to describe the problem, in hopes that the solution will come up as possibly resolved, isntead of typing in a problem... That's the correct way to guide people to submitting solutions.
I hate answering questions too, but to keep people from submitting the same problem time and time again, that's the way to do it.
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|i think the better question is whether microsoft will advertise the bug tracker to any idiot. my hunch tells me no; you'll have to be in the know to find the site.
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|"If someone can't open a page, regardless of what it is, then it needs to be looked at."
Ummm?? How about the that sites server is down? If Yahoo doesnt respond is not a reason to debug a browser - there can be a ton of other non OS/Browser reasons why.
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|the dog ate my TP-cable, omg bug report inc for MS!!
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|that is true
then what is needed is a simple, well worded, non technical message
"sorry cannot connect to that page now, the page may be having problems... try again later"
the current IE 'cant connect' message goes on about SSL, encryption bits... way beyond the scope of the average user... and then suggests contacting system administrator(!)
it should start a easy to use wizard that talks the user thru possible solutions
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|I think I would go crazy if I got a wizard everytime there was a 404 or 50x error.
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