Welcome to the first 2007 edition of ZooNews, brought to you by professional Web site design company Zoonini Web Services.

I don't usually focus on PC-specific issues, mainly because I'm mostly a Mac gal myself, though I do run a PC for testing Web sites.

However.... this month I've had a few PC folks ask me if I had any idea why their Internet Explorer suddenly looked completely new and unfamiliar.

I had to inform them that they had unwittingly upgraded their IE browser from version 6 to the newest version, 7.

Microsoft's latest browser only runs on Windows XP, so if you're running an older system like Windows 2000 or Windows 98 this won't apply to you, but if you have XP and don't want your browser changed, keep a close eye out when Windows offers system updates and make sure to unselect the IE 7 option. If you do install it by accident, removing it and putting back the five-year-old IE 6 is not necessarily a simple feat, so be careful!

IE 7 completely re-jigs the browser interface, moving familiar buttons such as "stop" and "refresh", and placing bookmarks under a yellow star icon. One unwitting upgrader begged me to "be sure to mention how much extra clicking it creates and how user-unfriendly it is!!!!"

The new IE adds security features intended to make surfing less risky for the average user. For more experienced Web users, however, these "features" can prove annoying and bothersome. For example, if you attempt to download a piece of software, it will be initially blocked automatically to "protect" your computer from possible viruses, adware, phishing attempts, or other potentially malicious baddies.

On the positive side, the new IE finally introduces tabbed browsing – which has existed in other browsers such as Firefox for years – allowing you to open and switch among multiple Web sites in the same window.

IE 7 also supposedly fixes some of the Web-site rendering bugs in IE 6 that drove Web designers crazy, but it can also create some new problems. If you're looking at your site in IE 7 and notice anything wonky, let your Web designer know so the necessary tweaks can be made.

Meanwhile, if you're finally fed up with Internet Explorer and feeling ready for a superior browsing experience, head over to the Firefox download centre – you won't regret it.

My younger brother is the proud papa of Darcy, a grey tabby with blue eyes and a mischievous disposition. He also travels a lot and is constantly looking for people to take care of Darcy while he roams the world. Before his most recent voyage, he once again got lucky and found some cat sitters through the Craig's List classified service who agreed to look after Darcy for a token sum and a cat-food allowance.

Got a technology term you'd like demystified in ZooNews? Send it to questions@zoonini.com.

Zoonini contributed tips on improving your Web site to A.C. Riley's article, "7 Website Resolutions for 2007" (PDF), published in the January edition of Enterprise Magazine.

They did it! Zoonini client Box of Crayons' The Eight Irresistible Principles of Fun earned the title Cool Site of the Year for 2006, awarded by the long-running Cool Site of the Day. They did it by garnering the top average score (9.050 out of 10) of the entire year – beating out 364 other sites, from Oxfam International to the official Turin Winter Olympics site. Congratulations!

À la prochaine,

kp
aka Kathryn Presner