Yesterday at work I was browsing around looking at stories on Australian Entrepreneurs to try and get an insight on how others have built their web businesses. I came across the NineMSN small business site and was please to find some video interviews with some Aussie entrepreneurs talking about how they went about building their online presence, but being the good employee I am I decided not to watch them at work but rather email the link home so I could watch it on my own time.
This morning I made a cup of coffee, fired up the big gray box under my desk and settled in to watch some insightful and inspiring discussion on starting your own business. Clicking on the link I headed off to the site and was gobsmacked by the following page
It turns out that to watch anything on the NineMSN (and no I'm not linking to their page cause I want to make sure no one ever goes to it ever again) you cannot be using Firefox, you must install IE6 and use MS media player to see it. To that I say F$%# YOU Microsoft and a similar F#$% YOU to the Nine Network.
In the last 12 months Firefox has increased its market share by 43% and whilst it still remains far less than IE, it is hugely popular amongst the tech crowd who tend to be the trend setter of technology.
From a marketing perspective it is often said "as long as you create a good product/content people will eventually find you", and in most cases I believe this to be true. But regardless of how good your content is it MUST be accessible. There is a reason why musicians don't release their latest album on wax cylinders and why Hollywood don't put out movies on laser disk. Its because you MUST use the most accessible medium possible to access the masses.
So thats it for me, I am never going back to that site regardless of how good their content might be.. Sorry NineMSN but its a matter of principal.
