It has been an exciting start to the new year at Go Test It. We are currently making contact with many people who have used Go Test It or who are interested in it, and speaking to them on the phone or visiting them in person. Our goal is to learn how people in a range of different organisations work and what problems they face, and the things we are learning are determining our roadmap for 2010.
This means that at the moment our focus is on learning, not on building new features. Sorry if you have asked us to do something but it hasn’t happened yet: I’m sure you’ll understand that we don’t want to clutter Go Test It with complicated features which hardly anyone would use, hence our research into what people really need.
However, one of the things which we found we did need to support is Google Chrome, and I’m pleased to announce that Google Chrome on Windows is now available on Go Test It. Any tests you already have should work fine on Chrome – just tick the box and run them!
Of course, the tests will only work fine if your website actually works correctly on Chrome. And although Google have done a great job of making a standards-compliant browser and compatibility problems are rare, you can never be sure without testing it.
One example of a website which does not work at all in Chrome is Apple’s iPhone reservation site. It works fine on Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer – but on Chrome, you can’t get past the first page.
No matter what you choose from the two drop-down menus (store and plan type), the “choose your phone” section always stays dimmed. If you try to continue to the next page, you get an error, and you still can’t choose which type of phone you want to reserve. You are completely stuck, and the only way out is to go and find the same page in a different browser. You can’t even copy and paste the URL into a different browser.
(Incidentally, the error message is also wrong: it says “Please select a store” if I don’t select a phone.)
How many customers is Apple losing because of this problem? Who knows. Don’t let this happen to you. Go test your website now.