The latest version of Firefox makes it really clear when you're visiting a secure Web site. Best design solution I've seen for this problem.
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Jason Kottke
jkottke
Member since 2004
- Taken on November 5, 2004
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Beelzebozo 104 months ago | reply
Yes, I have been loving that feature since the 1.0 preview release. I also really like the new take on find in page. When circumstances dictate that I must use Windows, I will always invest the install time in Firefox.
1541 104 months ago | reply
yeah, such a great feature. however it disappears when using some themes (i was using pinball on rc1). hopefully its common for all themes from now on.
dw
davextreme 104 months ago | reply
I like it, too, but some browsers make forms yellow if they've been auto-filled, so it mess with my head sometimes.
robtinsley [deleted] 104 months ago | reply
Sadly, this actually encourages user *confusion* as the public has been continually misled to believe that SSL is something which it isn't -- SSL does not mean that the web-site is secure (only that the traffic is encrypted when it leaves the browser), and it doesn't mean that the web-site is in any way trustworthy (or is even operated by who it claims to be.)
mathowie 104 months ago | reply
I love this feature too. It's so simple but so effective. My first thought was "why in the hell didn't anyone think of this before?"
TomHouy 104 months ago | reply
I dunno, I thought the yellow lock was just fine. But a little extra notification can't hurt.
wootam! 104 months ago | reply
in this spoof age, it's definitley admirable.
i love firefox sooo much!
therealitystudio 104 months ago | reply
In Safari (the Mac browser, for those who don't know) there is a lock on secure sites in the upper right corner of the browser. I do think Firefox is a little better in regards to this, but it's always been in Safari as long as I've had my Mac.
nex 104 months ago | reply
huh? spoof age? this feature does exactly _nothing_ to counter spoofing ... all it tells you is that other people on your network or somewhere along the way can't read the passwords you're transmitting -- hasn't anything to do with to _whom_ you're transmitting them.
Larry Price 104 months ago | reply
It's pretty clear from reading this thread that there is a certain amount of confusion as to what the capabilities and limitations of SSL really are. For the most part x509 certificates properly issued DO authenticate the server to the client, with some relatively rare exceptions (attacker controls DNS and has a valid certificate/privatekey for the hostname). It's an unfortunate fact of life that most people are vulnerable to spoofing and that some browsers are so shoddily engineered that spoofing is not obvious when usiing them, but that has nothing to do with SSL.
One other thing that Firefox gets right is that the ability to examine certificates is easily accessible to the user.
bryanboyer 104 months ago | reply
Dude, IE 5 on the mac had what I think was a more effective and equally as unobtrusive solution. It added a small register below the bookmark bar. The movement of the page as the new register was added made sure you would notice it, but since it's a nominal loss of screen real estate it didn't effect one's browsing ability.
wootam! 104 months ago | reply
nex: awareness, not prevention!
nex 99 months ago | reply
that's a good point, wootam!. but regarding l.a.price's comment ... sure you _can_ authenticate a server with SSL, but you need a little insider knowledge. the new firefox doesn't automatically recognise and display if you're connected to the server you wanted, it just shows that the server has _some_ certificate. so all the new feature (if you take it just by itself, of course there are more, like URL spoofing prevention) really tells you is that your data is encrypted along the way and then ending up _somewhere_.