DWP gets all Firefox friendly

The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) has pledged to make its websites compatible with as many browsers as possible, including the popular open source browser Firefox.

Carl Mawson, the head of e-communications at the DWP, said on Wednesday that "we are very much aware of the widening range of browsers used by our customers, such as Firefox and Opera. We aim to address this, so that our websites work in as many browsers, and on as many platforms as possible."

At present, the job search feature on the Jobcentreplus website does not work in the Firefox browser as the lists of job groups, types and titles are not populated when the search page is opened.

Mawson said the DWP aims to fix this feature in the second half of this year.

"The Jobcentre Plus website itself does work using non-IE browsers such as Firefox. However, the job vacancy search element does not. It is however being redesigned to be compatible with non-IE browsers and we aim to deliver this towards the end of the year. This is as part of our ongoing commitment to developing widely accessible web content, and also in response to customer comments," he said.

The DWP is not the only organisation that is keen to add Firefox support. Software company Autodesk said on Thursday that it is working on Firefox support for MapGuide, a product that allows companies to distribute GIS applications on the web. An Autodesk spokesman said: "We consider Firefox support to be essential and are working on it for the next version of MapGuide."

It is uncertain whether Autodesk plans to add Firefox support to other products.

Firefox's market share has significantly increased over the last year, with web analytics firm OneStat.com claiming the open source browser has increased from 2.1 per cent in May 2004 to 8.7 per cent in April 2005. Firefox appears to have grabbed even more market share in Europe, with 30 per cent, 24 per cent and 22 per cent of web surfers using the open source browser in Finland, Germany and Hungary respectively.

Most of this increase in market share has been at the expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, although one report earlier this month found that IE had clawed back some market share.

There are a number of other organisations that have recently updated their website to make sure it works with Firefox. Since May, the website of electrical retailer Powerhouse no longer excludes Firefox users and since June the website of English Heritage no longer forces Firefox users to use a non-graphical version of the site, according to website testing company SciVisum.

But some companies still seem reluctant to update their websites to make sure they work on Firefox. The website of cinema chain Odeon does not allow Firefox users to access the main part of the site, preventing users from booking cinema tickets.

An Odeon spokeswoman said: "The Odeon website can be viewed by Firefox users by clicking on the 'text version' option on the home page. This includes all necessary information, including film times and booking."

The spokeswoman was unable to comment on whether it had any plans to make the site compatible with Firefox.

Ingrid Marson writes for ZDNet UK