Netvision apparently thinks that they are the rulers of all things Internet in Israel. They may have a large market share of Internet accounts, but their bravado with regards to Internet standards really takes the cake.

Background: Like many services or technologies that are used worldwide, such as telephones and electricity, the Internet has Standards. These standards ensure that websites are accessible to all in all places because they all follow certain rules related to domain names and the like. The organization that develops and enforces these standards is ISOC, which is short for The Internet Society.

ISOC has many branches all over the world, including ISOC-IL, the Israeli branch. It is from ISOC-IL that you buy domain names with .il suffix. It is also through ISOC-IL that you change nameservers for your domain name when necessary. (Nameservers are the codes that tell your domain to point to your correct hosting provider, thus making sure that when people type in your domain name, they see the files sitting on your preferred hosting provider’s servers.)

Apparently Netvision thinks that ISOC-IL does a shoddy job of managing domain nameservers, and has taken the job upon themselves as well. A client of ours with a .il domain name had decided to move hosting providers. We bought the new hosting package for him, and visited the ISOC-IL website to change the nameservers. Unlike with a .com domain, where you just go online and enter the new codes, with a .il domain name you first fill out an online form, then you wait a few days until you realize that nothing has happened, and then you call ISOC-IL who tells you that you have to have the domain owner fill out a printed form and fax it in to them! Yes, fax. The main Israeli Internet body thinks faxes rule. Irony, thy name is Israel.

Anyways, we did all that, and finally the new site started to appear under the domain name. Except that after a day we realized it wasn’t appearing everywhere. My worker deduced that the only computers that weren’t displaying the new site were those connected to Netvision. Every other service provider was showing the site. She called ISOC-IL to see what the story was, and they said…it’s out of their control – call Netvision!

So she did. Netvision said the site would come through in a few days. A few days passed and nada. She called again. Oh right, they said, the domain name owner needs to fill out a printed form and fax it in to us. What?! she said. But we spoke to you a few days ago, and you said no such thing. And anyways, isn’t that what ISOC is for? Well, they said, we’re worried that people are messing with ISOC. What?! she said again.

While this may not be on the level of terror and political corruption, I still think that this disdain and usurption of authority is a form of corruption. By messing with web standards in Israel, they are messing with all of us and our free access to the web. Netvision needs to be put in their place. Nobody should have to beg them to change nameservers once ISOC has already approved the change.

I love Firefox. I loved it before version 2.0, and now I love it even more. With its shiny new interface, amazing tabbed features, and fabulous plugins, why would anyone use Internet Explorer anymore? And for anyone who cares about web standards, Firefox is it.

But for some reason Israelis don’t have a clue about Firefox – both designers and users. Too many Israeli web sites break apart in Firefox, or tell you that certain content can only be viewed with IE. I know that the huge majority of web users use IE, but a designer’s job is to take everyone into account. And it’s not like Firefox has ignored the Israeli community – there is a complete Hebrew version of the browser which can be easily downloaded from the site.

If so many Israeli sites don’t work in Firefox, how can I expect Israelis to use it? Luckily there is a great plug in called IE Tab, which allows the user to choose to view certain sites in a tab that renders the site just as IE would. This is very useful, and has enabled me to mostly stay away from IE.

So come on – why don’t you try Firefox out? You’ll be amazed at how quickly it opens, and you can’t beat the tabbed browsing and snazzy add-ons/plugins!