Microsoft announced the opening of their new IE public feedback/bug database this week and I must say it makes our copy of Bugzilla look like a sexy, Web 2.0, AJAX-ified beast.
For starters, a Passport account is required to even get close to seeing the thing. Once you’ve completed that registration process, you should be able to view and submit feedback now, right? Wrong. Next you’re required to sign in to Microsoft Connect and specify that you want to enroll in the IE Feedback program. Now (after ignoring the invalid SSL cert dialog) you can at least view and submit feedback. Of course in order to submit, you must search prior to being offered a link to submit a report. Once through the initial search for a bug or after submitting one, you’ll be presented with a screen fairly devoid of what you’d really expect to see along with a bug report – it’s current status and a specific reason why that status was decided upon, all without having to dig through various other links.
Now of course it wouldn’t be fair to discuss how awful MS’ system is without discussing Mozilla’s Bugzilla. Which has a few usability faux pas of its own and can be pretty intimidating for the first-time user. But after a few months and a thousand or so triaged bugs later, I must say that it at least gets the job done without making you jump through an ungodly number of hoops.
