Firefox 3.5, which we’ve ranted about recently, is not playing nicely with Twitter. In fact, for the last week at least users (including me, including today) have had a lot of problems updating status messages and following new people if they use Firefox 3.5. The site just hangs forever.
Twitter knows about the issue and says they’re working on it. And the odd thing is that the issue seems to come and go.
The worst part about this is that Twitter was actively promoting Firefox 3.5 downloads in July, and a lot of Twitter users are probably using it. This version of Firefox alone has around 4.5% market share already.
My apologies to Power Twitter, I originally (privately) accused them for the problems, and it looks like I was wrong.
Update: I’m testing Twitter with a download of the most recent alpha build of Firefox 3.7, and it doesn’t work either.
twitter isnt the only site that ff3.5 is sucking on. back to ie8 for me, i guess.
Use Chrome. Or Safari.
why? i dont want to download a bunch of browsers when the one thats here actually works on sites. i like ff, but when its starts fucking up, im not going to put up with it/
No one cares if you don’t use ff. They care if you use IE8. There are so many great browsers out there that are much better than IE8.
If you are complaining about sites not working, I’m leaning more towards Safari cus its fast and gets the job done. IE8 is slow. Don’t use it.
IE 8 Slow? Slower than chrome/safari, maybe. But FF is as slow as it gets.
Actually IE8 is much much better than Firefox 3.5
Though I’m personally using Chrome about 90% of the time, the other 10% I find myself using IE8.
Now, I was an early adopter of Firefox and have been using it until 3.5, but I’ve caught the Chrome bug now.
chrome sends even web address we type to google using omnibar trick, in the name of search suggestions. Invades my privacy at cost of my own bandwidth.
privacy is more about self respect than anything else.
Yes, Chrome is promising!
Yes, but gimme Chrome extensions
Twitter has been giving Safari (or at least Webkit nightly) a bit of a hard time, now and again, lately, too. Sometimes it’s, loading sans CSS. Sometimes it’s, agonizingly slow update. Leap to Camino for a moment, problem solved.
Mike, browsers don’t suck on sites, sites suck on browsers.
I suppose you work for Microsoft?
He doesn’t have to. When you build web apps, you test not on your favorite browser first, but on the most popular one. So, you test first on IE, then on Firefox, and so on. Otherwise you’re not a professional developer. It’s not about which browser is the best and which browser is my favorite – it’s about market reality. So, browser makers do whatever they find right – like it or not. And people use browsers that we don’t think are better than our favorite one – like it or not. So, as web developers, we can’t ignore the market and we need to make sure our stuff works well with at least the top 3 browsers. Period! So, if Twitter is not working on Firefox 3.5, then it’s not a Firefox problem – it’s a problem of Twitter as they should not limit their testing to their favorite browser (Safari on Mac, I suppose) if they want to be a mass market tool and not a tool that only the Me 2.0 crowd understands and uses.
Absolutely false! Never, ever use IE as your initial test! It’s 11 years behind all others, technically, and incompetent at best. Always, always use ANY other browser to initially test to make sure you markup is correct. THEN check to see if/when IE screws things up. But the quirks and bugs of IE are well known, as are the hacks to fix it.
I agree. Yahoo email sucks in Firefox (not sure about other browsers). I’ve always blamed Yahoo for the suck, not the browser.
Twitter’s never worked badly for me in any version of Fx, including 3.5, but I rarely use Twitter, so it’s not an issue.
This is one post I don’t have much to say about – except stop bashing Firefox already, TC – you guys are needlessly giving it a bad name (the posts you keep making on it are just distractions- serious bug reports – and that’s what this post is- belong in Bugzilla, not here).
was using Chrome for about a month until it started crashing endlessly with the message “this extension is not responding”. It would crash all the chrome processes, not just the problem tab. didn’t mention what extension it was but i suspected flash, which is about on every page i view. reinstalling didn’t work. I’m making this post from my good ol ff.
or.. you know.. Firefox 3.0, which works great.
It’s weird because myself and no one I know are having any issues with FF3.5 unless they are on vista, which has always had issues with running/installing more than one browser
Uh-huh…I use IE8, Firefox 3.5 and Chrome 3 Beta on Vista Home Premium (it’s configuration isn’t that great either – 512 MB, Pentium 4, 40 GB Hard Drive) and it’s working very well.
Huh. I use those browsers, too, along with four versions of Opera, IE Tester, and Safari 4 on Vista Home Premium, with 1GB RAM, an AMD Athlon 1.79 gHz processor built for XP, and 70GB of space split between two hard drives…(and I thought those specs sucked – ’til I saw yours) and I have more issues with Vista itself (I can’t shut it down normally – but I’m going to put both Service Packs on and hope that fixes the problem) than I have with the browser mix, which seems to be causing no issues at all.
Have you ever considered the fact that twitter’s web developer is at fault? FF3.5 works perfectly for me on all the sites I visit. Hard to imagine that something is broken in it that ONLY applies to Twitter…
The other thing to note is that some extensions are terrible on ff3.5. For example, firebug routinely breaks websites. Before accusing firefox, uninstall all extensions.
Actually, Firefox 3.5 doesn’t work with CommonApp either…or any other college application website for that matter.
Firefox 3 worked well and Chrome 3 works sometimes but it doesn’t fail as badly as Firefox 3.5
eeeuuuwww.. IE8? Why run a broswer that is incompatible with about 1/3 of all websites?
Any examples?
Great idea to replace a browser that has some issues with a couple of pages with a browser that is broken by design!
1.I don’t agree. Twitter is faster for me in Firefox 3.5. I think the problem is not with the browsers. It is with the twitter itself and as usual it is slower in most of the browsers.. Same is the case with IE 8.
FF 3.5, 3.5.1 and 3.5.2 has the new tracemonkey engine and a new prefetch system. One of these creates tremendous problems with Jabbers BIND and creates a problem with missing keystrokes. There is also a problem when many tabs are open and tabs hang. Many users have flooded FF’s forums with these issues, but the mods don’t seem to be taking them seriously enough. Filing bugs on FF bugzilla dosen’t seem to meet any response.
FF 3.5 has been giving our dev team tremendous heartburn because our app uses both lots of JS and Jabber.
I have blogged about this a few weeks back, but its great that TC has now blogged it, hopefully the FF guys will wake up.
funny thing… i had the same case with facebook.
it took ages to load too.
also, the service (firefox.exe) would not terminate after closing ff.
i could identify the problem with the skype toolbar in ff 3.5. as soon as i deinstalled it, ff was as fast as ever.
I still use Firefox for all the greasemonkey plugins but when I want to tweet or DM I just fire up Safari.. I thought it was the plugins at first and disabled them all but it still hung!
You can use chrome with Greasemonkey. No more switching + fastest browser?
i’ve switched to safari. the things ill do for twitter.
Whats wrong with you people? It’s twitter that sucks.
The issue is in IE8 too ….
I guess its twitter…
Michael, Dump Firefox for good. Chrome does not have extensions but even its nightly builds are more stable than Firefox 3.5 . I rarely use FF now. It keeps crashing. I have even heard on many podcasts about people complaining that Firefox 3.5 keeps crashing. Probably nice time to move to Chrome or Safari
I use Windows. And I think its the fastest and best browser for Windows. The speed at which they are going Chrome for Mac may be in beta soon.
I’ve had FF 3.5 open 24/7 since it was released and it hasn’t crashed on me once, and I have tons of extensions installed. Sounds like it’s your computer that sucks.
Same, using 3.5.2 on Mac with 40-50 tabs open at all times with no problems at all. Could be a conflict with some other software, so that it only shows up on some systems but not all.
Using FF 3.5.2 on Vista, works great most of the time for me. Better try FF’s “safe mode” version first (no extensions … in the ‘Mozilla’ folder) to be sure it’s FF.
Wrong settings in extensions like noScript will make it difficult to use many sites.
FF 3.5 is giving me all sorts of problems with loading pages, and the overall experience is so bad I’ve downgraded back to FF 3.0.13.
it’s not firefox, it’s twitter itself. tried with chrome, safari and opera and the same problems appears randomly in all of them
As of last night, there was no way to log in or create new accounts in FF 3.0.13, so it’s not just 3.5.
FF 3.5 is horrendous. At first I thought it was my computer but realised quickly it was FF. It doesn’t do much well. For some, inexplicable reason when I click on a tab that’s already open, it takes the tab and opens it in a new window! Not all the time but a lot. The if you try to work in two windows it can’t cope and hangs and gets all dramatic.
I’m using Flock as an alternative sometimes.
Personally I thought Twitter was still having problems after the recent DOS attack but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s current problems are FF’s.
Actually, it is your computer. I’ve had FF 3.5 open 24/7 since it was released and it hasn’t crashed on me once, and I have tons of extensions installed.
Tabs open in a new window when you drag the tab out of tab-bar area. That’s a feature.
Thinking the same thing, never had a single issue with FF3.5 … then again I’m on XP and Vista detests multiple browser installs so perhaps all these people have Vista causing the problem :/
I’ve been suffering this weeks, had to switch to use tweetdeck. I assumed it was just me.
http://twitter....atus/3180112484
I was wrong, it started on the 6th (day before that tweet), so well over a week now.
I still blame Power Twitter – it just doesn’t fell bug-free to me.
Opera is also worth trying!
It doesn’t work on my Firefox 3.0.13 either
Thanks to things like DestroyTwitter, I’m like never on Twitter.com. Occasionally, because not everything can be done in the desktop app, but for the most part I’m finding that with all these great APIs that Twitter has created, you rarely ever have to access the Twitter.com website itself.
I thought it was just in my case that Twitter is acting in such a manner.
I presumed it was the addons that I have installed on my FF that were playing havoc, now I came to know that this is widespread.
Watching for the updates.
Intermittent for me today. No prob with Chrome or 3rd parties. Firefox in general quickly becoming my IE (ie=dormant). With toolbars I’d be 100% Chrome.
I’m also having this problem on Firefox 3.0.13… sucks
I have found it to be rather frustrating when discovered that firefox doesn’t work well with most of my plugins (that worked fine on 3.0.13)
Igor
Web developers have their hands full these days with four mainstream browsers, each of which has continual updates. So much for the days – of “it’s simple, because it’s browser-based”
The service is spotty for me since yesterday in any browser. I can’t log in though. Couldn’t not use Twitter search either. I guess they are playing with various security mechanism to prevent future attacks, but they are definitely not doing a good job!
i’m also having problemr using facebook after the update, might try crome. Not got round to using yet
Ever since the 3.4+ upgrades to FireFox I have noticed more memory hogging and other hangups like the one you’re mentioning with Twitter. The most annoying thing is that if I leave 3.5 open for more than let’s say… an hour? It’s hogging like 150K in memory resources. While that isn’t really a LOT, older versions usually stopped around 50-60K for me. And Chrome is no better for me (on PC), as each tab is actually its own process and collectively adds up to a lot more than 150K.
It’s hogging 150K in memory resources as in 150 kB or as in 150 MB? I bet on the second one
but it’s doesn’t look like a lot of memory unless on a very memory constrained computer. On old computers old programs usually run better, with maybe the exception of browsers that gets optimized for speed and not for memory.
Who uses the browser to tweet anymore? I just use a client (DestroyTwitter is the best!)
Having troubles with firefox 3.5.2 and a nightly build of Camino. Looks to be a problem on twitter side.
ff 3.5 is becoming more buggy all the time , reminds me of IE7. is ff 3.5 a beta? are we testing for mozila, dont mind just want to know. Using chrome mostly know.
I agree Firefox 3.5 reminds me of IE7 more and more
Switch to Chrome…IE8 ain’t bad either
i mean using chrome Now
Some bugs also in google chrome. one such scenario i found was when i used deviantart.com to search some images.. but the search can’t be done on there in google chrome 3.0.195.6…… still it have to learn something from firefox..
Thanks, I’ve been a little concerned since this cropped up for me yesterday. The issue was obfuscated by Twitter’s own choking fit, but now it’s pretty clear. Tweetie works fine, but FF 3.5 is still hanging.
Funny, because I’m using FF 3.5.2 and have had none of the problems others are listing here and Twitter is working just fine.
Wonder if it’s something related to which OS a person uses. I’m on Vista.
Stop bashing Firefox because everything. One guy who has problems with this and that does not mean that the rest of millions are having the same issues. TC bloggers should be more careful about their rants, like it or now, this site is popular and many many people read it and may believe that X product is a piece of crap because of a blogger’s bad day at work/home/bed.
Gabriel, there are numerous problems with FF 3.5 and they’ve been highlighted on many sites, not just TC. Personally, if I was looking for comments on something I would read more than one blog anyway. Anyone looking to read about FF 3.5 won’t just read about its faults here.
It’s clear that the problem is with Twitter, not with Firefox, so, all the bashing goes to Twitter.
I so agree with Gabriel! Careful what you do people! I use Firefox 3.5 and it is perfect, never had any problems with it, when it comes to Twitter or any other site. I’m very happy with it.
Was having this same problem and wondering what the issue was.
… oh, and thanks to MA for mentioning Mac Chrome. I got tired of checking to see if it was out of the oven yet.
Twit less, screw more!
Shouldn’t the title of the post be Twitter not playing nicely on Firefox
I’ve tried both the 3.6 & 3.7 builds in the last few days and haven’t noticed any problems. I have mostly been using Google Chrome though, since I’ve been on a PC lately. Maybe it’s a Mac thing. Good luck with it!
This isn’t a mac thing. It is a Twitter usability issue, where they are not taking care to make sure their site functions on multiple browsers. On a small site that gets a thousand or so visitors a day, you can probably ignore that .5% that uses a browser that borks your coding. Twitter? Not so much. That .5% represents a large number of people, people who could potentially be angry or not use their site if it is too much of a hassle. (Since Twitter has been borked, I have spent more time on Facebook in response. About 1/3rd of my really want to follow Twitter people are there so it is a reasonable alternative.)
Its not working on FF 3.0 either, at least on my mac. The problem isn’t with the browser, its with Twitter.
They have raised $55 million and haven’t spent a dime of it on usability. Because their “update” button uses ajax to POST your update, they have broken the user’s expected method of dealing with failures. Normally, I’d hit “stop” and try again. There is no way to do this with twitter’s web interface other than copying the text, reloading twitter, pasting my text, and hitting update again. That is an incredibly broken user interface, and its _not_ the browser’s fault, it is Twitter’s.
Firefox 3.5 is doing crazy things with this website too, for example, it repeats the first words of the first sentence of this article: “Firefox 3.5, which we’ve Firefox 3.5, which we’ve ranted about recently,”.
It’s not FF, look at the HTML. Looks like Arrington made a typo.
pretty sure that was a joke
Yep, it’s the hyperlink typo, in which you edit HTML and then use the “a” tag to retype your link text without realizing that you had typed it previously.
Found it funny and ironic to criticize a bug in an article that hasn’t been copy-edited, being editing pretty much an equivalent of debugging.
I have been having issuing with authentication and (more importantly) block spammers on twitters using recent Chromium builds.
However, this is the only issue I’ve been having with Chromium (other than Flash being weird).
I have a Linux install of Firefox 2.0.0.14 that came with my eeepc netbook. It does not play well with Twitter. In the past two weeks, it has almost become impossible to use. I can rarely update my status. Almost all the time, I cannot view @ replies. Firefox + Twitter slows down my netbook so much that I need to kill firefox or close Twitter. When I try to check for older tweets past two or three pages, I frequently end up with Twitter errors. I am NOT amused at all.
Neither Firefox 3.5 or Twitter is without its problems.
i thought i am the only one and has complaining for past couple of days. Twitter still works on safari and chrome though ! :/}
I retwited this on firefox 3.5 and it worked right away????
and what about mac users- chrome for mac is not out yet- should i go the safari road??? I myself have been promoting firefox- so sad
this happens on my mac only. Windows no issues.
I’ve had to use Google chrome for some stuff because some buttons in general arent working, or dont appear on web pages. not to thrilled with htese problems FF is having ATM
I’ve been using FF 3.5.2 on Mac, and it’s been sucking big-time. It never “crashes” but is just ridiculously slow. Only a handful of extensions installed, and they were all fine before the last FF update.
Especially problems with using Twitter on the browser: Not only can’t post, but can’t even sign out! (Get http://twitter....essions/destroy in the location bar after a few mins) and if I quit the browser and restart, I’m still signed in to the same Twitter account.
I switched to 3.5 two weeks ago and so far, my experience has been underwhelming. I honestly can’t wrap my head around how Mozilla dropped the ball on this one.
Anyone else having issues using search.twitter.com in IE7? I get “invalid page size” back as the result.
As soon as i spoof my user-agent header to be not IE7 i get a different result. Must be some “smart” server side logic they screw up on.
They have a CSS style sheet for each browser. You can see in the META-TAGS that they have a different CSS style sheet for each browser…..ie6, ie7, ie8, Chromium, Safari, FF 3.0, FF 3.5+
Some dev from Twitter needs to spend a few minutes fixing some issues.
The browsers change so often that a front-end developer has to update these CSS files often and sometimes they get behind schedule.
Oopps
This is not related to CSS at the client side. The server is responding with a different source code as soon as i spoof a different User-Agent. I do not get any tweets back from the search using IE7 in the source with the original User-Agent (so nothing in CSS would make a difference).
Something goes badly wrong at the server side logic.
No problems here – I’m using Firefox 3.5.2 and Windows XP SP3.