April 2012 Website Features

[Mike]

Windows 7 Forums continues to provide information and discussion to millions of people around the world. In that tradition, we continue to develop some great features that become available through third party development, our own work, and from our affiliation with the vBulletin Pre-Release Development Team.

Here are some feature additions for April. While they are meager compared to our previous additions to the website, we hope that these information-based features can provide all visitors with a way to help each other.

Operating System / Web Browser Detection

Did you know that your web browser sends out information to every website you visit about what operating system you are using, and what web browser? This is called user-agent detection, and it is used by websites all over the world to help make minor adjustments to your browsing experience. For example, if you use Google Chrome, and not Internet Explorer, there are minor changes that are made on forum sites to improve your user experience. If you are using a mobile browser and operating system, there are ways for us to help you find our mobile application or use a mobile-friendly version of the website. Because the user-agent string is sent by nearly every web browser, we are able to detect your operating system and browser version.

We have taken that concept one step further for our members. While all of our members can show off their computer specs using the Settings option, our forum software will now automatically translate your user-string onto the posts you make. So, even if you do not send your computer specs our way, we will be able to determine if you are using Chrome, Safari, Windows XP, Windows Vista, or even the Windows 8 CP. Here is how that information is translated onto website pages:

This gives us a small, additional chance, that our forum team of moderators, or other members, help us to help you.

Analytics for Everyone

We are also taking a look at providing internal, public analytics through our Service Monitoring page. While we have detailed information that helps us improve the site experience for millions of people worldwide, we are taking that a step further by implementing public analytic data into the site. This information will not become very useful until a few weeks and months ago by, but is available for you to check out under Service Monitoring. With SeeTheStats, we continue to provide public analytics data directly from Google that is updated every night. So, information junkies who love the website will be sure to find this feature a bit refreshing.

Now that we have more ways of sharing information available to visitors, we are looking into ways that this information can be used to reward members and encourage you to continue using the website. Stay tuned, as we are always working on new features to improve your website experience.

Don't forget to use our Feedback Forum if there are any new features you would like to see presented on the website. Enjoy!