[Love Calm Quiet]

So I'm enjoying learning about web page viewing habits of users - and reading Jakob Nielsen's recent article on Banner Blindness: www.useit.com/alertbox/banner-blindness.html

He has two videos to choose from to view how eyes move on a web page, both in Windows Media format.

Clicking starts my Windows Media (for Mac) v.9. I am told that the content is in a Codec not suppoted by this Windows Media app. Checking for the updates to WMV (from WMV help menu), the site gives me several options to download recent *Windows* editions of WMV. But the most recent edition for OS X is... v.9 (which I'm using).

Not surprising that MS updates software for windows more often than for Mac.

MORE surprising that a "usability expert" uses ~cutting-edge~ (?) editions of an app to encode his video. [But maybe it's actually someone else's video: i didn't get to see it. ]

Anybody got a work-around? A rant?

[Naplander]

wmv component for QuickTime

Windows Media® Components for QuickTime

It's free and allows you to play WMV files through QuickTime

[Love Calm Quiet]

Thanks, Naplander,
That Flip4Mac component seems to work great.
Unfortunately, for the Nielsen wmv it just showed me a blank QT-in-Safari display.
Probably not what Nielsen had in mind.
Can you tell me if the wmv on the page I linked before works in YOUR Safari with that WM component?
thanks

[Laminar]

Neither video works for me, even if I download the file and try and play it with QT or VLC.

[Love Calm Quiet]

Thanks, Laminar,
I found email for Nielsen and gave a heads-up.

Glad I don't have teh irony of being a "usability guru"