While browsing around online for the latest tech news I came across an interesting article on PCWorld.com which briefly detailed a supposedly health endangering phenomenon dubbed "mouse rage".   "What is mouse rage?",  you might ask.    According to a study done by RackSpace Managed Hosting, mouse rage is characterized by:

· Quickened heart rate
· Increased sweating
· Furious clicking of the mouse
· Simultaneous clicking and cursing the screen
· Bashing the mouse

Now what causes such behavior?  According to the same study "mouse rage" seems to be caused by:

· Slow loading pages
· Confusing / difficult-to-navigate layouts
· Excessive pop-ups
· Unnecessary advertising
· Site unavailability

While I, like the author of the article at PCWorld.com, don't quite buy the fact that "mouse rage" can be any significant health risk,  I think we can all agree that badly laid out sites, slow loading pages, and all the rest can be very frustrating for customers and cause the loss of a significant amount of business.   Also, the "pitfalls" listed above have been evident to web developers for years and are usually avoided by good planning and design.

On that note, our planning at Mediachase for the new year is underway and involves, among other things, an upcoming major enhancement release for the ECF (Version 4.1).   You will soon hear more about this release as it develops.   So, while we don't have the claim to have the magic pill for the supposed "mouse rage", we will continue provide you with top-notch ecommerce software to make your ecommerce development experience more covenient, enjoyable, and user-friendly.   In the meantime if you have any suggestions about possible enhancements you would like to see in a future version of the ECF please let us know by emailing us at support@mediachase.com