The Importance of Browser Compatibility

Well it is the browser update we had to have, the inevitable move towards Internet Explorer 7.  While the browser introduces some great new features, it also highlights the challenge that faces both website owners and web developers ... how to keep your site looking good across the gamut of browsers available on the web - from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox, Safari, Opera and Netscape, which ones matter the most and why.

While many other browsers have made significant inroads into the marketplace in recent years, no one can dispute the dominance of Microsoft Internet Explorer in its many versions.  Between them, IE 6 (48%) and IE7 (30%) now account for over 78% of marketshare.

The problems many websites experience with the latest offering, Microsoft Internet Explorer 7,  is not the first time it has happened or the last time it will happen.  Many sites experience problems such as dynamic menus that no longer function as intended, scripts not working or important content obscured by images and logos.  While browsers generally vary in their interpretation of web pages, there seem to be two approaches to browser technology - the standards approach and the proprietary approach.  Browsers like Mozilla Firefox, which use the Gecko rendering engine, tend to be faithful to widely accepted standards for rendering websites.  They therefore look much like the designers intend them to be and web developers can get more predictable results.  Other browsers, such as IE7, which use the Trident engine, aspire for the "wow factor" with a range of exclusive bells and whistles.  Unfortunately this can also mean that the fundamentals are neglected and web developers have to "hack" their sites somewhat to get them to look good on these browsers and then often appear to have problems with browsers that take a standards based approach.

Although we don't intend to get involved in "browser wars", Datalink will often recommend Firefox, simply for the above-mentioned reasons.  The fact that it is open source, supported on all major platforms and aligned with our own standards based philosophies for web development is just a bonus.  Another major factor to consider when choosing a browser, particularly in the corporate marketplace, is Internet security.  Many corporates are slow and cautious in their take-up of fancy new web browsers to avoid such problems as Active scripting, add-ons, computer viruses and spyware.  Ultimately though, the choice of browsers should always be up to the individual and the fact that some browsers are pre-installed with our copies of Windows, MacOS or Linux is a very persuasive factor.  This is something that we simply have to live with.

As website owners, developers or designers, recognising that there are now over a billion Internet users, must resign ourselves to the fact that it just may not be possible to please everyone out there.  Our best bet is to aim for our websites to look good on the majority of people's computers.  This means that we need to know a bit about the current trends on take-up of various browsers ... so I'd like to take a moment to let you know just how we achieve this.