5 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
5 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Your Website and Browser Compatibility

by DaWebmaster
4 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
While we would all love to create websites that are 100% compatible with every single browser out there, this is close to being impossible.

Keep in mind that while IE, Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari are the major browsers out there, they are certainly not the only ones. I've come across many I didn't even know existed before.

What should you design for :confused:

Some webmasters recommend that while you may not be able to design for every single browser, it is important that your website is compatible with the aforementioned ones. Where IE is concerned they recommend designing for as low as Internet Explorer 6. Yeah, you'd be surprised to know some persons still use this outdated version. There is of course IE5, but do people use that as well ? Who knows.

The main point..

The point here that as the web evolves new browsers will come out. Existing browsers will be updated and so it will be quite difficult to design for them all.


Your views

What's your take on all this ? Please share your views. I absolutely love interacting with this community and would appreciate your responses. Do you try to design for all major browsers ? Share some of the least common browsers you use that others may not be familiar with.


Thanks!

- Michael
#browser #compatibility #website
  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    You know, it isn't that hard to have cross browser compatibility. You just need proper code.

    The majority of my visitors use firefox, about 50% of visitors. 20% use Internet EXPLODER, 15% safari, and 13% Chrome.

    Out of Internet explorer, version 8 I have 76%, version 7 about 17%, and versions 6 and 9 are about 4%

    That being said, I think the most important is firefox, and of course internet explorer. The problem with compatibility usually is in internet explorer 6. Sometimes 7. I don't think it is efficient to put a ton of time into making sure users who are using IE6, can see everything perfect. 20% of my visitors use IE, but only 3.6% using IE6.

    I do try to make sure everything is compatible with my websites, and I think the major problems in regards to compatibility is Internet Explorer. I just recently had a form problem where checkboxes weren't posting to emails. Took forever to figure out.

    I would think that these statistics for the most part, would be pretty similar across the board. I think chrome will end up becoming more popular in the next year, but I still think firefox is going to be #1 for a bit.

    I don't think that updates are going to be a problem for compatibility. I think that is good for compatibility, installing updates, patches, whatever.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3141670].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author DaWebmaster
    Hey iAmNameLess Thanks for the feedback ! You are right my problems with compatibility arise primarily from IE6 and IE7. Like you as well, most of my visitors seem to use Firefox followed by Chrome.

    You have experience with other less important browsers ?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3141761].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Well, firefox chrome safari and IE are all important. Any other browser, I don't really care about, I don't get enough visitors to really worry about it.

    That is interesting though, you get a lot of chrome users? What percentage of firefox and chrome would you say?
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3142082].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author DaWebmaster
    Hey,
    At the moment Firefox and Chrome are on the same level in terms of visits over a monthly period. Firefox seems to have a slight edge though. I don't have an exact percentage value however. Thanks for your feedback your input as assisted me in writing on this topic for my website.

    Other forum users, do you have any input as well ? I would love to hear it.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[3151308].message }}

Trending Topics