The Importance of Cross Browser Testing
September 9, 2008
Cross browser testing is a commonly overlooked, yet extremely important issue of launching a new website. Each browser displays websites differently, so its vital that your business site looks perfect on every one. This can often be a pain especially with browsers such as Internet Explorer, but must be done if you want as much traffic as possible.
Visual errors on your site can be very damaging and could cause viewers to leave right away. A well designed and coded website that is being displayed properly in browsers is the foundation of any website. Once you have a quality designed and developed site, you can fill it with well-written content and other elements such as graphics.
Browser Usage Statistics
Below is report on Browser Usage Statistics from w3schools. The chart shows which browsers are being used the most each month in terms of percentage. This is very helpful chart to keep an eye on , but you should also be tracking your sites personal browser usage stats using Google Analytics. Every website is different and has unique users so the stats will vary. For example; a design site may have a much higher percentage of users using the browser Safari, because it comes standard with Apple Computers.
Many tech savvy users will use Firefox and now Google has even launched its own browser called Google Chrome which should rise the ranks fast and it has been said it may even beat out both Internet Explorer and Firefox as most used browser!
| 2008 | IE7 | IE6 | IE5 | Fx | Moz | S | O |
| August | 26.0% | 24.5% | 0.1% | 43.7% | 0.5% | 2.6% | 2.1% |
| July | 26.4% | 25.3% | 0.3% | 42.6% | 0.5% | 2.5% | 1.9% |
| June | 27.0% | 26.5% | 0.5% | 41.0% | 0.5% | 2.6% | 1.7% |
| May | 26.5% | 27.3% | 0.7% | 39.8% | 0.7% | 2.4% | 1.5% |
| April | 24.9% | 28.9% | 1.0% | 39.1% | 0.9% | 2.2% | 1.4% |
| March | 23.3% | 29.5% | 1.1% | 37.0% | 1.1% | 2.1% | 1.4% |
| February | 22.7% | 30.7% | 1.3% | 36.5% | 1.2% | 2.0% | 1.4% |
| January | 21.2% | 32.0% | 1.5% | 36.4% | 1.3% | 1.9% | 1.4% |
| IE | Internet Explorer |
| Fx | Firefox (identified as Mozilla before 2005) |
| Moz | The Mozilla Suite (Gecko, Netscape) |
| S | Safari (and Konqueror. Both identified as Mozilla before 2007) |
| O | Opera |
| N | Netscape (identified as Mozilla after 2006) |
| AOL | America Online (based on both Internet Explorer and Mozilla) |
How to Optimize Your Site
The main way to optimize your site for all browsers is to make sure the coder is using up to date coding techniques and validates the sites code. To check the markup (HTML, XHTML, …) of Web documents You Can Use This validation service.
Then if you want to check the Check Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and (X)HTML documents with style sheets You Can Use This validation service.
Lastly you should check the sites on all browser versions and this can be done by taking screen shots at Browsershots.org. This will allow you to pinpoint any visual errors and fix them accordingly. Now you should have no excuse for not having a beautiful looking website, Enjoy!
Gino Orlandi - Who's written 30 posts on the UPrinting.com Blog.
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September 10, 2008
This is so true when i build a website it looks one way in Internet Explorer and different in Firefox
September 11, 2008
Don’t forget that the W3Schools site is used by people who want to learn web development - your css, javascript, xml etc and, although widely used, isn’t an exact cross section of internet users. If wikipedia, bbc or google published stats of their users you’ll see vastly different results (more ie use)
thecounter.com show different figures to w3 and rightly so - these stats can’t be trusted as exact use but are a good indicator of trends. Nothing is better than the stats on your own site..