The Browser Wars
October 1, 2007
It’s 8:00am. You’re in your office sipping your morning coffee admiring your new website which you just launched last week. The phone rings. It’s one of your most valued customers…and they begin explaining why your website fails to complete every order they attempt to send. You're confused because you tested the system yourself and everything worked. You even called some colleagues and they too reported everything worked great. So why is the site working for some and not others?
As a business owner or company manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that whether you use your own in-house web development team or hire an outside design firm, the final product must be viewable and compatible with all the major browsers...not just Internet Explorer. To this end, let’s examine the major browser types and why knowning these browsers are important to your bottom line.
Internet Explorer: I.E. for short, remains today’s most popular web browser. According to Wikipedia, since 1998, Internet Explorer has dominated the marketplace. When launched in 1995, it was second to Netscape; however, as of July 2006, I.E. held 86% market share and today holds 92%. The fact that most computers purchased today come pre-loaded with I.E. is a major reason this browser continues its reign as the most accessed browser.
Mozilla Firefox: Launched in 2004, Firefox quickly gained in popularity among the web community, geeks and tech savvy businesses. Today, Firefox maintains a healthy 12% market share, most of it coming from market share taken away from I.E. which prior to 2004 controlled 95% of the market. When debuted, Firefox captured notoriety with its multiple “tabs” feature and “ad pop-up blockers” which quickly made it the browser of choice, particularly among those it the “tech” world.
Safari: An Apple product, Safari is attracting a entirely new audience and has already pushed Netscape into last place. Safari has nearly 3% market share and according to CNET.com, Safari, like it rivals, offers many of the same features with the added feature of reading web page text content out-loud. Yes, websites can now talk.
Opera: Today, Opera has less than 1% market share; however, as cell phones, Apple’s I-Phone and other leading PDA gadgets grow in popularity, we will see more consumers and businesses accessing the Internet with handheld devices. Here is where Opera enters the race. Touted as the fasted web browser for hand held devices, Opera now offers Opera Mini…a web browser for your phone.
The bottom line. When you go to your website, what you see may be different from what your customer will see. To ensure 99% of your viewing audience has the same experience, websites should be developed and tested using Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. This testing methodology ultimately provides the highest level of consistency and helps ensure the best possible experience for the majority of visitors accessing your site.
John Tomblin is General Manager of DataTitan.
For additional information call 210-403-9429.
