Website Design Frequent Questions

What is cross browser compatibility & how does it apply to my website?

Cross browser compatibility is the ability for a website to display correctly and be usable in a variety of web browsers, the software you use to surf the web.

By far the most common web browser is Internet Explorer (IE) included with every version of Microsoft Windows. However, there are a number of other browsers available and their usage now accounts for 20% of internet users as people move away from the security problems associated with IE. Don`t forget also, that your visitor may not be using a Windows PC. The Apple Mac still has a lot of fans not to mention Linux users, both of whom will almost certainly not be using IE. Your website must be usable by all these groups.

The Mozilla Firefox Web Browser

The most popular of these alternative browsers is Mozilla Firefox which is a far superior web browser. It is imperative that your website displays correctly in this software which isn`t a problem if your site code is valid html. Firefox has been accused of not displaying webpages as intended in comparison with Internet Explorer but the opposite is actually true. It is IE that doesn`t render html correctly

Click here to download Mozilla Firefox for Free

Opera Web Browser

The Opera browser has been making progress regarding browser usage since 2000 when the company released Opera 5. Though it is free to download and use if you want to access some of the browser's features you are required to pay a small registration fee.

Click here to download the Opera Browser for Free

The Netscape Browser

Because Netscape provided the code for Mozilla in 1998 there is little difference between the two browsers. But it never hurts to see how pages compare between the two, and since they are two different browsers checking with them both is not a bad idea.

Click here to download the Netscape Browser for Free