Which internet browser does your website work in?
2012 have been a great year for Google it has managed to do two things everyone thought impossible. The first was to become the leading operating system for Smartphones all the talk up until this year was iphone this iphone that how great the OS (operating system) is but suddenly it’s poor relative Android surpassed it and became a world beater. The second and probably most amazing feat was to overtake Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the most used browser on the internet a feat everyone said would be impossible, yet in May 2012 they did this with Chrome as you read this they haven’t got a clear lead in fact some days Internet Explorer (IE) still tops the charts but bearing in mind Microsoft’s complete dominance in this sector it is amazing that they are playing in the same ball park.
It sounds great that the competition for such an important part of everyone’s internet experience is fierce but it is not without its problems. For years it has been an issue for any website owner or developer making sure that a website can be viewed in all the major browsers and for many years the main issue was with different versions of Internet Explorer (IE 6,7,8 and 9) you then had a few minor players including Safari, Firefox, Opera and of course Chrome.
We now have three big players the leading three Chrome, Internet Explorer and Firefox which all conflict with each other making testing of a website very important to insure not only does it look good but that the website actually works in all of them. But this is quickly becoming just the tip of the iceberg as more and more people start to use Smart Phones and Tablets as these all use different browsers which have been tweaked by the individual companies using them.
But it is not just the browsers that can cause issues new technology also plays its part; touch screen technology has replaced the cursor which means if your website relies on the movement of a cursor across the screen to open certain applications or menus they will remain closed unless visitors know where to click. Drop down menus can be difficult to use and scrolling down the page can often mean your visitor clicks onto a page they didn’t want and can find it difficult to get back to where they were. Some smart phones just don’t allow certain web applications to work; the most common of these is the iphone which doesn’t support Flash which is widely used across the internet.
Knowing what your customers use can be important when redesigning your site we have already seen customers changing their sites to be more compatible with mobile technology but before you rush off and change yours make sure you need to, contrary to popular opinion not everybody surfs the internet on their mobile and the majority of most of your visitors probably still use a pc based search. Make sure you make an educated decision and don’t get caught up in the hype. History (although it is a short one) tells us that the vast majority of us browse the internet during the daytime between 9 and 5, so maybe your biggest concern should not be can my customers see my website, but what are my employees’ doing at work.