Why It’s More Important to Crosscheck Browsers than You Thought
It’s not just the Pretty Face
If you ever wondered why it is a good idea to crosscheck how your Blog or Webpage looks and performs on different Browsers, let me give you a little clue. Other than the obvious aesthetic value of showing your readers the best possible face, you should consider that not all browsers are created (read written) equal. They handle coding very differently and can cause some unforeseen consequences.
Why the stats?
If you notice that Firefox 2.0 is used by a good portion of the visitors to my Blog. But, I also want you to notice the next two lines. A Full 52.6 percent of them use Internet Explorer versions 6 or 7. That’s a lot of people who could think the site is ugly and unprofessional looking or worse lock up their browser so they never saw the site in the first place. If I hadn’t crosschecked browsers.
That’s what happened to a friend of mine, Carolyn Manning who runs Thoughts & Philosophies. The Blog looks great no matter which browser I used, but it would freeze in the middle of loading when I used IE7 to access her site.
I spent a little time with her going over some possible causes and found that some Javescript she had running would cause problems in Internet Explorer. She hadn’t really noticed because she uses Firefox and everything comes up just fine. Without crosschecking other browsers accessibility, she may well have missed a big portion of new and return readership.
Now that the problem has been rectified, I think she should see a marked increase in her pageviews and visitors. Just in case you missed Carolyn’s Blog before, stop by Thoughts & Philosophies to say hi (and be sure you tell her if you are using IE).
Moral:
There is more than one reason to check your site on other browsers.
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