Fundamentals: Browsers

While building a website, you will learn more about web browsers than you ever wanted to know. Most of the world operates in Internet Explorer, but there are many popular web browsers:

Internet Explorer (Windows only)
IE is the worlds most installed browser. Although it is difficult to work with and lacks many advanced features available in other browsers, it is the standard.

Firefox (For Windows and mac)
Firefox is the modern open source replacement for IE. It is more standards compliant, more secure, and faster. Although only a small portion of the general population is using it, it is extremely popular in the tech savvy world. If you’re still using Explorer, consider switching; -it’s free.

Safari (Mac only)
Safari is the default browser on all new Macintosh computers. It is also a modern browser, with a feature set equivalent to Firefox.

Developers spend many frustrating days of their lives trying to get a particular browser to see a website the way that it is supposed to. Be prepared for a good portion of your budget to go into testing to get user experience to be consistent across multiple browsers and platforms.

Some companies and developers elect to opt out of this process. Despite the overall percentages of browsers, keep in mind that when you are launching new products and services, you need to appeal to early adopters. The kind of personality that will select the rare product if it is newer, or better. Don’t rule out your early adopters. That kind of personality can be your biggest asset in spreading the word. Encourage your developers to build a website that performs well on at least the major 3-4 browsers.