Let’s Get Compatible

Imagine walking into your local post office — parcel in hand — only to be greeted by a blank wall reading:

“CAPRI PANTS REQUIRED FOR USE OF THIS POST OFFICE. GET THEM HERE.”

Frustrated by their lack of cross-pants compatibility, you leave and purchase the required garments to use their service, even though they hinder your walking ability and have holes in all the wrong places.

Where is this going? Indulge me just a bit longer…

You return to the post office, and see that there is a friendly face waiting to help you behind the counter. That counter, however, is located on the ceiling, just out of reach for you to hand over your package.

“To view this post office as gravity meant it, please upgrade to the latest version of those capris,” he says.

Sending a package shouldn’t be this hard (and thankfully it isn’t), so why do some companies insist on putting you through this rigmarole, before you can even use their Web site? Why can’t everyone play nice and develop Web sites that are cross-browser compatible? Is it laziness? Complacency? I can’t say for sure, but it’s important that we try our best to make sure everyone can use every Web site we build.

Bear with me, as I feel compelled to share some statistics with you.

In 2002, it was much easier to make an assumption about which browser someone might be using to look at your web site, as over 80% of people were using some version of Internet Explorer to surf the Web. As of February ‘07, however, IE’s market share is down to about 58% — spread over three different versions, each rendering sites in their own infuriating way — while Mozilla Firefox now has a share of over 31%. Numerous different browsers make up that last 11%, and we can’t forget about the ever increasing number of Macintosh users on the web; but statistically speaking, a web user is likely to be on a Windows machine, using IE 6/7 or Firefox. As is par for the course with technology, these numbers are shifting constantly, and it requires due diligence on our part, as Web developers, to make sure your Web site is “in the now.”

It’s easy to develop a Web site that functions and displays correctly for that 89%, and stop there, but is it really wise to possibly alienate 1 out of every 10 people that visit your Web site? Or should you just suck it up, take the time and money and test your site on as many browsers (within reason) as you can? I’ll go with the latter. Is it the quickest way to develop a Web site? No. But it’s the right way.