For some 2 years now web developers have known about Internet Explorer’s (the software you use to browse the Internet) open source and FREE competitor Firefox. However I look at so many new developments and these developers still do not test the browser in Firefox and so often the websites do not work in this browser. This is inexcusable and I really am getting a little worried about some web developers practises. The theory that if the agent does not know/ask about it, we will not bother with it. Well with now over 10% of your website visitors using this software it is time to wise up.
Not only that, it is worrying that developers do not put Firefox testing into their development. I am sure the more sites they do the harder it is going to be to get them all fixed.
Firefox is undoubtedly the best web browser on the market at the moment and it will continue to grow especially with the support of Google.
Realestate.com.au works fine with the Firefox, but Domain.com.au still has some issues – although I understand they have fixed up most of the problems in the past few months. I understand these companies have massive development budgets so there should be no excuse but I doubt it would take less than 3 hours per site for web developers to get their sites up to speed.
So I suggest you download the Firefox browser here and test your website to see if it works fine. If your site is not working accordingly then contact your developer immediately to get this fixed. If you site was developed in the last 12 months I think it should be their responsibility otherwise you might find you will have to pay for it.
2 Comments
Paul Sheehan
Good observation but how about the Opera Browser, I use this every day and I think it is muc better than Firefox
peter
Paul – You are correct, Opera is a great browser but unfortunately less than 1% of Internet consumers do use it, this may grow since they are giving it away FREE these days. Developers need a compelling reason to develop for a broswer and I think consumer needs and awareness of agents is paramount for this to happen, people have to complain or the majority of developers will remain lazy. It is in your best interest to develop and text your site in all major broswers including Opera and Safari (MAC).
My development is undergoing some radical changes to become standardised and I can tell you costs run ninto 10’s of thousands just to do this, I am choosing to do it now before it will cost me too much more in the future.