The battle of IE and Firefox. IE wins.

I am certainly no fan of IE. I've even gone so far as to uninstall it from my home machine. I can't stand the old clunker. However! Statistics clearly show that IE commands the market share of browser use with over 75% of consumers still using IE to do their internet surfing. 

So it just confounds me to see websites, time and time again, that don't render well in IE. Web designers are so into Firefox, and yes, it's a much better browswer than IE. I'm partial to Google's Chrome myself and have been using it since Beta (a big deal for me; I'll admit it I'm not an early adopter). But, you are doing yourself a disservice by not having a site that performs in all the browsers.

This is kind of a reverse example, but it goes to show that even the most sophisticated of businesses with deep, deep pockets and top designing webmasters, can still fumble the browser test. I was just on a world-class ski resort's website this past week, that will remain unnamed, (not far from Idaho Falls over the Tetons - ahem), and oh! how badly that site rendered in Chrome. Again, I uninstalled IE from my home machine, so if they had only designed for one browswer, there would be trouble for this multi-million dollar business to be representing itself so poorly online.

So, business owner, make sure your web designer has couched their browser ego, and always remember to design for IE and especially, don't forget to test in it. And business owners, unless your target market is tech-savvy people, make sure to ask your webmaster if they have designed for IE and tested that shiny, new, expensive investment (a.k.a. your website) in ALL the browsers.

Better yet, why not take the time to join the tech-savvy group? Go ahead download IE and Chrome, they're all free, and be sure to test your site yourself. After all, you likely take care of your store front, keep your company cars clean, etc.,. without hesitation, yes? If your store front, company cars or other consumer-facing media were defaced, dirty or not representing your business professionally, you would be taking the steps to clean it up. 

Think about your browser like you would your target market. If you were international and your target market spoke Spanish, French, German, you would likely have website pages in those languages or a clear translator link on your site so that you could clearly speak to your target audience. Browser design is the same. Make sure your website design is for your consumers' preference, not just your web designer's. Make sure your website is friendly for IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and to all the other up-and-coming-browsers. 

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