[WiganWebs]

Hi all,

My main 2 browsers of personal use are IE and Firefox, although being a web designer and SEO I tend to aim more towards Firefox, but I was wondering how many browsers should I test my designs in as well as those two?

I hear about Google Chrome, but is it actually as widely used as IE and Firefox?

Safari & Opera are two others that spring to mind, are there any more I should consider?

Should I just aim towards those main 5 browsers?

Cheers
WW

[pippin62]

If you look at usage stats you can see how popular each browser is.
Here for example
But it would depend on the user requirements for an individual site. However in my experience the perennial problem is only with IE - and version 6 in particular.

[bocaj]

I test in IE6, IE7, IE8, Safari, Chrome, FF2, FF3 and opera.

FF2 has some quirky bugs, specifically when using z-index in conjunction with floats.

Safari and chrome generally need some extra clears that aren't necessary in other browsers.

My forms never look right in opera initially :/

And IE just gives me headaches ):

[Excite Template]

Below are the list of browsers which i had came across, there might be more than this but compatibility with first 3 is sufficient. Now a days the ratio of using browser for INTERNET EXPLORER and Mozilla Firefox is same as comparatively rather than other browsers.

1. INTERNET EXPLORER : IE6, IE7, IE8
2. Mozilla Firefox 3.0
3. Chrome
4. Netscape Navigator
5. Safari
6. Opera (Mobile browsing)


Cheers!!!
Excite Template

[MolotovRuss]

bocaj, on 17 August 2009 - 03:36 PM, said:

I test in IE6, IE7, IE8, Safari, Chrome, FF2, FF3 and opera.

FF2 has some quirky bugs, specifically when using z-index in conjunction with floats.

Safari and chrome generally need some extra clears that aren't necessary in other browsers.

My forms never look right in opera initially :/

And IE just gives me headaches ):

There's your perfect guide!

Bocaj do you test FF2 in a virtual machine?

[Faevilangel]

www.browsershots.org - you can open your website is any web browser, and you can change the screen size etc

it's a handy tool for any web designer without having every web browser installed

[Thomas Thomassen]

Firefox doesn't need virtual machine. Just download the portable version and it'll happily live on your computer without interfering with your main FF profile. In fact - put a copy on an USB stick and you got a portable debugging stick.

[ysuran]

pippin62, on 17 August 2009 - 03:28 PM, said:

If you look at usage stats you can see how popular each browser is.
Here for example
But it would depend on the user requirements for an individual site. However in my experience the perennial problem is only with IE - and version 6 in particular.

i much prefer these stats

http://www.w3schools...wsers_stats.asp

Bocaj is spot on with his list of browsers though

[Thomas Thomassen]

It's more accurate to talk about layout engines:
Trident (IE)
Gecko
web-kit
Opera
...

Many "browsers" uses these layout engines - and act merely as a UI shell.

Also - remember to test mobile devices. The usage of accessing the internet from your mobile phone is ever increasing.

[bocaj]

Thomas Thomassen, on 18 August 2009 - 01:30 PM, said:

It's more accurate to talk about layout engines:
Trident (IE)
Gecko
web-kit
Opera
...

Many "browsers" uses these layout engines - and act merely as a UI shell.

Also - remember to test mobile devices. The usage of accessing the internet from your mobile phone is ever increasing.

So true, but bare in mind that their are still minor differences. I've had bugs in safari that i didn't get in chrome, and they're both web-kit (most likely due to the web-kit build version being used, than the actual browser).

Quote

Bocaj do you test FF2 in a virtual machine?

I use xenoncode, so yeah virtualisation. But i've never had a problem with it.

http://www.xenocode.com/browsers/

They have other cool apps. too

http://www.xenocode.com/

But for some reason, their plugin no longer works with chrome