Does your website perform well and look great in Google Chrome and Firefox, but struggle hard in Internet Explorer? If so, then this is the post for you to read between the lines. Actually, web development and web browser compatibility is a matter of serious concern, and it must be tackled very carefully.
Be it a web development company in Gurgaon or any individual developer, taking care of browser compatibility ensures that the particular project they are working on looks identical across all the most popular browsers.
Right from Opera to Internet Explorer which tops the list of 5 most used browsers globally (as per statistics were taken in December 2018), the developers’ community around the globe needs to be extremely vigilant during the development of a website.
The current Market Share for the top 5 browsers is as follows:
- Google Chrome – 57.0%
- Safari – 13.4%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer & Edge – 9.4%
- Mozilla Firefox – 6.9%
- Opera – 3.3%
Cross browser compatibility has always been a key issue that arises particularly when working on an all-new website or custom website application. However, there are a large number of differences in the way all the top web browsers function, and different scripting as well as coding languages they use.
Some of the most prevalent cross-browser compatibility issues include the following:
- Though all web browsers are made to follow W3C standards, they might not necessarily be the same. There are chances of some browsers treating HTML, CSS, and JavaScript differently.
- Other than the basics, any kind of enhancement or deviation from the set W3C standards might be treated in a different manner by different browsers.
- There can also be big differences in the way the graphical properties and various other aspects of a particular website are handled by the OS the browser runs on.
- The resolution of the device’s screen the website is viewed on is what can make a big difference.
Therefore, web development companies in Gurgaon or anywhere else can sort out so many issues related to web browser compatibility during the web development process itself. The easiest possible way to head off issues as such is to work with web professionals who already have in-depth knowledge about all the ins and outs of cross browser compatibility.
What you need to test under browser testing includes the following:
- Page content alignment to center, LHS or RHS
- Page styles
- Date formats
- CSS validation
- HTML or XHTML validation
- Font size validation
- Page layout in different resolutions
- All images and alignment
- Header and footer sections
- Page validations with and without JavaScript enabled
- Ajax and jquery functionality
- Special characters with HTML character encoding
- Page zoom-in and zoom-out functionality
Here’s how you can ensure that your website is ok with all major browsers:
- Download all the major browsers and test your website on each one of them thoroughly.
- If the website seems to face any discomfort with any particular browser, then report the matter to your web development partner.
- To make Cross Browser Testing an easy task, you can take the help of some test tools available online which will minimize the testing efforts.
Even if the developers and designers follow all the set rules. A website might not be 100% compatible with each and every browser out there. However, what matters most is that the website must behave consistently on all major browsers.
Last but not the least important factor in terms of web browser compatibility of your website is the technical grasp of the professionals who work on your project. As this issue involves some very intriguing processes and procedures during the development work. No randomly chosen web development company can live up to your expectations. Therefore, choosing only the one that has already proven its mettle within the realm of the web is strongly recommended.