Tecture LLC

This is much harder than it may seem.

When I started in this industry back in 1996, there were only two browsers I was concerned with: Netscape (78%) and Internet Explorer (15%). I was occasionally concerned with AOL simply because my CEO used it, and if he couldn't see our website in all its glory, he was very unhappy. I was primarily concerned with Windows, because it absolutely dominated the Mac at that time (much to my chagrin).

Today, the browser/platform landscape has changed considerably, and for several reasons.

Mac market share is exploding. Today, Apple's market share is over 10%, and growing. Apple's Safari web browser is installed on every Mac that ships.

Apple dominates the mobile market with its iPhone (and iPad), and mobile internet usage has exploded due to its excellent Safari web browser.

Microsoft continues to improve its Internet Explorer, but sadly will not make IE 6 obsolete. IE 6 renders HTML in a very different way than more modern browsers, and it takes a tremendous amount of time to craft HTML and CSS that will work both on modern browsers and IE 6. Microsoft would do web designers a huge favor by forcing users to upgrade to a more recent version of IE.

Firefox took over where Netscape left off, and we have to give it credit for being the first to take on IE's domination.

Why does Google need a web browser, too? I don't understand the need for this product. However, it is now my primary web browser. It's by far the fastest browser on my computer.

Each browser and version may render HTML and CSS slightly differently. The web developer's job is to make a website look perfect no matter what platform and browser version it is viewed on. Given all of these web browsers, and given the fact that each has multiple versions circulating, a web developer's job can be very difficult!

Fortunately, several of these browsers are all built using the same rendering engine (WebKit), which means that they will usually render in a fairly similar and consistent manner.

If you hire a web design firm to build a website for you, you bet it matters! The cost of ensuring consistent rendering on all browsers, versions and platforms increases with each new version release. The HTML development and testing stage of projects we work on is taking longer than ever, and this directly impacts the cost of building websites for our clients.

Well, things are not getting any simpler.

Today, we are keeping track of more and more browsers and versions, and our browser QA "lab" keeps growing in size. Further, there are a few new developments in browser technology that will have an impact on the industry in the coming years.

IE 9 and Firefox are in beta and on the horizon. I'm sure each will have rendering quirks we'll need to consider.

Google's Android platform in gaining ground, and Apple's iPhone has taken off. Web developers need to optimize websites for viewing on mobile devices with some special tags. Some of the special mobile web development considerations include screen orientation, phone numbers (for phone call integration), and support for gestures on touch-screen interfaces.

Many web developers are now creating native mobile versions of websites. So, instead of simply building a website and testing and optimizing it for mobile browsers, developers may recommend creating completely separate mobile sites.

The current version of HTML is becoming obsolete. HTML 5 is already supported on Firefox, Safari, and Chrome, and will be supported on the upcoming IE 9. HTML 5 has many new features which will dramatically impact how websites are coded. For the foreseeable future, developers will need to create HTML 4 and HTML 5 versions of sites. Only after all current versions of IE have become obsolete can developers transition over completely to HTML 5.