As a web designer, you would think that the major Internet browsers would’ve come to some sort of agreement on standards and best practices after all this time. In reality, browser compatibility is a minefield of confusing conflicts and picky platforms that refuse to play nice with each other. Here are some useful tools and tips for riding out the waves:
Tip: Create a profile of your target audience.
You could easily spend hours optimizing your pages for every browser from the first iteration of Mozilla forward. At some point you have to ask yourself, who is using this?
Does your website cater to contractors and DIY homeowners who may use their cell phone for texting, but are more comfortable surfing the net on a PC? Are you trying to reach C-level execs who have their iPhone surgically attached to their hand?
Think about their native technology environment, and prioritize your compatibility efforts based on the technology your audience prefers. The idea is to shape your message to their medium, or browser in this case.
Tip: Do not guess about what your audience is using.
Research and prioritize intelligently, and be prepared to back up your decisions with facts. Everyone loves seeing statistics.
Let’s say your client or your boss asks you to make the website compatible with their pet platform. You need something more compelling than, “Your browser is out of date; you should upgrade.” Let them know you mean business. “Your browser currently represents .5% of global browser users,” carries the weight of authority. And you can back it up.
Fun W3Schools Usage Statistics as of November 2009:
95% of browsers have JavaScript enabled
90% use Windows family operating systems
62% use Windows XP
Tool: W3Schools – Browser Share Statistics
W3Schools has the latest numbers for browser share past and current. They offer a monthly breakdown of the most popular browser platforms, including which versions garner the lion’s share of users. Firefox and IE ( versions 6, 7, and 8 ) are the most common browsers. At the back of the pack, Google Chrome has captured 8.5 percent, with Safari holding 3.8 percent. These statistics are extracted from W3Schools’ log-files, but W3Schools monitors other sources around the Internet to assure the quality of these figures.
W3Schools – Browser Share Statistics
Tool: W3Schools – Browser Display Statistics
This breakdown will show you what screen size visitors will most likely use to view your website. You can also see how colors will be viewed on your site.
Surprising, most computers are using a screen size of 1024×768 pixels or more, with a color depth of at least 65K colors. Remember the old standby screen size of 800×600? Only 4 percent of visitors actually use that setting!
Keep in mind, this data comes from W3Schools, a website catering to web technology hounds. Definitely a tech-savvy audience there. Your mileage may vary.
W3Schools – Browser Display Statistics
Tip: Website audiences are unique.
Global averages are helpful, but the important thing is how your users see your site. Website audiences are unique as a fingerprint. Some web site users favor the latest technology, while others have grudgingly accepted email as a universal form of communication. Dig into your website analytics to find out what technology your visitors use to access your website.
“First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure,” – Mark Twain.
Tool: Google Analytics – Browser Capabilities
Google has a fantastic (and free!) tool to analyze your own Browser statistics. From your dashboard, select Visitors > Browser Capabilities to access this tool. You can view by Browser alone, or look at the OS driving the browser technology.
This Analytics section provides very detailed information about your visitors. You can view typical screen resolutions, screen colors, operating systems, and so much more.
Wondering how your latest Flash creation or JavaScript app will play with your audience? You can see which version of Flash your visitors are using, and how many have JavaScript enabled.
Another useful feature of Analytics enables you to look at visits, time spent on site, new visits and bounce rates for these various browser segments. You can also view goals and conversions for each type of browser, OS, and screen resolution. See how these technologies affect your goals for the site.
Google Analytics
Tip: Do not idolize statistics.
In the immortal words of Oscar Wilde, “The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
Keep in mind, many statistics may have incomplete or faulty browser detection. It is quite common by many web-stats report programs not to detect the newest browsers.
Also, if you find that a small segment of your traffic is extremely active or spending a lot of money on your site, you may want to optimize for them. Even if they’re a small part of the overall pie, they could be crucial to the success of your site.
“You cannot – as a web developer – rely only on statistics. Statistics can often be misleading.” – W3Schools
About the Author
Jessica Cox explores the far reaches of the Internet, researching the latest marketing, web design and development techniques for Aqua Vita Creative. Sign up for our newsletter for more news, tips and updates. @jessicafcox
Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, Tips, Tools
Posted by Silverlight Show on Jan 5, 2010 in
- Miscelleneous |
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Mosaically allows you to create, share, and print your own 100+ megapixel deep zoom photo mosaics online and on Facebook. It uses Silverlight to utilize your computer's processing power to produce your deep zoom photo mosaics quickly and efficiently. Visit
http://www.mosaically.com/ Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging
Posted by Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal on Jan 5, 2010 in
- General,
- Technology News,
CLoud Computing |
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During the first quarter of 2010, the Navy is expected to make the first selection for the Consolidated Afloat Network Enterprise System (CANES). CANES is just one component of the Navy’s overall strategy for its future information technology infrastructure. According to Vice Admiral Harry B. Harris, deputy chief of naval operations for communications networks and deputy chief information officer, CANES will provide 75,000 seats on 192 ships and submarines and at nine maritime operation centers across the fleet.
read more
Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging
Posted by Latest News from Cloud Computing Journal on Jan 5, 2010 in
- General,
- Technology News,
CLoud Computing |
View Original Article
Today’s CIO organizations face a complex array of challenges in managing the Business Platform (the group of applications and services that implement the Business Value Chain (BVC)). The business expects technology innovation as a business differentiator, demands application portfolio stability, requires change requests to be handled promptly, experiences growth rates that are often unpredictable and exponential, and exerts continuous pressure to reduce product time to market. Complicating this, these challenges are being made to IT with reduced investment support from the business. At the same time, the very business model of IT is changing—how applications, content, information, and infrastructure are delivered.
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Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging
Posted by David Marshall on Jan 5, 2010 in
- Virtualization |
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ScaleMP™, a leading provider of virtualization solutions for high-end computing, today announced it quadrupled vSMP Foundation aggregation platform...
Read more at VMblog.com.
Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, General News
Posted by 4GuysFromRolla.com Headlines on Jan 5, 2010 in
- Dotnet |
View Original Article
The GridView, FormView, and DetailsView controls all contain built-in paging functionality. By setting a few properties, it's possible to have any of these controls automatically
include a paging interface. The ListView, however, does not include built-in paging functionality. Instead, Microsoft decoupled the paging logic from the ListView and moved it
into a separate Web control - the DataPager. Paging Through Data with the ListView and DataPager Controls,
an earlier article in this series, explored how to use the DataPager to implement a paging interface for the ListView.
By default, the DataPager renders Buttons, LinkButtons, or ImageButtons in the paging interface for the Next, Previous, First, Last, and numeric page number buttons. When clicked,
these buttons cause a postback, at which point the appropriate set of records are bound to the ListView. Unfortunately, search engines cannot crawl a site using postbacks; instead,
they rely on links they find on your site. Consequently, a search engine will only index the first page of data displayed by a ListView, because it cannot reach the
subsequent pages. Also, users cannot bookmark a particular page of data.
The good news is that it is quite easy to modify the DataPager's default behavior. This article shows how to configure the DataPager to use hyperlinks and the querystring to
page through a ListView's data (rather than postbacks) to create an SEO-friendly paging interface. Read on to learn more!
Read More >
Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging
Posted by Mehul Harry (Developer Express) on Jan 5, 2010 in
- Dotnet,
ASP.Net |
View Original Article Check out this video interview with the EdgeRater creator, Chris White. Chris has a passion for the stock market. So he quit his day job at Microsoft, put his head down and developed EdgeRater.
EdgeRater is a stock market backtesting and scanning application that gives you an edge with chart analysis, customization and tons of detail. Chris’ passion, focus, and hard work drove him to implement this fantastic tool.
Click the image below and watch the Chris White PDC video interview:
In the video, Chris demos EdgeRater and describes how he used the DevExpress tools to save time and create a great user interface.
To learn more about EdgeRater, visit: http://www.edgerater.com/
After watching the video, please be sure to leave some feedback for Chris and his EdgeRater application. Thanks Chris!
DXperience? What's That?
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Tags: - Virtualization, Application Packaging, Case Study, DXperience, Interview, PDC 2009, screencast, Video