Testing New Websites Using Different Browsers

NilsC

Dec 28 2004, 04:02 AM

I was testing a website setup that was working perfect in one browser, when the new version (browser) was installed the site looked like 'trash'.

The second issue is when I get an email complainig that your website don't work in such and such a browser and you wish you had that version to test with.

Here is a link that I found to a repository of old and new browsers. This site include some of the more obscure browsers out there.

So if you ever wish you had a browser to test your site, here is a link: http://browsers.evolt.org/

Nils

arunkumarhg

Dec 28 2004, 04:12 AM

Hi,

Thanks buddy i will visit the site,

Thanks

pbolduc

Dec 28 2004, 08:36 AM

Thanks for the site on browsers. It is good to test your site in several browsers. The link will come in handy.

jcguy

Dec 29 2004, 08:45 AM

Wow, there's a lot of browsers there! But I believe only a few browsers dominate the market. People mostly surf on browsers like IE, Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and so on. The other obscure ones probably only take up some 1% of the market. So no point testing your sites in the other less-known browsers, just test with the more popular ones.

-=Wrighty=-

Dec 29 2004, 09:31 AM

Correct, I think IE, Opera, Mozilla and Firefox take up around 90% of users. With some browsers taking up 2-3% each and then all those obscure brosers take up only 1% on their own. Its hard to tackle as there is so many of them. I guess we may just have to ask other people we know to test out our sites on these browsers and not just ourselves.

Dizasta

Dec 29 2004, 09:58 AM

I am all about accessibility so I make my sites as accessible as possible using css. I try to make the site look identical on the major browsers (where css and css-hacks will allow) beyond that, I think any site visitor who wants to enjoy the benefits of eye-pleasing layouts should download a new and standards compliant browser (like Firefox).

Pampering users of obscure (and more importantly, non-standards-compliant browsers) causes the vendors of those obscure and non-standards-compliant browsers to keep pushing mediocre merchandise .

thanks for the link nonetheless

NilsC

Dec 30 2004, 02:21 PM

I agree, I think most websites should be built to standards, the link was for those who wish they could test with a different browser (including myself).

Stat tidbits:

It's interesting to see how many different browsers are in the log file and how they are identified. In the short time that I have played with website building tracking I'm amased at the inconsistensies.

I looked at one set of statistics from 5 different sources. They all have IE6 in the 60 to 70% range of all browsers. One, an IPP miscounts Opera and Gecko based browsers as "Unknown", the second site (counter) miscounted KHTML- and Gecko-based browsers, USCG (US coast guard) have a large percentage of unknown i.e. not counting Opera and KHTM based browsers correctly. The last site is a narrow target audience and the stats source isn't fully reporting less-common browsers again.

On the other hand you can go to http://www.mywebsite.force9.co.uk/ to see a snapshot of 3 different counters and some stats for 2 days after the counters was reset in November.

Opera seem to identify itself as MSIE, I'm not sure if that is a 'spoofing trick" since I don't use Opera.

Here are some pie charts, Mozilla rules: http://www-k12.atmos.washington.edu/inquisitor/browsers.html

QUOTE

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please: facts are stubborn, but statistics are more pliable" — Mark Twain

ouachiski

Jan 6 2005, 03:31 AM

Lynx is an old text based browser. It is very useful to be compatible with this browser if you plan for your site to be accesed by the visualy impaired. Most of the equipment for reading text on the web out loud is done through the Lynx browser. Another of the lesser known but still fairly comon browser's is the Off-by-One browser. It is an ultra light weight and extreemly fast web browser. It is very usefull if you are on a slow dial up conection.

AlienBreed

Jan 21 2005, 08:40 AM

that was a huge browser list. never heard some of those before. lol.. nice link by the way!

Coach

Apr 28 2005, 02:47 AM

Great information, just what we need to test our website projects on quite a lot of browsers.

Thank you very much NilsC.

Interesting statistic at http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Browser Statistics Month by Month
2005 IE 6 IE 5 O 7/8 Ffox Moz NN 4 NN 7
April 62.3% 3.4% 1.9% 23.9% 3.5% 0.2% 0.9%
March 63.8% 3.9% 1.8% 21.8% 3.7% 0.2% 1.0%
Feb 64.8% 4.2% 1.9% 20.4% 3.9% 0.2% 1.1%
Jan 65.3% 4.4% 2.1% 19.3% 4.0% 0.3% 1.1%

Look the growth of Ffox that just begun this year and got close to 24% in April

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rhodesian.dragon

May 25 2005, 12:35 AM

Thanks for the link it will come in handy the next time I need to test a site.... BUT the other problem with this is that you will also need to test your site on both a PC and MAC. This is because you can have the same type and version of a browser but the site will still look different on a PC as it would on a MAC.

I just wished that HTML would become standard so that it would be the same not matter what browser or platform you are using. BUT unfortunately each browser uses some "special" HTML coding so that is why WebPages look and act differently using different browser type or even version.
user posted image

moonwitch

May 23 2005, 12:18 PM

QUOTE(ouachiski @ Jan 6 2005, 04:31 AM)

Actually Lynx and Links are not that old LOL they still are develloped and standard on *nix systems. I actually use lynx fairly often

If I run into ANY problem, I can get a floppy with unix on it (they do have em) and use lynx to search the net for solutions.

Or most servers with *nix on it only have command line

Which also includes Lynx mostly. I even use the text based email client, IRC client even

and the mp3 player text based LOL.. Emacs games etc etc.

I was amazed to see so many browsers and the fact that I do know a lot of them

that was scarey when I come to think about it.

If you want your site to be compatible with speech engines etc for the visually impaired then you're best off using a CSS file for it (define it with media="something") Ok I've been up for almost 4 days non stop now, so I have the right to forget things

If you want a site that works with text based and graphical browsers, make seperate stylesheets for it. AND make sure your links work without graphics

you can easily test it.

Alpha six

May 23 2005, 10:47 AM

Firefox is also supported by linux.

I've got an link to a page where u can download old versions of IE for testings: http://www.skyzyx.com/downloads/.
'ave fun!

DanManIt

May 16 2005, 09:14 PM

Yeah, Firefox is becoming really popular for people who don't like Internet Explorer. And NilsC thanks for that site, it is really useful.

hazeshow

May 16 2005, 08:25 PM

QUOTE(m3ch4 @ Apr 29 2005, 07:15 PM)

It doesn't seem to smart to have a couple hundred different browsers that all read html in different ways, there has to some form of standardization, otherwise the internet would become impossible to use.

Somehow it's the same thing with any spoken language. There is only one ENGLISH, but it sounds different in ireland than it does in Canada. But it's still english. Even if it's difficult sometimes, all english native speakers will understand each other. And I guess EVERY browser will speak HTML ....
... hopefully

Testing New Websites Using Different Browsers - Did you wish you had an older browser?

Testing New Websites Using Different Browsers - Did you wish you had an older browser?

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