usually, i test my web with two brower Internet Exploer, and Firefox.

How about you?

I usually just use IE, although every once in a while I use Firefox just to make sure it looks right.

I always use IE as it has so many bugs and issues, so if you get it right in IE it normally works fine in FF, but only if you know the bugs and issues.

85% to 95% of my users are IE users, so until that changes IE will always be my main target.

Using JUST IE is foolish.. it's SO bad.
I design everything to work correctly in Firefox and Opera, then I go back and kick IE in the a** until it's right there too. Saves a LOT of hair tearing......

Agree with Lady...

For PC users , page must be checked in FF and Opera..and of course IE.

Sometimes, You have to hack code, until all looks fine in all of three browsers.

Foolish? not when 93% are using IE, its foolish to use opera and FF.

So I disagree, I design in IE with knowledge of most of the bugs (and yes there are lots), and i admit most of the bugs are with IE, as most of the bugs are with IE that is why I design first in IE.


Having said that its pritty much exactly the same, either way you end up testing in both.

It makes me laugh that now firefox is on the table people are ignoring IE, check your logs see how many firefox users look at your site, you may be surprised on how few they are. The company I work for has over 10,000 hits a day and most days

93% are IE
4.74% are firefox
0.89% Safari
0.25% are opera
0.08% netscape

So don't tell me you must check it in Opera on a pc when only 0.25% of users are using Opera.

So you may prefer FF but you end users might not.

If you are ignoring the standards-compliant browsers you are asking for trouble. IE's market share is now down around 83%. I choose to look to the future and code as closely to the standards as I can and that means coding for and testing using a standards-compliant browser..which IE6 is a long way from.

Ignoring the REST of the world is just short-sighted. I do not believe that IE will always have a death-grip on the browser market

Just a few thoughts :

Statisitcs are misleading, it depends on the subject of the site. For example, a site about Macintosh or Linux won't have as many IE visitors.

Don't forget many browsers are capable of spoofing and some search engine robots spoof as MSIE.

There are 100s of millions of web users so even a small percentage is a significant number of people that could end up being lost potential custom.

Ten years ago Netscape had an 80% market share and with many more browsers now on the scene who knows what the situation will be a year from now?

We should never knowingly deny access to content and features just because of a user's choice of user agent.

PS - most useful browser for testing a site = Lynx ( IMHO )

Well said ElectricSheep

I tried to get Lynx once, something prevented me. Anyway, I use the developer extensions in FF and turn off css and images, so all I see is text-only. I also use the Fangs extension.

LadynRed you can try the Firefox extension YellowPipe Lynx Viewer. I've never actually used Lynx so I can't say how well it compares to the real version.

Electric Sheep you're exactly right. My own site being on the high tech side of things seems to get equal amounts of IE and FF users each month.

As for how I test. I develop in Firefox and check both IE and Opera as I go. In the end I'll make sure things work best in IE if I have to pick one since it's the likely browser visiting a site, though not necessarily.

I'm usually just checking the latest versions since I think FF and Opera users are generally good about updating regularly, though in truth I should check on more versions. Pretty soon I'll be hoping I can have both versions 6 and 7 of IE installed on one computer to test in both. If I have to I'll use two computers to check, but one would be much easier.

I don't have a Mac at the moment or easy access to one, but I'll use one of the online services to get a screen shot of how a site looks in Safari and hope it looks good since going back and forth between the code and a screen shot isn't the best way to test. In time I'll add a Mac to my network. Maybe my next laptop will be a Mac that also runs Windows.

It's best to test on as many different browsers and OSs as you can, but that's usually not too realistic. I find if you write valid standards compliant code it renders well on many broswers and then just a few tweaks for those that aren't standards compliant (that would be IE) will get you pretty far and cover most of the visitors that will come to your site.

I test with both IE and Firefox since 90% of my visitors use IE and the other 10% including myself use FF

Opera is very much wwebmaster friendly browser, I use IE, Firefox, Opera for testing.

#electric sheet, yes ten years ago everyone used netscape, and 10 years ago I made sure it worked in netscape first then IE. Ten years ago I had a test bench cus I worked for a Financial company, so lucky enough to have most os, with most of the popular browsers, so I tested to make it work in all.

#lady - I didnt say I was ignoring anyone, and all of my designs are complient.

Now the fact is for my audience almost all of them use IE, would be madness to target firefox as the main browser or opra. When I get 280000 ie visitors and say 500 opra visitors in a mth, then its a no brainer in my opinion which gets priority.

Now I don't have a test bench, but for those who dont have mac or linux or pc, and dont have all the browsers I use a service called browser cam. It basically does all that for you so you can see a real screenshot of what your design does on each platform using firefox, konqueror, mozilla, opera, safari, netscape, camino, and IE. You can test it for free BrowserCam : BrowserCam usability, cross-platform testing, and remote access

So I still put in all the hard work, all I`m saying is business logic says for my site to target IE as my main browser.

For your site it may be different, but it appears that advertising agencies in the uk still use IE.

IE, FF & Opera.
Make check in opera just because I'm using it as my default browser

i test in IE, FF and my frens test my sites in opera , safari

do test in safari its major browser used my MAC users.

slow down...

This is the point:

Page must looks fine in all of three browsers (IE, FF and Opera). Why?

Because You , as webdesigner, made this page and in Your interest is that all works fine.

It doesn't matter how many people use IE or FF or Opera. How Your page is looking is the most important, and You don't know this until You check in all of three browsers ( for PC...).

Originally Posted by gomx80

usually, i test my web with two brower Internet Exploer, and Firefox.

How about you?

95% users uses IExplorer , no matter that a new religion called Mozilla tells something different

If you page shows fine in IE, then you can fell comfortable.

I'm not sure where you're getting your stats from, but Firefox has about 10% of the international market and it's more like 15% in the United States. That's pretty significant. IE is down to just over 80% of the global market. Still the majority of users, but it really can vary from site to site.

For most technical sites the stats are much closer. For awhile now I find that on my own site it's a pretty close split. Each usually accounts anywhere between 45% and 50% of my visitors and that's with my own visits taken out of the equation. Some months Firefox has accounted for more and other months it's been IE.

With those numbers you'd be pretty dumb not to make sure your site worked in other browsers. I agree you should probably make sure it works best in IE, but to ignore Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc is telling a lot of people you don't care about their business. And that doesn't make sense and puts you at a competitive disadvantage right from the start.

yeh the ratio depends on the site.
technical sites have very big FF share.( my sites have 50 to 70% )
and entertainment/community sites have big IE ratio.

How do you test in in IE as a mac user? Is there a FF extension that is capable of emulating IE?