Internet Explorer IE8 Doom or Joy by Jim Degerstrom
For the benefit of small business website owners, I continue tracking 2008 developments over the pending release of the new IE8 browser, or Internet Explorer 8, from Microsoft. It could spell doom or joy depending on your perspective and the quality of your existing small business website design.
My advice is beware of doomsayers over the release of Microsoft’s updated browser Internet Explorer 8, IE8, due later this year. I wrote an article with a review of IE7 for small business owners the day it was released in October 2006 to dispel some of the earliest myths.
The IE7 rendering, security, and enhanced support of CSS were welcomed features, and I encouraged readers back then to upgrade to IE7. The most serious myth in 2006 was that IE7 was mandatory for XP users when in fact Microsoft provided a control panel option to rollback to IE6.
For experienced web developers who design websites to world standards per W3C, the ongoing complaint has been Microsoft’s insistance that new browsers feature full backward compatibility to their older versions, and as such full compliance to code standards was impractical.
Preliminary reports from Microsoft in December 2007 announcing IE8 continued with the disclaimer of taking exception to world standards in favor of backward compatibility. I decided then it was too early to make comment about decisions that force some web designers to create workarounds in their code to ensure pages display well in all versions of Internet Explorer. A welcomed announcement was made in March 2008.
Referring to interoperability and IE8, Microsoft stated on 3 March 2008 (Source: Microsoft IEBlog):
“We’ve decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we’ve posted previously.”
“Long term, we believe this is the right thing for the web. Shorter term, leading up not just to IE8’s release but broader IE8 adoption, this choice creates a clear call to action to site developers to make sure their web content works well in IE.”
The reaction to the pending Microsoft IE8 release from the web development community has been very positive immediately following the announced change in Microsoft strategy. For small business website owners, the level of joy may depend on the quality of the html or xhtml code used to create their website. For many a quick test of quality is as simple as visiting their home page, right clicking anywhere, and then selecting view source.
The first line of code to create your website should be a DOCTYPE statement (yes, all CAPS). If not, my advice is visiting the W3C site and searching for DOCTYPE and adding the correct one to each page of your site. The statement in effect tells browsers which code standard was used to create that site, and if it’s missing your visitor’s browser is more likely to render your site with questionable results.
In the past professional web developers were forced to adopt code workarounds in an attempt to assure backward compatibility so sites display well in all browsers. If a friend or relative created your small business website, they may not be aware of design strategies to avoid the ubiquitous “best viewed in (insert browser)” disclaimer. The best sites will display well in any browser.
Cross browser compatibility testing is something I encourage all small business website owners to consider. The major browsers are each free to download, so with the advancing market share growth of non-IE browsers, it makes sense to have your site tested in all. In addition, there are online resources for testing the actual display of your site in older versions of browsers, too. Use Google searching for “BrowserShots” to access a free online resource for testing your site in more than 50 browsers, current and old, including Mac.
Unless you track visitors to your small business website, you may not know which browsers are most often used to view your pages. From experience, the majority of visitors are split between IE6 or IE7 and the latest version of FireFox by Mozilla. Add IE8 sometime in 2008 and the concerns about backward compatibility to IE5 or earlier may become insignificant.
In testing in BrowserShots you may be shocked to see that your website fell apart in older browsers, and the display in no way resembles your intent. It probably does not matter as the percentage of those visitors is extremely low and rare, so the cost to fix a site to make it backward compatible to IE5 or older standards is impractical and probably unnecessary.
If your site is not cross browser compatible to the latest version of the major browsers, action may be warranted. If there are display problems and you need to budget an upgrade, it may be time to consider a redesign to xhtml with css. The xhtml with css is a forward looking website design strategy which is the recommendation of the the worldwide body for website code standards, W3C, or Worldwide Web Consortium.
In conclusion, the future for web development and the proper display of websites to worldwide standards took a giant leap forward with the stategy announced in March 2008 by Microsoft for IE8. For small business website owners who choose designs to the latest standards, the result should be joy and not doom.
Article Source: http://www.jimdegerstrom.com/internet-explorer-ie8-doom-or-joy.html.
About the Author: Jim Degerstrom writes small business advice based on 30 years in management, sales, and marketing, including GM or President of small companies in 5 states. He is proficient in web design and cms websites, and offers web design and graphics advice on his blog from Kissimmee, Florida USA.
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