What browsers to you test your website with?

[MichaelCorfman]

There are a number of different web browsers in use today. Looking at Google Analytics data for the GPWA website, the break down is as follows:

Firefox: 46.9%
Internet Explorer: 44.0%
Chrome: 4.2%
Safari: 2.8%
Opera: 1.7%

After these five the number of users drops off dramatically, with all sorts of others like Mozilla (0.18%), SeaMonkey (0.04%) and Blackberry9000 (0.03%).

Not all web browsers work exactly alike, and so a page that renders well using one browser might not render as well using another browser. For a webmaster, this means adopting an approach of either not caring much about whether your site works well under all browsers, or testing you site with several different browsers.

For today's poll I thought I would ask which browsers you use to test your site. And besides answering the poll, I invite you to post your thoughts on testing, and your experiences about testing with different browsers.

Michael

[Nandakishore]

I generally test my website using both IE8 and FF, only lately I am having some problem with FF. So currently I am testing using IE8 only.

[Anthony]

It is interesting to see the majority here use FF, when the overall majority of web surfers use IE.


I use FF and IE8.

[universal4]

I haven't voted yet since I test my sites with most browsers available.

I start with IE7, then FF, and Safari as well as Opera on Windows XP.

I then test with IE on Windows XP.

I then test with IE and FF on Windows Vista.

I then get on a MAC and check again with FF and Safari.

If I have only one vote to count I will choose IE since I predominantly start there, and ten test compatibility on the others.

Rick
Universal4

[CityGuard]

The poll was initially mistakenly posted as a single-choice vote. It is now reposted to allow multiple selections. The 6 votes that were made when it was single-choice have been retained (3 for Internet Explorer, 1 for Safara, 1 for Chrome) with the initial participants able to add selections if they test in more browsers than was initially indicated.

[Chips]

How about an "All of the Above" box? I test with all of them and when i feel up to it, go to my desktop PC and test with XP. So many times the view will be different from OS to OS and browsers to browser.

[GamTrak]

I use the following:

Firefox
Internet Explorer
Safari

[LiveCasinoPartners]

You have to test also with the different versions of IE. I've got about 50% IE7, and the rest between IE8 and IE6.

You would be surprised at how differently your site will look in the different versions of IE. Especially the CSS driven sites, or those with ANY type of flash.

Other than that, I've found that firefox and Safari are the most forgiving.

Now when I design a site I use less CSS based orientations than before due to the incompatibility issues. I don't like it, but I use tables to align and orientate content. CSS just doesn't work across all versions of IE.

At least that's what my experience has been.

[TheGooner]

Top 3 browsers only ... specifically IE V8, Firefox, Chrome.

I find that if the pages are good for these three then they will pass muster across the range.

[abscident]

I test with Firefox, IE7 and IE8.

[Doolally]

Mainly just IE (8 these days) and Firefox. I may log into Chrome, etc, every once in a while just to check that the sites look ok but don't make a point of doing it.