Are you cross-browser compatible?

Written by Matt Benya


The question of cross browser compatibility is a common topic among Web developers. Should you or should you not make your website cross-browser accommodating? The answer is yes and especially if you are an e-business. As Ripley would say, "believe it or not" but atrepparttar time of this article slightly more than 20% of Internet users use a browser other than IE. This information comes from W3Schools.com, which has been keeping tabs on browser usage since January 2002.

How do you shape up?

Use of alternative browsers has only been going up, they are no longer a niche community made up of "techies" and anti-Microsoft advocates, they are your everyday user, your potential customers.

If you haven't done so already I would suggest that you look at your website in some ofrepparttar 132545 other common browsers available. These include:

Mozilla: This is currentlyrepparttar 132546 top browser after IE6 and it is one ofrepparttar 132547 most feature rich browsers available today. I would personally suggest looking into Firefox Mozilla's next generation browser as apposed torepparttar 132548 entire Mozilla suite due to its end users friendliness and feature rich environment.

Opera: The Opera browser has been making its way uprepparttar 132549 competitive ladder ofrepparttar 132550 browser arena since 2000 when Opera Software ASA released Opera 5. Though it is free to download and use if you want to access some ofrepparttar 132551 browser's features you are required to pay a small registration fee.

Netscape: Since Netscape providedrepparttar 132552 code base for Mozilla in 1998 when they maderepparttar 132553 source code for their flag ship product Netscape Communicator open-source there is little difference betweenrepparttar 132554 two browsers. Still it never hurts to see how things shape up betweenrepparttar 132555 two, and since they are ultimately two different browsers checking with them both is not a bad idea.

Additionally there are programs available that can test your site for you in different browsers and screen resolutions and return their findings. One such program is Browser Photo from NetMechanic.

What can you do?

Okay so lets say that our site www.ihaveanerror.com comes up with a couple of errors that cause it to render incorrectly when we look at it in some ofrepparttar 132556 alternative browsers. How are we going to fixrepparttar 132557 problem? Wellrepparttar 132558 first thing we want to do is stay away from any propriety tags a certain browser type might offer. These tags will only work properly inrepparttar 132559 browser they are designed for and may cause trouble for you in others. An example of a proprietary tag would be <marquee> in Internet Explorer.

Part II - Planning A Website

Written by Regina Stevens


This isrepparttar second article I have written about how to plan a website. You can find part 1 at http://keepitsimplewebsites.com/planawebsite.cfm or type in Regina Stevens inrepparttar 132542 Author Name box at http://goarticles.com.

This article is for people who may be thinking about getting a website for their business, but have not done any research to find out if they need one. Below are some ideas to think about before deciding on getting a website:

1) Think long-term before you build or have someone build you a website, you may not need one

2) Keep in mind that if you are selling anything online, you must make plans on how to market your business offline

3) Don't expect your web designer/developer to operate and/or market your product or service for you

4) Think about who will do website maintenance and how often

Think long-term before you build or have someone build you a website, you may not need one Just because "everyone else" has a website does not necessarily mean that you need one. In order to find out if you need a website ask yourself a few questions:

1) Will I save money selling my product or service online? 2) Willrepparttar 132543 shipping fee be higher than my product or service fee? 3) Will people buy this type of product or service online? 4) Am I willing to invest time in making my business work online?

Of course there are many more questions to ask yourself, butrepparttar 132544 above questions should get you started in making decisions on whether or not you actually need a website.

If you feel that your product or service will indeed sell online, go for it! There are millions of potential customers online! The good thing aboutrepparttar 132545 Internet is that you can sell your products or services globally.

Keep in mind that if you are selling products, you must make plans on how to market your business offline Now, althoughrepparttar 132546 Internet is great for maximum exposure of your product or service, you should work on selling your product or service offline in your local area. Sit back and think about a few things you could do. The first thing would be to add your website address to all of your advertisements. Below is a brief list of some ways to advertise:

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