The Web We Weave

It’s been a while since I last made an entry here. Since then I have had some experience with Vista. It is appealing to the eye. But I do have to ask, “Why did I have to confirm 3 times to rename a file?” Seriously, I tried to rename a file and was prompted with three different confirmation dialogs. I think that is a little extreme. I realize that Windows is against some real nasty hackers out there, but still. Anyway, I still advise waiting a little while before you jump into Vista.

In other MS news, they are nearing release of Internet Explorer 8.0. For users, it shouldn’t be much of a change. For developers, we are supposedly going to get an Internet Explorer that conforms to the standards. I’ll believe it when I see it. Microsoft has way too much invested in proprietary technology and way too many customers using that technology to abandon it. Time will tell.

I’ll try to write again in a few days. Thanks for reading!

I use Firefox as my primary web browser. Occasionally, I’ll get to a web site that only works with Internet Explorer. Much more frequently, I’ll find a site that doesn’t quite look like what the author intended when viewed with Firefox, but looks great viewed by Internet Explorer. Often in my own development, I’ll see differences in the web sites I design between the various web browsers. This is frustrating to me, and I understand why it happens.

So, why does it happen? There is a defined standard, established by the World Wide Web Coalition, the W3C, to attempt to  alleviate these differences. However, the standards aren’t quite complete, technology and ideas are growing at a rampant pace, and there are some software companies that want every person in the world exclusively using their software.

I used to be that about 95% of computers connected to the internet used Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Now there is much more diversity, and that diversity continues to grow. Firefox now has 30% - 35% of the browser market and Safari (Apple’s browser for the Mac) has around 12%. In just a few years, Internet Explorer has gone from a 95% market share to just over 50%! What that means for web designers is we have to make sure the sites we design look identical across these multiple browsers. That’s not an easy task.

Every site I design, I constantly view it in both Firefox and Internet Explorer, so I can see when something goes wrong and can normally resolve the issue pretty quickly. So, use your favorite browser as you browse the web, but beware, there are some sites that still require that browser from Microsoft!

Hi, and welcome to the Treyton Web Works blog. I am Ron Hodgin, President of Treyton Web Works, a web design and development company located in Roxboro, NC, and serving the Raleigh, Durham, Roxboro, Yanceyville, Oxford, Danville and South Boston areas. This blog will serve as my means of communicating concepts, ideas and observations involving using the internet as a business tool. I hope you will come back often to read what I have to say. And of course, contact us any time to see how we can help your business through internet development or other computer technology!