Web Browsers - Internet Exporer, Firefox & Opera

A web browser is a software program used to view and interact with various types of internet resources available on the World Wide Web. Internet Explorer is the most popular web browser as it is installed as the default browser on any system where Windows is the operating system.

Approximately 90% of people use Internet Explorer as their default web browser, meaning 10% of your possible visitors are using something different. Typical examples of other popular web browsers are Firefox and Opera. Each browser has advantages and disadvantages and more importantly, display web pages in a different manner.

Firefox and Opera have paved the way and forced Internet Explorer to improve the way in which it renders web pages. 'Rendering' is the process of turning the html code the designer creates into something visible on a users screen. Firefox is especially popular with web developers as there are a number of add-ons which when used in conjunction with the browser, provide an intuitive and more 'developer' based environment.

When designing a website, we have to take into consideration the differences between these web browsers and ensure that your website does not just look good within Internet Explorer, but does so across all of them. Before your website 'goes live', testing across these web browsers is carried out, ensuring a fully functional website for your business.