Internet Explorer is probably the worst browser out there among commonly used browsers. By commonly used browser I mean the following :
- Internet Explorer 7
- Internet Explorer 6
- Firefox 2
- Safari
Of course there are other rogue browsers that are rarely used, like Camino, Netscape, and some other nameless ones that most people do not know about, but the above 4 are the most frequently used browsers in the world right now.
Among all of them, Internet Explorer has, perhaps, the worst parsing and display system. It has problems with displaying PNGs (alpha layers will show as a weird light blue) while the CSS parsing as well as certain Javascript command handling are limited. Also the security vulnerabilities are not very nice either. Oh, did I mention, IE6 is the only one among the above list that does NOT support tabbed browsing? That means that if you wanted to have multiple web pages open while you navigate the World Wide Web, you need multiple windows open.
Many people still use IE6 because they are simply unaware of what is available to them – either switch to Firefox, or use Internet Explorer 7. Compared to IE6, the two browsers I recommend have far better parsing, security, and usability, with less errors.
Now let’s think about this from the industry perspective. Web development becomes more time consuming if IE6 compatibility is demanded, and that means higher production costs for websites, as well as bigger headaches for web developers like myself. The faster IE6 is phased out of common use, the more efficient our industry will be as a whole. Money will be saved, and time as well.
In an effort to convert more people to use Firefox or Internet Explorer 7, I have put a little addition on my company website for Synchronous Design & Marketing (www.synchronous.ca). If the website detects that it is opened by IE6 (or God forbid, lower than that), it will show a black box in the top space which is normally blank, and ask people to upgrade their browsers, since the one they have are outdated. Check out the following screenshot.
