Check your website on other browsers

If you’re only checking your website in the web browser you use, others may not be seeing the site how you intend them to. After all, chances are pretty low that everyone looking at your site is using the same browser you are.

Here at T&S Web Design, we test on several browsers on Macs and several on Windows. Here’s the breakdown, along with the percentage of usage from w3schools.com, taken June 2008. Obviously the percentages will not be exactly the same on your site, but they shouldn’t be too far off. (Note that Firefox, Safari and Opera have the same percentage on both Mac and Windows, because w3schools.com does not differentiate between operating systems)

• Firefox – Win & Mac – 41.0%
• Internet Explorer 7 – Win – 27.0%
• Internet Explorer 6 – Win – 26.5%
• Safari – Win & Mac – 2.6%
• Opera – Win & Mac – 1.7%

Of course, the best way to check in both Windows and Mac’s OSX is to have a Mac and a Windows computer. Barring that, another viable solution is Browsershots.org. There are tons of browsers available across four different operating systems. Note that they have Opera on Windows, not Mac, but it shouldn’t make a difference.