Tuesday, 2 June 2009
W3C - The Right Web Standards
A website that looks good on the surface, may not have been built in such a
way behind the scenes. If the HTML code has been built poorly or is
out-of-date, it will affect your search engine rankings and could
cause major problems with future Internet browsers.
A good web designer or agency like us, will build a website that complies
with the standards set out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C
are trying to get everyone to build to a set of rules, which will ensure
clean, precise and proper code. This should eventually solve the issues of
websites looking dissimilar in different browsers, as they will all be able
to process the code in the same way.
Search engines will naturally favour websites using the standardised code
and thus rank them higher.
To see if your website validates according to the standards, you can type
the URL of the website into the W3C’s validator. Alternatively, why not give us a call?!
http://validator.w3.org
way behind the scenes. If the HTML code has been built poorly or is
out-of-date, it will affect your search engine rankings and could
cause major problems with future Internet browsers.
A good web designer or agency like us, will build a website that complies
with the standards set out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The W3C
are trying to get everyone to build to a set of rules, which will ensure
clean, precise and proper code. This should eventually solve the issues of
websites looking dissimilar in different browsers, as they will all be able
to process the code in the same way.
Search engines will naturally favour websites using the standardised code
and thus rank them higher.
To see if your website validates according to the standards, you can type
the URL of the website into the W3C’s validator. Alternatively, why not give us a call?!
http://validator.w3.org
Labels: browsers, build, SEO, W3C, web design
Friday, 13 March 2009
Internet Explorer 6 - Why Upgrade?
EC have noticed that 10-20% of our website users are viewing the site on Internet Explorer 6. With Internet Explorer 8 in beta stage (soon to be widely released), and other browsers such as Firefox or Chrome increasing in popularity, are there any benefits to using IE6 and why should you upgrade?
IE6 was originally released in 2001, and therefore in many ways the browser is 8 years out of date. Not only does this have an effect on the speed of browsing the Internet, the look of websites and website compatibility, but there are also major security issues. IE6 is still potentially only able to cope with with virus, malware and other security threats circa 2001-2003, and therefore it does not always have the capacity to deal with the modern, more complex threats that the newer browsers do.
Other criticisms of IE6:
• It does not support new web development technologies so web designers must use workarounds for IE6 to display web pages correctly, costing time and money in the process
• Any new websites not taking IE6 into account, may be displayed incorrectly or not work properly
• It tends to crash easily
• It takes longer to display webpages, as the software which takes HTML code and outputs it visually as a website is out of date
• It does not use tabbed browsing so a new window has to be opened for every website being viewed, and this may slow down the users' computer
• It does not 'anti-alias' text on webpages, which means fonts looked ragged at the edges
• It has always been very unpopular, and was voted the 8th worst technology product of all time by PC World in 2006
EC will continue to develop IE6-compatible websites until the software is obsolete, however if you agree with any of the criticisms, or are concerned about the security issues, it might be time to upgrade your browser:
IE7: www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx
(or through Windows Update)
IE8 beta: www.tinyurl.com/cwk87j
Firefox: www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox
Google Chrome: www.google.com/chrome
IE6 was originally released in 2001, and therefore in many ways the browser is 8 years out of date. Not only does this have an effect on the speed of browsing the Internet, the look of websites and website compatibility, but there are also major security issues. IE6 is still potentially only able to cope with with virus, malware and other security threats circa 2001-2003, and therefore it does not always have the capacity to deal with the modern, more complex threats that the newer browsers do.
Other criticisms of IE6:
• It does not support new web development technologies so web designers must use workarounds for IE6 to display web pages correctly, costing time and money in the process
• Any new websites not taking IE6 into account, may be displayed incorrectly or not work properly
• It tends to crash easily
• It takes longer to display webpages, as the software which takes HTML code and outputs it visually as a website is out of date
• It does not use tabbed browsing so a new window has to be opened for every website being viewed, and this may slow down the users' computer
• It does not 'anti-alias' text on webpages, which means fonts looked ragged at the edges
• It has always been very unpopular, and was voted the 8th worst technology product of all time by PC World in 2006
EC will continue to develop IE6-compatible websites until the software is obsolete, however if you agree with any of the criticisms, or are concerned about the security issues, it might be time to upgrade your browser:
IE7: www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx
(or through Windows Update)
IE8 beta: www.tinyurl.com/cwk87j
Firefox: www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox
Google Chrome: www.google.com/chrome
Labels: browsers, web design
Thursday, 16 October 2008
Internet users slow to embrace Google's Chrome
It was predicted to be a giant among the many Internet browsers, but Google's Chrome has failed to impress users. At time of writing, the percentage of Internet users on Chrome is only 0.78%*, 6 weeks after its release.
The initial release had crashes, video playback issues, and very odd quirk when writing in a blog or comments field (see Computer World blog).
The latest version released this week promises to be more stable, and as Chrome is still in the beta stage Google predicts a much faster uptake in the months to come. However, at this stage EC are not re coding or testing Chrome compatibility until the number of users increases.
The broadening browser market is a test for web designers and developers, as each browser engine parses their code in a slightly different way. However, as new browsers or browser releases are developed with this is mind, we may be getting closer to a standardised browser engine, or at least a series of browsers which follow the same rules. We hope it does as this will reduce client costs as we have to test less and less for compatibility.
*According to netapplications.com
The initial release had crashes, video playback issues, and very odd quirk when writing in a blog or comments field (see Computer World blog).
The latest version released this week promises to be more stable, and as Chrome is still in the beta stage Google predicts a much faster uptake in the months to come. However, at this stage EC are not re coding or testing Chrome compatibility until the number of users increases.
The broadening browser market is a test for web designers and developers, as each browser engine parses their code in a slightly different way. However, as new browsers or browser releases are developed with this is mind, we may be getting closer to a standardised browser engine, or at least a series of browsers which follow the same rules. We hope it does as this will reduce client costs as we have to test less and less for compatibility.
*According to netapplications.com
Labels: browsers, web design