Browser Wars II: Firefox vs. IE

I'll admit it. I'm a huge Firefox fan. Me and about 100,000,000 other downloaders of this browser built the way a browser should be built. The small footprint, ease of use, tabbed browsing and incredibly customizable functionality via extensions and the like are just a few of the compelling reasons to make the switch.

And even if you don't switch, make sure your site is Firefox compliant which only means that it is built to existing and accepted web (not Microsoft) standards. Why? Because according to MarketingSherpa, up to 35% of your site visitors might just be Firefox users - the younger and edgier your demographics, the more likely they'll be Firefox devotees. MarketingSherpa reports that 20% of their traffic is using Firefox while another leading internet guru, Armand Morin, reports that over 17% of his traffic is arriving via the tabbed interface of the Fox.

Don't risk alienating or driving away 10 - 30% of your visitor (and potential customer) base because your site shows poorly in Firefox. How poorly you ask? Well here's a full size screen capture of the site of one of our vendors, captured from the latest version of Firefox...

Viewed in Firefox 1.5 at 1280x800 pixels resolution.

That's right! The incredibly shrinking site... Shows fine in IE. Becomes Lilliputian in Firefox. Don't let this happen to your site. Check it out today and pay particular attention to your forms, flash and navigational functionality then have your web guy make the necessary adjustments to show well in all popular browsers but particularly Microsoft's Internet Explorer (the 500 lb. gorilla) and the nimble, up & coming Firefox (becoming firmly entrenched at #2 with a bullet!). After all that 10-30% might be the ones ready to do business with you today ... except they can't.

Thanks for reading...

tom.gray@gemsolv.com
GeMSolv.com