News
New Web Browsers Improve Web Sites
Posted on the 6th July 2011.
The web is built on standards. The latest standard that is currently being finalised is HTML5. HTML5 is the language used to describe a web page. The new features in HTML5 (and related technologies) include:
- Visual effects like rounded corners, graduated fills, shadows and translucent elements. To deliver these effects before we used images which slowed down the loading of the web page.
- Improved support for video and audio.
- Added support for animation and interactivity. You can now have games in a web page.
- Improved form elements with validation and new form controls.
- Improved support for people with visual disabilities.
Most of the popular web browsers now support these new features. Here are the top 12 most popular web browsers in Australia for June 2011 (click on the graph to visit the StatCounter web site):
The new HTML5 features are not supported in Internet Explorer below version 9. There are still 29.42% of people still using Internet Explorer 8. Most of which can't upgrade to Internet Explorer 9.0 because they still use Windows XP which is not supported by Internet Explorer 9.0. This will change when they upgrade from the 10 year-old operating system.
In the meantime, we are embracing the new features in HTML5 but we also have to make sure that people who use an older web browser can still use the web site. In some cases we can patch older browsers to support new features. But in most cases, we create different version of the web page for older web browsers.
In fact, our web site uses some of the new features like the rounded corners on the calendar. However, if you have an older version of Internet Explorer (IE), the corners remain square and the lines between the dates do not display. Even though there are differences between the web browsers, the web page still remains functional.We test web sites in Internet Explorer 7 and 8 as well as Firefox, Chrome and Safari.
