A web browser is, “the internet”, as some people call it… other people call it the “big blue e”. This poses a problem to us as web developers. Here’s the short back-story. Microsoft back in the late nineties decided it would be a fun idea (as the company behind Internet Explorer) to be lazy in building it, and not keep up with web standards.

The web evolved, but IE didn’t.Every time we build an app, or a website we’re forced to do all these crazy checks to make sure something works in IE. The trouble is, is means we can’t push the envelope and challenge ourselves because IE forces us to scale back and do things the old fashioned way.

The point of this post…

My purpose behind this post is to explain to you that there are other web browsers on the internet which give you a better browsing experience, are more secure with your credit card details and won’t let you get viruses on your computer.

In today’s world, There’s Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, which is run by Microsoft – they’ve just released IE9, which is meant to be pretty good, but IE8 is so out of date, it’ll be 3 years yet before we no longer have to cater for it.

Mozilla produced Firefox – They’ve now overtaken IE8 as market leaders and is the most widely used browser in the world (We love Firefox)

Safari, which is Apple’s browser, this is also what you use on your iPad, iPod Touch, or iPhone. (Safari’s cool)

Google Chrome runs on the same engine as Safari I believe so it’s more or less the same browser, with some extra bits. (Chrome’s quick)

What’s my point?

My point is, if you love IE, upgrade to IE9. If you don’t know what IE is, and thought you were just using “the internet” then I recommend you start using something like Firefox, Safari or Google Chrome.

One of our developers just said:

“Why would someone use IE? It’s like buying a car with square tires, then getting mad at the road for wanting round ones” – Antoine

I think he’s spot on!