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Web Browsers You Should Support

As a web developer, generally speaking, you should consider supporting the following browsers (at the time of this writing):

  • Chrome (latest) - the browser that sets the bar for the others; you should be using it and supporting it
  • Internet Explorer 9+ - the browser that finally caught up with the times a bit; basically, a Chrome wannabe.  I still say that IE sucks... even if it really doesn't anymore.  Yes... I'm sour about IE8 and below.
  • Internet Explorer 8 - the old, sad browser that we sadly still have to support for a while.  CSS 3 is not well-supported here, so we use projects like CSS3 PIE or whatever.  By the way... IE8 sucks.  I can't wait until this comes off of the list.
  • Firefox (latest) - the browser that was once awesome and has sadly suffered recently because it's slower than Chrome... but hey, lots of people still use it.
  • Safari (latest) - Watch out for Safari as more iPhones, iPads, Macs, and more overly-priced Apple products flood the market and artificially drive Apple's stock price through the roof
  • Mobile - If you support Chrome, your site will probably work on Android, and if you support Safari, it will probably run on the iPhone and iPad.  The only work left to be considered is supporting various screen sizes with responsive web design.
Hmm... who didn't make the list?  Here are the browsers you should not consider supporting:
  • Internet Explorer 6 - fewer than 1 out of 200 people still use IE6 world-wide.  Unless you are building a website for the Chinese (who are a bit behind the times with IE6 usage over 10% and falling), you should NOT consider supporting IE6.  Instead, save hours of your life.  If a colleague or friend decides to support IE6 for their web app, you should laugh at them.
  • Internet Explorer 7 - with less than 2% usage world-wide, don't waste your time on IE7's poor support and stupid bugs.  Instead, save even more hours of your life.  Trust me on this one; you are better off thinking about responsive web design than supporting a dying legacy browser.
  • Any other browser (like Opera) - these browsers aren't being widely used, and to be honest, these browsers often support web standards the best... kind of like Chrome.  So, if you support Chrome, your site will very likely work in Opera or any other off-the-wall browser out there.
If an unsupported browser hits your site, be nice to the user.  Here are some suggestions:
  • Explain to the user why they have an unsupported web browser, but most importantly, tell them how to upgrade.
  • Send IE6 and IE7 users to the IE8 download page
  • Send IE8 users running Windows Vista or Windows 7 to the IE9 download page
  • Or maybe... send all IE users to the Chrome download page  :)
  • If any other unsupported browser hits your site, just let them be.  Don't warn them or anything unless absolutely necessary.  They probably know that they are using a old or off-the-wall browser, and if not, then they are among a small percentage of the population that won't be able to use your website.  Oh well...

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