According to Net Applications, Firefox has finally surpassed 20% in the browser market, and other browsers like Chrome and Safari have seen slight increases as well.  Internet Explorer‘s (IE) market share is now “below 70%” and it’s facing the most competition withing the consumer market.

Wolfgang Gruener writes that IE’s biggest base is in the corporate sphere where IE 6 continues to dominate, although it is not the current version of IE (which is 7) and is far behind the developments of IE8, which is in beta-test now.  However, despite Microsoft’s work on IE, many still believe that overall it offers Internet users a substandard browsing experience and lacks the essential features which enable faster page loads and more access to the up-and-coming “cloud computing” applications that both Microsoft and Google are seeking to push.

Browsers like Firefox, Chrome, and Opera are more technically advanced and have the faster capabilities, security, and add-ons that consumers are beginning to want.  IE still has the dominant market share, but the latest data show that non-IE users are a growing part of the market and should not be ignored.

What does this mean for your website?  It means that your website should be functional across multiple browsers (and even multiple versions of IE).  When building your site, you need to test in as many different browsers as possible.  Industrial, manufacturing, and business to business websites will most likely see that the majority of their traffic comes from people using different versions of IE during the workweek, but those websites still need to display and function correctly in other browsers, so that people using Firefox at work or at home, for example, don’t run into any issues.

For websites that cater to consumers, browser compatibility is especially important so that visitors don’t get frustrated with layouts or shopping carts that don’t function correctly or require a user to switch to a different browser.  A small amount of frustration on a website can lead to the loss of sales leads or conversions.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm and is filed under General, Usability & Conversions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.