What is a "browser"?
A browser is a software application that lets you view the world wide web. A simple explanation is that a browser is what you open on your computer to view the internet through. Did you realize that there are different browsers you can use? Most computers come with a browser pre-installed. A PC computer comes with Internet Explorer installed because this browser is made by Microsft. A Mac computer comes with the Safari browser pre-installed, since this browser is made by Apple.That doesn't mean those are your only options; in fact there are many you can choose from. The following four browsers are the most widely used browsers. Click on an image to visit each browser's website.
Mozilla Firefox
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Google Chrome
So which should you use?
There is no one browser that is the correct browser to use. A lot comes down to personal preferences. Different browsers offer different features, add-ons, color themes for you to choose, etc. The main thing to remember is that whatever browser you go with: ALWAYS USE THE LATEST VERSION! The companies that make browsers update the browsers every so often. It's important to make sure you aren't using an outdated version. The newest version available has the latest security features, and supports the latest technology available.
All browsers are not created equal!
In a perfect world the latest version of every browser would display a website the exact same way. Unfortunately, this isn't the case. The truth is different browsers support different technologies. The best example is to compare a website in Internet Explorer vs. any of the other three main browsers. Internet Explorer doesn't support some CSS styles that the other browsers do support. Visual effects such as text shadow, box shadow, round corners, etc. So while the website will still work in Internet Explorer, you most likely are missing some visual effects. The homepage of Twitter is a perfect example of this. Shown below are screen shots of the same page as viewed in Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox. Both boxes function the same way, but notice how when viewed in Firefox the boxes have nice round corners and the text in the button has a subtle shadow to it. When you view the same box in Internet Explorer you don't see any of these visual effects, because they aren't supported in this browser. It's not wrong to use Internet Explorer, but you might not know what you are missing visually if you don't try another browser.
Sonora DesignWorks supported browsers.
As web designers / developers, it is our job to make sure that your website functions correctly for the visitors of your website. That being said, we also use the latest technologies to push the limits of both the visual and functioning aspects of your website. Because of this, we simply can't support all older versions of browsers. Below are the browsers that we support at Sonora DesignWorks. We build and test your website in the following browsers to make sure they perform correctly.
- Mozilla Firefox 3 +
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 7
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8
- Apple Safari 4 +
- Google Chrome 3 +
Note: While these are the browsers we support, we may be able to program your website to work in older versions of browsers. There are many different smart-phones, which all use different browsers. See our info regarding iPhone issues and options.
Please contact us for more info.
