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I Don't Want Three Browsers
In doing a little web surfing this evening, I ran on to yet another web site that would like me to stop what I'm doing and download a specific web browser (in this case Microsoft Internet Explorer) to view the site. Normally I pass these by after a cursory glance and don't think much of it. However, this was a really important and useful site, "AIDS Research Information Center", providing much-needed resources and information on a very important topic. The home page hints that the viewer may miss important information if s/he doesn't have MSIE installed, and graciously provides the obligatory download link to Microsoft. Some folks, myself included, have better luck with Netscape than Explorer on our particular computers. Many folks do not have the disk space, memory or the patience to have multiple browsers installed. And some actually access the web with (gasp!) Lynx, perhaps from a dial-up shell account, or from a text-only work station at their place of employment or at a library. What important information are these people not seeing? If you have a personal web page designed for friends and family and want to trick it out with every bell and whistle particular to a specific browser, go ahead. You will lose some viewers, but that is probably not a big deal. If you are running what amounts to a very important public-service web site, please think long and hard about what you are doing by buying into the HTML-standard wars. Web authors do not need to "dumb-down" their pages. Check out "Best Viewed With Any Browser" for information about creating visually appealing web pages that look great with Explorer or Netscape, but don't cause important information to be missed. Ultimately, content counts beyond style. |
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