When developing a website it’s important to keep all your users in mind. It was only a few years ago when large companies would display the message, “you must use Internet Explorer to view this website”, thankfully those days are long gone. Most businesses now work hard to give all their users a consistent experience.

One PinchHost customer found that 20% of their visitors are using Internet Explorer 6, he was running the latest version of Internet Explorer, which at the time was version 7. Essentially his CSS was rendering adversely in IE6, the main content was pushed under the sidebar, presenting the page as primarily white space. He had therefore alienated over 20% of his visitors/potential customers. A lot of web designers refuse to make their website compatible with old technologies such as IE6. But the fact is, people are still using ancient browsers. If you’re running an e-commerce website, then you simply can’t afford to ignore these visitors.

There are simply too many browsers spread over multiple operating systems, all with long version histories. As a developer or website owner, you’d be mad to install everything internally for testing. Which is where BrowserShots.org comes in handy. Enter your website address and choose from a range of browsers which have been installed on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and BSD.

Processing usually takes around 30 minutes depending on the number of browsers you select. You’ll then be able to access your screenshots, quickly ascertaining which configurations are displaying abnormally.

The service even allows you to select a preferred screen resolution, allowing you to check your design on an 800×600 resolution (among others), which although seemingly redundant, 800×600 is still used by 4% of users according to W3Schools. The Firefox extension Window Resizer is also useful for testing your site in standard resolutions.

Safari on the iPhone is gaining traction, you can preview your design with iPhoney.

The WHIR is the voice of the web hosting industry. Over the weekend the WHIR turned 9. Happy Birthday!

The WHIR provides online up to date web hosting news, WHIR Blogs, WHIR TV as well as WHIR Magazine. Currently their magazine, published 5 times a year has a total per issue circulation of 25,000. Look out for us in the May 2009 issue! It’ll be circulating at a number of events:

Social Networking Conference
Search Engine Strategies
Affiliate Convention
AJAX World Conference & Expo 2009
SOAWorld Conference and Expo 2009
O’Reilly Velocity 2009
O’Reilly OSCON Open Source Convention

Digital versions of the magazine are available, backdating all the way back to June 2004. If you’re US based then you can subscribe to the hard copy free. If you’re interested in web hosting then don’t let the WHIR pass you by.

I came across a very sneaky condition in a competing host’s terms of service today, the condition refers to their money back guarantee.

“We will deduct flat 6% administrative fee before initiating the refund.”

9 times out of 10, the reason a customer decides to leave within the money back period is because they’ve had a bad experience. Let’s say the host did an awful job and caused you nothing but grief, the fact that they’ll profit is shocking.

If you find yourself in this situation, point out that the 6% ‘administrative fee’ is ridiculous, they’ll almost certainly back down.

Just to make clear, we don’t have a 6% ‘administrative fee’ and our money back guarantee is unconditional. If you decide to leave within 60 days, you’ll receive a full refund.