Let’s be honest, how often are you on the Internet? Once a week? maybe once a day? Perhaps even a few times a day? If you’re anything like me, you’re on it the entire day. Now let me just clarify before we starting jumping to conclusions. I’m not on Facebook or doing online shopping all day (and I sure hope you’re not either!). My job as a web developer requires me to work on the Internet and do testing on multiple browsers through-out the day.
Between my colleagues and I, a large part of our days are also spent researching the latest technologies and learning how we can improve the overall web experience for you, the users. Unfortunately, the browser that you are using could be limiting that experience. As a web developer, if there were one thing that I may ask, it would be this: Please update your browsers!
In this article, I’d like to share with you reasons why I always update my browser, both professionally and personally, so that you will find value in staying up-to-date with your browsers as well.
What Is A Browser?
Before we address why it’s good practice to keep our browsers to date, let’s spend a minute or two to answer a fundamental question: What exactly is a browser?
I hate to shatter the illusion, but there is actually no magic involved on the Internet. When accessing the internet there is an illusion that everything just happens with a seemly endless amount of information that exists in our computers. This is obliviously a false conception. Our computers are connected around the globe to billions of users and their devices, which share computer data with us and vice versa.
To the average user, computer data looks like a series of numbers, letters and characters that are sure to give us headaches. Fortunately for us, we don’t have to make sense of the craziness because we have web browsers.
In short, a web browser is software that translates computer data (the numbers and letters) into websites, words, graphics, video and audio that we understand and have come to know as “the Internet”. You are reading this article right now, but what you don’t see in the background is a series of code that’s being translated for you through a browser. And yes, you are using a browser right now.
By default, depending on the computer you are using, you are probably using either Internet Explorer (Windows) or Safari (Apple). Currently, there are a few major browsers and if I had to guess, you are using one of these right now: Internet Explorer, Safari, Google Chrome or Firefox.
Why Should I Update My Browser?
Why am I asking you to update browsers? The current version is working just fine. While this may seem like the case, here are a few reasons why I highly recommend updating your browser – even if the current version is functioning “just fine”.
Security Issues
Of all the new features that get released with new browsers, I have found that there is one we tend to overlook which is the security updates. Did you know that browsers are able to protect you from certain viruses, malware and spyware? That’s right, the latest browsers update their security measures and they prevent viruses from getting through. This feature alone should be enough to persuade you to update your browsers!
Think about it. Viruses originate outside of our computers, so it makes sense that our browsers should be able to stop them at the door and prevent them from entering our computers. However, if there’s one thing we know about viruses, they can change and adapt how they infect us. This is why our browsers need to be up to date.
You’re Getting Left Behind
As blunt as it sounds, it is true. When updates and products are developed for the web, they are tested with the latest browsers. As browsers get outdated, software companies no longer develop or update them so they simply get phased out. For companies, it is simply not worth the resources and the time spent going back and developing on versions that don’t have the latest capabilities and technology.
This means that if you are using an outdated browser, there’s a good chance that you are not getting the full experience. Newer technologies may not run properly on older versions and that can be frustrating for two reasons. First, older versions struggle to run the newer technologies, making loading time hair-pullingly slow (and this is already the better option) and the other alternative is that the browser doesn’t display the website altogether.
“For example, below are screenshots of http://advisorwebsites.com/ shown on Windows XP IE7, Windows7 IE8 and Windows 8 Google Chrome.
Notice the difference in how our website gets rendered in each of the browsers.
- Spacing of information
- Picture rendering (square vs. circle)
- White Space usage
- Website layout variations
As browsers get older, support and updates get cut off as well. Companies of these browsers recognize that backtracking for older versions is not a wise use of their resources, so they discontinue the older product and carry on.
Companies have moved on from their own product. We probably should too.
The 2nd part in this series will showcase a breakdown of the most widely used browsers today… Stay tuned!
This guest post was provided by Chris Li of Advisor Websites. Chris is a Product Manager at Advisor Websites. Having studied Web Design, User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) at Simon Fraser University, his focus in these articles is to share tips on how to stay on top of the look and feel of your website.
Originally published here. Reprinted with permission.
@advisorwebsite
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