I had the awful experience the other day when showing my blog to a friend on their computer. I found out what my blog actually looked like in IE6. As you probably know, web browsers tend to behave slightly differently to each other, handling formatting in different ways. So how do you know what your site looks like on a different browser?
The problem that IE6 was having with Pingable was that some screenshots I had used filled the entire width of the content column, and the margins of objects surrounding had coursed IE6 to push the right sidebar down to below the left sidebar…ugly.
Unless you own three different computers, a MAC, a Windows PC, and a Linux PC, it’s impossible to see what your site will look like on every possible web browser. Any number of your users could be browsing on a different browser that may be having all sorts of issues with the formatting of your site. So what’s the solution?
This site takes screenshots of your Web site in different web browsers then posts them for you to view. The process is rather slow, however, it is very reassuring to know what your site looks like on other browsers. It is well worth a visit if this sort of thing worries you.
Update: Another useful site on this topic: Any Browser
Brian Purkiss
WOW!!!
Very useful tool!
I shall use that very often – thanks so much!
The only downside to it is you can’t check roll-overs and other similar interactive web site features…
But it’s still nice!
Ankur Mittal
Really cool Surely going to use it right now thanx for sharing
Jakob Dupont Knudsen
This is a great tool, and just what I have been looking for. Thanks a lot for sharing. Now I just need to figure out how to fix my page. seems like it’s not working on every browser.
olly from Guitar Tab Books
It’s really important to understand that some broswers behave differently – I made a huge mistake in the past and stopped 90% of users being able to click links – simply because i only tested in one broser that allowed for my mistake in the code!
sam from cheap dirt bike
I agree with just about everyone else. This is a great tool. It is easy to asssume that all browsers operate the same, when in fact, they do NOT.
Tony from 250CC go karts
I thought that most of them were the same… but thanks for letting me know that they aren’t all the same.
Dave from Search Engine Sensation
With blogging, you still have a little safety net of the blog script that has been developed to run in different browsers, but when you build a website by yourself from scrap, you might see many differences between for example Firefox and IE. They handle the margins and the borders differently, which can really screw up your layout.
ALWAYS check your site in multiple browsers. Of course, you can’t check all of them, for which this tool is handy. But I find that over 80% of regular internet users use IE to browse the web and Firefox comes second with only a small percentage, while if you are in a webmasters/bloggers/SEO niche, you will find that 80% of your visitors will use Firefox.
Least you can do is check out your site in these two browsers.
Another thing is the size of the monitor. It can be really annoying when people need to scroll from left to right to read a simple article. If you have a design that has a fixed with, make sure that less important things are on the right hand side. And that the block of text is not wider than 600 px.
Nick from no win no fee claims
Great tool. Had a few problems with the layout of my site on firefox which I wasn’t aware of for several months until someone on a forum told me.
Joe from Slow Computer
That’s a real handy site.
I am a web developer and this is always a problem for us. The more complicated you make a site, the more likely some people won’t be able to view it right.
steve from Debt Settlement Companies
Never really put to much thought into this issue thank you for bringing it up, gonna look into this with my blogs right now!
Victor from My Personal Wordpress Blog
I also checked my blogs using browser shots. I find this very useful as I am not really good with this, and i can make use of tips such as this one.
don from Stop Foreclosure
Thank you for the work you have put into your nice blog. We will bookmark to your blog because it is very informational. We love the site and will come back to see your new posts.
john from Debt Settlement Texas
From what I can tell me blogs look pretty good on most peoples browsers.
Treats from SEO Blog
I installed seven browsers and I check my blog with all of them for compatibility issues.
Dom from Slow Computer
That is a very helpful tool. I develop on the web a lot and it is useful to be able to check different browsers to make sure the site looks ok. Thanks!
Stephen from Dating Books For Men
browsershots is definitely enlightening. the problem comes when you discover that there ARE browsers that aren’t rendering your site well, because it’s not always obvious what is causing the problem. at that point you have to look at the numbers (of affected users) and figure out whether it is worth your effort to fix the problem.
Phil from emini trading
I never considered this until one day I visited one of my websites while out of town visiting a friend. You are exactly right. Different browsers format in different ways. But I had no idea their was a tool to use like this one. Another tool to add to my arsenal!! Thanks so much
Phil
Nick from web solutions
This is an excellent tool! It is very important to have your sites layout looking good to all your visitors. There is nothing thats going to turn your users away from your site than having a messy non browser friendly site/blog.
Ben from Banner Stands
We check to make sure buttons work and things display correctly. I dislike looking at pages which are jumbled because of browser issues.
jack from window 2000 web hosting uk
Nice find. I use any browser when i want to check site. I have to try the other site you listed above to see if it shows anything different. Most of the time i check firefox and explorer not to many time do i check linux or mac.
Kev
Excellent service, thanks for posting it. Just Googled on in and found your blog, and this info. Thanks again, – Kev
claire989
Thanks for the post. I eagerly await your next article. I had no idea the there were such things as a debt settlement company. Thanks for keeping me informed!
bluetooth kopfhörer
Hey nice tool! Thank you so much. I am a web developer and always needed to check my websites on a lot of browsers. I think this tool will help me a lot. Nice site. I will bookmark it.
J Aston
ye i hate that there are png issue where you use a png fix – furthermore you can also whats called “user agents” to show different browsers different style sheets.
Dave from Slow Computer
Since I design webpages on a MAC that anybrowser website is great. I’ve had issues with different widgets in WordPress not rendering correctly after I tried to improve the code of some WordPress themes.
Tony
I just hear about Browser Shots. It seems to beg great tool to know what blog looks like. Thanks for sharing. This is great information