Making Sure Your Website Works In Older Browsers

I wondered how www.photographybyjet.com would look on an older browser.

Since it is CSS based I thought it would look bad. Today I had a first class chance to see how it looks. I also learned how important it is to have useful options for someone using an older browser.

I had to rebuild a computer for a friend.

It is a very old computer. She only had a Windows 98 OS CD for it. You would not think this would be a problem. Just get everything working go to the Microsoft update site and upgrade the browser.

Wrong! Microsoft Update uses scripts that the version of IE in 98 cannot use.

The complete site is worthless on that computer. Although Microsoft says they are stopping support this July, the update site is worthless if you don't have a modern browser already running.

Oh, FireFox didn't work either. I'm still trying to get things working better for her.

I did have a chance to see what things look like with an old browser and a 28.8 modem.

Wow, I thought there would actually not be a real reason anyone would still be using a browser that old. I guess there will still be reasons for a few people.

I was impressed at how well www.photographybyjet.com looked. Even at480×640 and 256 color. With all the CSS and Java link buttons I thought it would be a big mess - kinda like the Microsoft Update page.

My site looks better than Mcrosoft's

I had enough backup text links that it still works good. One thing to remember is that the Google Adsense ads do not show without Java. If you have a high volume site and want to make sure to take advantage of every possible ad opportunity, you may want to find out if there is a way to make an alternative is available when Java does not work.