Safari released for Windows
Going along with the post from yesterday, there has been big news that Apple has released a version of Safari that will work on Windows. To date there have been several million downloads of the product. However, there have been several security risks found for the product as well.
What this means to you, as a developer of a Web site, is that there could be a serious play for a new browser in the market. I.E. still corners the market at 78% but FireFox is steadily gaining ground at 15%. Safari was never really a contender because it would only run on a Macintosh computer. However, that has now changed. With the announcement of Safari on Windows combined with the popularity of the iTunes application, Safari could grab market share from I.E. Of course, you wouldn't hear me complaining about that. However, what you will hear me complaining about is how Safari may or may not stick to the HTML standards.
Right now it is difficult to write a really good Web site because you have to make a choice about if you want the site to look really good or if you want the site to work the same across all browsers. And, inevitably, you must make changes to your site to get it to render correctly in I.E. Sometimes you can get it to work, there are still times that I.E.'s lack of sticking to the standard makes it almost impossible and a Web designer finds themselves reaching back to the days of HTML before tables and using hacks to get things too look right. This shouldn't be but it is.
Safari does not have a great reputation for sticking to the standard. The only major browser that does is FireFox. This could make companies start to choose more who their consumers are with multimedia companies leaning toward having a Safari-friendly site while online merchants go with I.E. because that is what their sites are already designed for.
However, for someone in the Web design business is this really fair. The standard exists for a reason: so that everyone, regardless of computer platform or browser can see the same sites in the same manner. It would be fantastic if the large companies, who say they are doing everything possible for the consumer, would realize this and start coding their work not to their own internal standards but to the standards that are public and have been accepted by the rest of the computing community.
What this means to you, as a developer of a Web site, is that there could be a serious play for a new browser in the market. I.E. still corners the market at 78% but FireFox is steadily gaining ground at 15%. Safari was never really a contender because it would only run on a Macintosh computer. However, that has now changed. With the announcement of Safari on Windows combined with the popularity of the iTunes application, Safari could grab market share from I.E. Of course, you wouldn't hear me complaining about that. However, what you will hear me complaining about is how Safari may or may not stick to the HTML standards.
Right now it is difficult to write a really good Web site because you have to make a choice about if you want the site to look really good or if you want the site to work the same across all browsers. And, inevitably, you must make changes to your site to get it to render correctly in I.E. Sometimes you can get it to work, there are still times that I.E.'s lack of sticking to the standard makes it almost impossible and a Web designer finds themselves reaching back to the days of HTML before tables and using hacks to get things too look right. This shouldn't be but it is.
Safari does not have a great reputation for sticking to the standard. The only major browser that does is FireFox. This could make companies start to choose more who their consumers are with multimedia companies leaning toward having a Safari-friendly site while online merchants go with I.E. because that is what their sites are already designed for.
However, for someone in the Web design business is this really fair. The standard exists for a reason: so that everyone, regardless of computer platform or browser can see the same sites in the same manner. It would be fantastic if the large companies, who say they are doing everything possible for the consumer, would realize this and start coding their work not to their own internal standards but to the standards that are public and have been accepted by the rest of the computing community.
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