New browsers come with new issues

This just as a friendly reminder to all practitioners: Internet Explorer 8 is due out later this year and you need to start preparing for it! As a major new release, it comes with several important changes (Microsoft goes as far as labelling it “breakthroughs”) as well as exciting new features and improvements. It will no doubt also come with a host early day-issues that will take some time to get ironed out. If you want to avoid the usual first-mover disadvantage, wait with the upgrade of the browser, until your IT department has given its blessings and your web applications and sites have been properly tested.

Every time a new browser is released, it tends to have implications both for administrators, editors and visitors. Interfaces simply stop working, such as illustrated in our comment earlier this week about our problems with Socialtext. Last week, I also highlighted an issue with IE8 and Google Analytics. If you are a regular CMS user, you can’t expect your system to simply work in any new version of Internet Explorer. At the moment vendors are busy taking a closer look at the current Internet Explorer RC1 (Release Candidate) from Microsoft, so that they can make the required changes and necessary tests for their products to become supported on the new browser.

If you have the option to work from home, or if you work in a less controlled IT environment, you need to be careful not to upgrade your browser. When IE8 is released, Microsoft is expected to begin aggressively rolling out the upgrade. Don’t upgrade until your web applications, including CMS and other important tools, have all been certified and supported with the new browser. If you are responsible for distributed editors, you will undoubtedly receive several e-mails and calls for help, if you let your editors upgrade their browser too early.

When IE7 was released back in 2006, it also caused quite a stir. Back then I published an article together with Tony Byrne, CMS Watch which detailed the implications and included several additional examples. See New IE7 Shakes Up CMS and Portal Implementations. Based on early indications, I expect IE8 to cause  similar turbulence, so make sure you plan and budget for some additional work as the browser release date approaches.

A final note: I was a bit surprised earlier this week, when I noticed that Firefox is up at around 20% market share. This is predominantly private users, but an important reminder that you do need to design your sites to work with more than Internet Explorer. The much hyped Google Chrome is trailing at around 1%.