"This site is best viewed in YOUR favourite web browser."

Back in the early days of the World Wide Web were the "Browser Wars." The Web was just taking off, and the vast majority of the browser market used the Netscape Navigator browser. One of Netscape's goals was to "level the playing field" among operating systems- in line with the ideals behind the World Wide Web project, to create a browser platform that was consistent across operating systems. Microsoft saw this as a threat, and released Internet Explorer as competition.I don't want to go into the details of the browser wars themselves- suffice to say that Netscape went out of business and subsequently Microsoft stopped developing Internet Explorer for about 7 years- but one consequence was that for some time, the browser market was split between Netscape and Microsoft.

Both companies added features that weren't a part of the W3C's standards, and as a result, developers tended to build sites that were orientated towards either one browser or the other, making use of one browser's additional features- usually stating on their site that it was best viewed in a particular browser. This was obviously in contrast to both Netscape's and Tim Berners-Lee's original goals of the web as a hardware and software- independent platform. (As it was, it was Microsoft who won the war, but I'm not altogether sure that the scene would necessarily have been any different if Netscape had come out on top.)

Now, there's a new Browser war. Mozilla's Firefox project, which originated when Netscape released the source code of their browser as an open source project, has been gaining market share. As it's an open source project, it doesn't have the business vulnerability that Netscape had. Currently, around 15% of web browsers (and growing) are thought to use Firefox. There is also the Opera browser, which has a very impressive set of features and a smaller but very faithful user base.

Although I've already said what I think about Internet Explorer, that's not to say that everyone should agree with me. It's not without it's good points- for example, I prefer the default way that when you open a new window or a new tab, IE will open your current page in it, rather than a blank one. But to me, the wider the range of browsers available and in use, the more web developers will focus on writing valid code, rather than tailoring websites to work and look best in their choice of browser.

The real problem with Internet Explorer is that, pragmatically speaking, you've got to make your website work in it. Ignoring the "special" version of web standards that Internet Explorer follows isn't practically any different from ignoring the W3C's open standards. Building sites that follow the W3C standards as well as working properly in IE takes  time, as well as an understanding of the differences between the two.

That's a developer's time, which could be better used elsewhere (particularly from the point of view of someone paying them.) Even a site that's aimed at a non-Windows-using audience is likely to be of interest to a Windows users- perhaps someone interested in using another operating system, or someone using a computer other than their normal machine (perhaps using a computer at work or an internet cafe, rather than their own computer at home.)

Although I personally believe that Internet Explorer isn't the best browser on the market, for a number of reasons, I don't believe that encouraging users to switch to Firefox (or to any particular browser) is the best way forwards.

Rather than create sites which are "best viewed in Firefox", I think encouraging user awareness of alternative browsers is the best solution. Telling users (directly or indirectly) that they should be using the browser of your own choice rather than their own isn't a helpful approach. Some users aren't able to switch browsers- not everyone has administrative rights on the computer they use. Some users won't want to, for reasons of personal choice. Some users may be reliant on assisted technologies built around Internet Explorer. Some may simply prefer Internet Explorer.

Perhaps in a future version of Internet Explorer, Microsoft will give their full support to the W3C's standards, and the browser market will be won or lost by providing features that users wants to use.

Perhaps...