Do Websites Need To Be Optimized For Specific Browsers?

For those of us who actually visit websites, and not just build them, we understand the frustration experienced when we are presented with an obstacle such as a “this site is optimized for Internet Explorer” or “Flash is not supported” message. If you are considering the optimization of a website for a specific web browser, you are doing your site’s visitors a disservice and driving away traffic.

The only time browser-specific optimization should even be considered is within a corporate environment, or on an intranet. Users in these situations can be forced to use specific browsers in order to use specific applications or services. The general public cannot.

Most businesses with websites that do this are catering to Microsoft Internet Explorer, which still has the market share for web browsers. According to statistics from StatCounter, the Chrome browser may come to take over as the number one browser, however even if one could narrow down the “best” or most used browser, it would still leave a very large number of people out in the cold if browser-specific code is used on a website.

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