Chill out. This isn't a Mozilla versus Internet Explorer smack down. I don't need to tell you that usage of Mozilla/Firefox is growing. As an adult webmaster, you're probably using Firefox right now. You already know that surfers are turning to any browser but IE. They're fleeing the Gates monster because Internet Explorer is the target of 95% of browser exploits. The numbers still favor the browser from Redmond but Internet numbers are huge numbers. Firefox now holds 34% of the browser share according to W3Schools. Thirty four percent of all the adults in the world, looking for porn, equals tens of millions of surfers. If you aren't optimizing your sites and pages for Firefox users, then you better make like a frog and HOP. TO. IT.

"Thirty four percent of all the adults in the world, looking for porn, equals tens of millions of surfers. If you aren't optimizing your sites and pages for Firefox users, then you better make like a frog and HOP. TO. IT."

Of course, I am probably insulting your intelligence by reminding you of the many MAC users surfing on Safari and those wacky rebels that can't get enough of that crazy Opera. Not to mention the zillions of other browser software that is often based on IE or Mozilla rendering. Yes, browsers abound. and while it would swell to optimize one's site for every single available browser, that's not a very realistic idea. Besides, performing such a task is tedious as hell. The are a few browser emulators you could use but these days it's probably simpler to just download and install a few yourself.

If you have never used any browser but Microsoft Internet Explorer, you might be in for a shock the first time you open up one of your pages in Firefox or Opera. There's a definite possibility that things won't look quite right. That's because Microsoft developed their browser before the World Wide Web Consortium adopted their standards for things like HTML, image formats, CSS and other code-type stuff.

When viewing your site in Mozilla or KDE Konqueror, you might be shocked to see that your table cells don't line up or your borders may be the wrong color. If you're going really old school with Netscape, you'll probably faint when you discover it renders the default background color as gray instead of white. The problem is made doubly worse if you used MS Front Page to build your sites. Naturally, MS Front Page previews your code as it would appear in IE. Front Page s never going to warn you that your little form with the cool radio buttons looks like shit in Safari.

Then there's the Open Source/Linux problem. Sure, W3Schools tells us that Linux users comprise a mere 3.4% of the Internet population. But you need to remember that there are at least one billion, one hundred fifty million online users. Three point four percent of that equals roughly forty million surfers that could be opening your porn pages on a Linux-based operating system. Linux users have to do some fancy finagling to get everyday plugins like Flash to work on their systems. Even more importantly, there are the MAC users who make up about 50 million of your potential audience members. How does your page look on a Machine running Debian or SUSE or OS X? Bill Gates and his software are souring quickly in the minds of millions of computer users.

People are tired of bloated programs and oppressive EULAs. Buyers aren't just switching to MACs either. Dell computers recently announced they would carry a line of PCs that don't just come with Linux pre-installed, they come with Ubuntu. Ubuntu is open-source and totally free and so are a few thousand other MS/MAC replacement programs like Open Office for MS Office and Gimp for PhotoShop. In the end, Microsoft may still win out the majority of surfers but a good hunk will never use MS software again.

This brings us to a third consideration: RSS readers and blogs as well as optimizing your site for hand-held devices.

How does your page look on a Treo or the new iPhone? While our desktops and laptops may be getting faster, our phones are getting smarter. At the same time, people are surfing site differently thanks to the popularity of blogs. Have you installed an RSS reader? They're pretty sweet and they're not just for blog. News sites, gossip sites and tech sites all create XML pages that users can add to their RSS reader software. When a user hovers over your entry link on an RSS reader, the first paragraph of your text pops up along with a thumbnail of the first pic. That is, if you code your RSS feed correctly. You can intrigue surfers before they even open your site. How cool is that? As for iPhones and other web-enabled devices, consider providing a version of your site that is optimized for such viewing. You want to divide cell phone-centric pages into small sections or blocks of content and you don't want to get too crazy with the tables or the extras like Flash or JavaScript.

Just four short years ago, Microsoft Internet Explorer held the lion's share of the browser market with over 90 percent of the users. Today, they're lucky to be holding on to a little less than 60%. From one Frog to another, dive into Today's Browsers and Test Your Sites!