RE: IBM Web support

["Jon Paris" <Jon.Paris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 >> Second, does it make sense for any business to write off 7% (or more) of
its potential customers? Sure, some can afford to. But 7% may very well give
another business that competitive edge.

Much as I hate the IE situation Hans - Yes - it does make sense.

First of all, chances are your target audience _are_ using IE.  Folks such
as yourself may not be in the target Mom and Pop audience anyway.

Secondly, the 7% aren't all using the same browser!  That number is spread
all over the range of alternates form Notes, to Opera to multiple flavors of
Netscape etc.  So the question really is can a business afford the extra
effort to make their site compatible for all browsers.

You can write vanilla HTML but your site will not be as attractive as your
competitors - so you may lose business.  If you make the HTML compatible on
a browser by browser basis it adds a lot to the cost of
developing/maintaining the site that you are not likely to recoup by the
small portion of the 7% that each set of changes will bring.  And of course
you have made the code less reliable with all the conditional muck that you
have to put in.

I try to avoid features on my site that I know will cause problems for non
IE sites - but the cost of ensuring that it works for everybody exceeds the
potential benefit.

Jon Paris
Partner400
www.Partner400.com