For some unexplained reason, there seems to be a much broader discussion about Internet Browsers than we believe is warranted. Most, if not all browsers, are either free or nearly free, so having more than one is not exactly hard. But more important to our discussion is that when you focus on a web browser it is easy to forget that the purpose of the exercise was genealogical research. Our goal is to design to the most common standards for web access, and in doing so we reduce our testing and conflict time.

Primary Browsers

According to the web site www.w3schools.com (one of the primary trackers of web statistics), Internet Explorer in all its flavors constitutes approximately 60% of the installed browsers in use, with Mozilla Firefox coming in second at about 33%. The users of Internet Explorer in various forms also constitute 80% of the traffic on the Internet. So by default we design to users of Internet Explorer so we can concentrate on and still make progress in other areas of more interest to us (see the information at www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/stat.htm for more on usage).

While there are many iterations, we concentrate on Internet Explorer 7.0 as a testing platform. As browsers mature and the standards for web design evolve there are fewer differences between the acceptable practices for all of them. Firefox and Internet Explorer overlap in their capabilities enough to mot cause great issues, but we only test on Internet Explorer.

Sorry if you just love Opera, Netscape, Safari, or AOL, but these just do not constitute enough of the market to concentrate on testing. They are probably fine tools for Internet usage, but they do not comprise enough of the market for our testing. Besides they are all free and you probably have Internet Explorer 7.0 on your computer anyway and can use it when you choose.

Internet Connection Speeds

Another change in the way we search for data has been the rapid adoption of methods for searching the internet at higher speeds. While not everyone has a high speed connection, today more than xx% of the population is connecting at a speed of xx or more. This makes designing a web site easier because more attention can be paid to content and form and less to optimization of graphic and other components.

This does not mean that we ignore those considerations, but it does mean that we have more freedom to design than in the past. if you do not have a high speed connection we certainly recommend you get one because it will enrich you experience here and at other internet sites, but more importantly it will speed up your search for records on the internet.

Navigation

Navigation of web sites has also changed in recent years as browsers have become more functional and people have become more familiar with navigation of web sites. We still work to follow the rule concerning location of data no more than three clicks below your starting point, but it is less of a consideration than in the past because of higher internet speeds.

A change from other sites is that we do not try to duplicate navigation which is readily available as a browser function. There is little reason to put "forward" and "back" navigation inside your web page when those functions are inherint in browsers. Instead we have opted for a simple "Home" function that returns the site user to the starting point of the site. We feel that this eliminates confusion as to "Where am I?" and always takes you back to a common starting point. Since we try to follow the three click rule, other navigation can readily be handled with the "forward" and "Back" functions of the browser.

Browser Warnings

When using Internet Explorer you may receive a warning when you first enter our site that reads "To help protect your security, Internet Explorer has restricted this web page from running scripts or ActiveX controls that could access your computer. Click here for options..." This warning is appearing because we do use a number of images that operate as "rollover images," or images that change to indicate that they are being selected as you move your mouse cursor over them.

It is safe to allow these by clicking on this yellow warning line and choosing "Allow blocked content."

Other Considerations

There are many other considerations that indirectly change the way information is presented from our seb site to you. If you have not done so already, please see our information on displays, which addresses size, color, and other considerations.