Most people have grown very accustomed to utilizing the Internet to perform a variety of daily undertakings.  This is especially true for business owners who send emails, search for their competitors, communicate with their ideal clients, market themselves and complete other tasks of equal importance.  If you are reading this, it is assumed that you are currently using one of the more popular web browsers available to the general public.  The Internet browsers that are available for free include ‘Chrome’, ‘Firefox’, ‘Internet Explorer’, ‘Opera’ and ‘Safari’.  I encourage you to download them all and discover which one gives you the best experience.  I personally use Google’s ‘Chrome’, arguably the most modern browser available, for all of my browsing.  What do I mean by most modern and why does it even matter as long as it gives you access to the World Wide Web?  These are both excellent questions that will be expanded on later in the post.

If you have been around as long as I have, you will have no doubt used Internet Explorer at one point or another.  The big ‘e’ icon that most people recognize today does not represent a generic “web browsing” program.  It represents an Internet browser created by Microsoft, which debuted in 1995 called ‘Internet Explorer’.  While this used to be one of the most popular and modern web browsers available, it has since been eclipsed by updated browsers (such as Chrome or Firefox).  Microsoft has updated their browser in recent times to keep up with the latest web technologies and have released a more modern version of their browser, IE11.  So why am I making such a fuss about ‘Internet Explorer’?  Well, the truth is that many people who use IE have not upgraded in a long time.  They have been content to use ‘Internet Explorer’ versions 8 and below for almost as long as they have been using a computer.  So, what’s wrong with that?

Old browsers are unstable, unsafe and are much more vulnerable to infection by viruses, malware, etc.  They are also more likely to crash and do not perform tasks as efficiently as more modern browsers.  More importantly, they do not display newer websites as they were intended.  The list goes on and on for web elements not supported by ‘Internet Explorer’ that simply won’t show up on your page – or in some cases, even break the site you are on.  An example of this is background video, an element that is incorporated in modern website design, that will not display in older versions of IE.  You will be doing yourself a huge favor by upgrading Internet Explorer to the latest version available HERE, or simply downloading a newer browser like Chrome for all of your web browsing needs.  A great thing about newer browsers is that they automatically prompt you to update to the latest version.  This will ensure that you are always surfing the web on a secure, fast and modern web browser. At authenticWEB, we always recommend our clients use the latest version of any browser so they can truly appreciate the work we’ve put into their custom web design!