Are you currently in the process of designing a website? If you are anything like myself, chances are high that you currently have an installation of almost every browser in existence on your computer. Optimizing websites to display properly across several browsers can be a daunting task, especially if you wish to test compatibility with older generation browsers such as the notorious Internet Explorer 6 (I can’t tell you how much I hate IE6. If you are currently using it, please upgrade). The problem lies with the rendering techniques used by each browser and results in slight variations of the outputted page. Although most recent browsers obey open web standards, Microsoft’s older generation Internet Explorer products have been notorious for creating numerous problems that can only be fixed via a css stylesheet swap. The purpose of this article is to showcase some products I use to make cross-browser testing relatively simple.

Adobe Browserlab

Browserlab enables us to test our website on several versions of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari on both the Windows and Macintosh platform. After typing the URL of your website, screen shots are available to be viewed almost instantly. Another added bonus of Browserlab is the ability to compare the output generated by two different browsers in a side-by-side or overlapped fashion. Users also have the option to save the results to a local folder which, is very useful when a full website screen shot is needed. Browserlab is free to use although registration on Adobe’s website is required.

Link to: Adobe Browserlab

Spoon – Browser Sandbox

After the installation of a small plug in, Spoon allows you to take full control of a remote Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer installation.  Several versions of each brand of browser are available on their website for testing purposes. I was just recently exposed to this service through a colleague and am taken away by the ability to browse through all the pages of my website in real-time.

Link to: Spoon Browser Sandbox

BrowserShots

Browsershots is a free service that automatically captures the way your website appears on even the most obscure browsers. You can also specify variables such as screen resolution, Javascript/Java support, Flash support, and colour depth. The only downside to this otherwise flawless service is that, it may take a couple of minutes before the images are displayed. Additionally, there is a wait period for unregistered users before the same site can be tested again.

Link to: BrowserShots

IE NetRenderer

To those on Apple’s platform, determining whether your site is compatible with Internet Explorer is easy through the use of this service. NetRenderer is a great alternative to installing Parallels or Virtuallizing Microsoft’s Operating System.

Link to: IE NetRenderer

If these free solutions do not meet your requirements, there are also paid alternatives such as: BrowserPool, Browsercam and Browsrcamp which may attract your interest. However, I would recommend just installing the required browsers on your workstation at that point. Like usual, I hope this post was useful and aids in speeding up your web designing process! If you have any questions, comments, or would like to add a service missing on this list, please leave a comment!