IE7: Were sites prepared?

A blog suggests that firms were not ready for a forced IE 7 upgrade

Following the launch of Internet Explorer 7, web design and usability consultants Etre tested a number of high profile sites for browser compatibility and reported mixed results.

According to an Etre blog post, Microsoft had requested that firms and web site operators test their sites with the updated browser because it had concerns “that sites that worked perfectly in IE6 would not perform similarly in IE7.” Etre also pointed out that since the upgrade between browsers was to be distributed as a "high priority" install via Windows' Automatic Updates feature, "a large chunk of the 80% of users that currently browse the web with IE6 will adopt IE7 overnight".

Etre tested 100 sites against IE6 and IE7, and found that some, thirteen, were simply not compatible. Those sites not ready to be viewed through the browser include significant businesses like Lloyds Bank, BP and the Yell group.

However, the majority were viewable, and Etre attributed part of this success to the fact that the sites were not standards compliant, and thus were “insulated … somewhat from IE7's various bugs and glitches”.

Deri Jones, chief executive of web site testing firm SciVisum was not surprised that the sites were less than perfect, but added that he thought that, “the Etre study slightly overplayed the extent of the problem".

However, Jones did say that the fact that Microsoft had pushed the update through automatically would inconvenience firms. “Web site managers are forced to get their sites out in a rush; this forced re-allocation of web developers' effort may be quite an inconvenience for many organisations.”

“It would have been a nice gesture on Microsoft's behalf if they had coded in an option to IE7, that would make it behave exactly like IE6; a 'force-IE6' option triggered by a tag in the web page itself. This would have allowed web owners for whom now is not the right time to IE7-up their sites, to add that simple flag to their pages, and let visitors have the same user experience as under IE6.”

Although his firm specialises in testing web sites, Jones said that there had been no overall trend of firms seeking to ensure IE7 compliance. “We've had some specific requests for IE7 compatibility, but nearly all have been phrased as part of overall site audit and measurement projects - e.g. those ready now for their first accessibility audit to the WAI guidelines, and those calling us in for their first User-Journey-based web load/stress testing capacity planning.”