Why is IE (any version) so difficult re: web sites?!

Following statistics on any of the web sites I follow, there has been about 5% of the viewers who even use it, still yet, that small majority needs to see your site the way everyone else does.

So why is it when I get feed back on something that doesn't look right on any of the websites, it's almost ALWAYS from a visitor who is trying to view it in IE.

I keep IE, FF, & Chrome on all of my PCs to test my work in, but there is always one version of IE that has to look at things different.

Is there a magic fix/patch for this that I'm unaware of?

As far as I know, it's difficult to design web sites that work well with all browsers. At the same time, if there are restrictions on scripts in any of the browsers, the site won't display properly.

Thanks Don, the problem I seem to be having is with menu links. When hovering over any of them in IE, the cursor doesn't change, in other words, it's not clickable.

They work in other browsers. The menu does call to a script, so I will start there, thanks again!

I think it has to do with each version after IE 6 adds a lot of futures and major changes to the rendering engine. Both IE6 and 7 fails acid2 and renders it different from each other and IE8 passes acid2. So basically all these versions handles CSS different. IE8 scores 20 on acid 3 while IE9 scores 95 of 100. Basically IE9 will render stuff more according to the "wanted standards".

As of late I have been using jQuery to do the menu's on my site. I have had the easiest time implementing it on all the browsers. Like don said, getting it to work perfect on all browsers is difficult. I use a lot of the gradients and such in CSS rather than using images and getting those to work on some of the browsers(read: Internet Explorer) is a complete pain in the butt.

Recently I have begun adding alternatives, instead of trying to fix it for every browser, I get it to display correctly on FF and Chrome and pretty much ignore it on IE and just use solid colors or whatever alternative works. My sites are down to less than 3% of users on IE and slowly dropping, so I figure I'm pretty safe that way.

I have to share this, I thought it was funny in a way, and then in a way...

http://www.newser com/story/124664/study-ie-users-have-lower-iqs.html

My latest project is for a group, so all I can really do is "advise" what's best.. and they use IE so at least in this case, it needs to be IE friendly or I look bad.

speaking of visitor tracking (analytics?) I noticed this morning (I went back a week) there were 36 different display settings.. ranging from 800x1220 to 1920x1080 resolution. To me, that's a long stretch even for a fluid bg..

If you check the facts linked the company claimed to have done this survey openly admit that this was a hoax: aptiquant .com/articles/internet-explorer-study-was-indeed-a-hoax/

Here is a second link from the same article on the site (the site you linked to): mashable .com/2011/07/29/internet-explorer-iq/

Yeah, I did, WBC. I actually didn't realize it until I went to mashable and saw their update that it was a hoax. AptiQuant is actually saying they have "Scientific data and logs" to back up their claim (apparently IE users are threatening them with a lawsuit, lol.. unless that is a hoax too)

http://www.aptiquant com/news/aptiquant-threatened-with-a-lawsuit-by-loyal-internet-explorer-users/

On the other hand, I sent it to all my friends who use IE and none of them apparently caught that part, not sure what that says

Who is loyal to IE?????????? no one!!!!!

We love firefox!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You misspelled Chrome

Actually I'm pretty loyal to IE and uses it (and firefox and chrome) regularly for everyday surfing. All browsers got some nice futures that the other is lacking and all got flaws from my experience.

I know all software is not perfect and far from it but firefox seams to use the less RAM and CPU after extreme use and time. while i can not stand even looking at IE. if windows was not so dependent on it i would of removed it entirely.

anyway browser flame war again, lets agree to agree. Firefox wins case closed hahahaha

IE9 wins over Firefox and chrome in the security field. Its the securest browsers for daily browsing activities and for the average person due to its outstanding malware/virus protection.

Firefox wins in the addon field, chrome wins in pushing new futures. I say they all win and none of them totally outshines the others in their current state(s). : )

i wonder which company is going to be smart enough to combined them all and make the browser that we need. lol

good outlook on the browser war.

I would disagree on the security aspect. In IE there are several known Flash exploits that still work, that other browsers have been able to fix. While this is not an IE issue, it does represent a large security issue for users, particularly users without much experience. The amount of remote code execution exploits in IE is mind boggling. IE has been cited recently as the most secure browser, however, everything I have read into it lists many severe security issues which keep me from using it for anything serious. Aside from any other issues which are more opinion based, the security flaws are enough to keep me away from it. Other browsers have issues as well, but it seems to me that Chrome right now is sitting the best in security, which is why its currently my primary browser. I do tend to hop around a lot between Chrome, FF, Opera and Safari depending on who has the top security and the features I'm wanting at the time though.