Best Viewed in

In the early years of web authoring, websites commonly posted operating system, browser, and even resolution recommendations, such as “Best viewed at 800 x 600 resolution on a Mac in Netscape Navigator.” This was the height of the browser wars during the late 1990s, when Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator were battling for market share. There was no guarantee that the two browsers would interpret HTML code in exactly the same manner. Thus, web developers specified an environment in which the web pages and applications behaved exactly as intended.

Although adoption of common web standards has largely eliminated the need for such specific product recommendations, the issue of pages rendering differently in different browsers (or even failing to display in specific browsers) remains. Identify a web page for which this is true, and explain how at least two browsers render the web page differently. Include screenshots that visually verify your claim. View the source code for the web page and determine what tags or elements may be responsible for the discrepancy.

If your computer has only one browser installed, consider downloading one of these free browsers to complete the assignment: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or Safari.