Two pro-Microsoft posts in one week? I know, Right?!
Clearly we are not masters of fate or IT news, so today’s headline is covering the new modern:IE Test Site setup to assist web developers with creating IE compatible site content.
Wasn’t it like, two days ago that I just pointed out that the big flaw with IE is that the old versions create a web design nightmare? *tap tap* .. Apparently this thing is turned on?
What does it test?
Actually the tool is a suite of tests with some specific test cases for IE browser specific issues.
Here’s a list of categories it will test and report on without setting up a ‘Site Owner’ account:
- Fix common problems from supporting old versions of IE:
- Known compatibility issues
- Compatibility Mode
- Frameworks & libraries
- Web standards docmode
- Help this webpage work well across browsers, across devices:
- CSS prefixes
- Browser plug-ins
- Responsive web design
- Browser detection
- Consider building with some new features in Windows 8:
- Touch browsing default
- Start screen site tile
If you plug your URL in the page will test all these areas and report back to you where improvements could be made.
Additionally there is a direct link to the ‘Pinned Site Tile’ testing/design tool.
This tool lets you select an image (144×144 pixel PNG) and text for your website when a Windows 8 user wants to ‘Pin’ the site to their start menu.
My experience with the tool wasn’t great, likely due to some caching, but if you test your code against sites that do work properly you can still sort out the needed meta tags quickly enough.
Other Goodies?
Included in the suite is a link to the Internet Explorer Test Drive site to compare HTML5 features and performance with other browsers..
Technically, I ended up short on time to cover more, so if you dive in and start to wonder why we didn’t point out something new/interesting, feel free to let us know, we’re always open to feedback. 
SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 12:20 pm
