Wide World Of Web Design

Browsercam is quite simply the best tool available for viewing webpages in various combinations of web browsers and Operating Systems, something every web designer must do in order to verify their client’s web pages will be rendered properly when reaching the widest possible internet audience. This is especially important when, hopefully before the client has seen it, all is not what it should be with the web pages you labored so painstakingly on, even though they appeared as works of art on your Windows PC loaded with XP, IE7 and Firefox 2.0 . . . and why on earth would anybody still be using IE6 as their web browser, much less IE5 . . . and what the heck is Opera ? Oh yeah, keep forgetting about all those MAC users and the variety of OS flavors they might be using …. and then of course there’s all those people converting to Linux …… AAaaarrrggghhhhh !!!

Anyway, simply put, BrowserCam is an online service that offers cross-browser website testing through screen captures so you can test web pages on multiple operating systems, browsers, and mobile devices - as well as see how they function with or without various plugins such as Java and Flash. The normal annual price for ‘BrowserCam Complete’ is $499.95 USD which may sound a little pricey for a freelance web designer, but here’s where it gets interesting . . .

Browsercam has set up a membership option through a website called Fundable.org where you can register as a group of 20 people at $25 per person, giving each group member their own access for an entire year, thus making it affordable for any individual.

You either find a group-in-progress at Fundable or start your own, and to join a group you simply pledge $25 via PayPal or Credit Card (no payment is made at this stage). Once 20 people have joined your group, Fundable.org processes each members $20 pledge, Browsercam is contacted, and each individual member receives their username/password so they can access the account.

I rely on this service for every website I create and it has proved invaluable because it is easy to use and fast, providing screenshots for dozens of captures in just a few minutes. There is a similar service that is free called Browsershots.org which one can try, however it is less reliable due to the fact that the results are considerably less timely …….. sometime later that day perhaps ?

Browsercam is just another weapon in the Web Designer’s arsenal that you soon realize you can’t live without, at least not until the day all computers and internet browsers are created equal, and that my friends is as unlikely as, well, World Peace ?