Weary of security vulnerabilities such as spyware and phishing, and interruptions like popup ads in Microsoft's ubiquitous Internet Explorer, many Realtors are trying other browsers such as Mozilla's Firefox or Opera as alternatives to surf the Internet. Now they're running into minor problems with those programs, too.

Their Websites are there, but some consumers can't view them.

Many agents' Websites are designed for viewing only with Internet Explorer. With a number of consumers now using Firefox or an equivalent Web browser, agents are between a rock and a hard place - they really can't afford to write those potential clients off.

"I suspect this problem will only be compounded in the near future as new vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer are discovered," says Chris Lambert, a technical advisor for Realty Times.

The problems began with the onslaught of security vulnerabilities present in Microsoft's Internet Explorer, explains Lambert. Many private and government groups including the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), a division of the Department of Homeland Security, are advising consumers to switch from IE to an alternative Web browser. Microsoft's IE, while still the dominant choice for users, is quickly losing ground to its competitors. With so many people deciding they've had enough with seemingly endless security patches, they're now turning to alternatives such as Opera or Firefox, the open-source browser created by The Mozilla Organization, which also offers pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, and numerous other features.

The problem is that alternative browsers do not allow many sites to be viewed properly because they take advantage of features such as Microsoft's ActiveX Controls rather than a platform-independent alternative. This prevents the content from being displayed as it was intended in some browsers because the code is Internet Explorer-specific and is not utilized by standards-compliant alternative browsers.

While this can be bit of a headache for some in the real estate industry, the recommendations to abandon Internet Explorer won't be going away any time soon. With the number of Firefox downloads alone quickly approaching 10 million, Realtors don't have the luxury of alienating such a large number of consumers.

"I suggest that Realtors, and anyone else publishing Websites, should use only techniques that are approved by the web standards bodies, and avoid including things that are specific to Internet Explorer," Walter S. Mossberg, personal technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal told Realty Times.

If you're concerned about security holes in any browser that you choose to use, you can check Cert.org for updates. More information about the World Wide Web Consortuim's (W3C) Web publishing guidelines can be found at W3C.org.

Published: December 10, 2004

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