It will be tough and time-wasting to download a dozen of Internet browsers to check your web design frequently to find out whether there's anything wrong with the layout. Also, even though your design works fine in Internet 8 beta 2, you still can't possibly check it out on previous versions such as IE 7, 6 and 5.There are actually not many sites out there which provides browser compatibility check or cross-platform browser test. Today, I'm going to introduce you two useful sites which will come in handy to you if you're a website designer or blogger.
The IE NetRenderer is a free online tool that enables you to check how a website is rendered by Internet Explorer 8 beta 2, 7, 6 and 5.5 using a high speed datacenter based in Germany. IE NetRenderer provides screenshots almost instantly and from the results, you can check whether your web design looks fine. The downside of this simple application is that it doesn't takes full-page screenshots therefore you can't see how it looks like in your blog's footer.
Another web tool which I frequently used is Browsershots. Not only does it checks browser compatibility, it also does cross platfrom browser test for you too. It supports over 50 different versions of browsers in 4 Operating Systems. You can even check browser compatibility by screensize in pixels, color depth in bits per pixel, java (disabled or enabled) and different versions of javascript and flash.
By entering your blog's URL into the form provided, your URL will be distributed to the various Browsershots' computers and they will open your website in their browsers. Screenshots will be created and uploaded to their server. Within minutes, you can view your blog's screenshots and how they look like in different browsers.
The disadvantages which Browsershots have are that it doesn't supports Internet Explorer and you'd have to wait quite a while for a screenshot to load. Since both services have their own weaknesses, that's why it will be great to use both IE NetRenderer and Browsershots to check your web design.
Besides IE NetRender and Browsershots, there's another popular tool called Litmus which also does browser compatibility check. Options are limited if you sign up for a free account but there will be more features if you subscribe to a premium plan.
