browsershots program not reliable

[tim]

I've been checking browser compatibility with browsershots.org and have found is not as reliable as I thought. In browsershots.org, for example, a site I am working on shows up only OK in Internet Explorer's version 8, but as a blank page (with German writing on it, if I remember correctly) for IE7. Yet a fellow webmaster checked this same site on his IE7 and there were no problems.

Though I'd let everyone know about this in case you are using browsershots.org. I also would like to know if others have discovered this phenomenon using this or other programs to check browser compatibility.

This deviates from the topic, but I think at this point having a site compatible with at least IE 7 and 8 (if not 6, 7, and 8) is essential.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on any part of the above.

[TropixxxMichael]

Tim,
That blank page with German writing on it was probably a content filter. I get that "error" on their free version when I select a few different browsers. Sometimes it is in German, sometimes it is in Italian, sometimes it has the english translation on top, sometimes it just has the box with the writing in German, etc. I have found no "rhyme or reason" for why this would happen, but it only seems to happen in IE6, IE7, and one or two others.

[tim]

I wondered if it might be something like that. This is great info and thanks very much.

One thing though...the site is not registered as an adult site with anyplace. It's just a domain with no "sex" type of words in it except "hot....dudes" and there is one banner on it that is not even a link, just a pic of a guy with his shirt off. And not alt tags with any adult content in it. If it is a content filter, I wonder what made it blocked.