Different browsers recognize and display different lengths of the HTML title attribute. In the days before tabbed browsing, the HTML page title was displayed in the browser title bar and some designers and developers would spell out a page title for a few hundred characters. Firefox would truncate the title long before IE, but both allowed for a very long string which was unnecessary reading for the visitor.
Tabbed browsing has introduced a new twist on the issue of truncation.
Take for example the case of a local attorney:
Yikes!
It’s supposed to say “David ******** is a Criminal Defense Attorney”.
Wheew. Much better!
IE truncated it at a very inportune place and completley changed the meaning of the page. Of course, if you read the page you’d know that this attorney is NOT a criminal, and is in fact a very good defense attorney, but the initial message conveyed to the user is that this man is a criminal. Not good. The last thing you want is your visitor to have doubts about your products or services, and perhaps that is even more true when you’re paying on an hourly basis.
This screenshot was taken when the webpage was the only tab open. Interestingly, if you add an additional tab, you get more characters as seen below.
Firefox was a bit more forgiving on this particular issue, but I did find that there was a screen resolution and number of open tabs at which the issue appeared. You wont be able to check for all lengths of HTML titles for all screen resolutions with various numbers of open tabs, but I suggest at least checking the main tab to mawke sure it loads properly.