Browser use - IE vs everyone else

[Diogenes]

Several articles I read recently regarding the demise
of Netscape Navigator stated that Firefox had managed
to get a 16% market share and that IE still has over 80%
of the eyeballs.

Yet my statistics and those of others indicate a much
higher % than that. For example

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Comments anyone?

Cheers
-Dio

 

[cwdjrxyz]

Several articles I read recently regarding the demise
of Netscape Navigator stated that Firefox had managed
to get a 16% market share and that IE still has over 80%
of the eyeballs.

Yet my statistics and those of others indicate a much
higher % than that. For example

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Comments anyone?

Those who go to w3c sites likely know more about computers(or at least
want to know more) than the average of all computer users. As a result
they more likely will try non-IE browsers even if IE came installed on
their computer. Microsoft sites likely would see more IE browsers than
the average. Opera sites would more likely see far more Opera browsers
than the average. The browsers owners likely have records of the
downloads of their browsers, but I doubt it they would be willing to
share this information. Also some browsers such as Firefox and Opera
can spoof other browsers so they will not be shut out by script when
the site really would work for the browser. Thus browser statistics
should be taken with several grains of salt. I would guess that a
banking or credit card company statistics might be near the average
for browser usage( neglecting spoofed browsers). However even here you
would likely get a percentage of very old browsers below the average,
because such sites usually have high level security that often
requires fairly new browsers. Also, until recently, many such high
security sites were designed to work only on IE and Netscape browsers.
I have not found any business sites that I now use often that reject
Opera or Firefox without setting these browsers to spoof IE, but you
likely could still find some.

 

[Leonard Blaisdell]

Several articles I read recently regarding the demise
of Netscape Navigator stated that Firefox had managed
to get a 16% market share and that IE still has over 80%
of the eyeballs.

Yet my statistics and those of others indicate a much
higher % than that. For example

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Comments anyone?

From a look at the link, I see that Safari registers now but didn't in
2006. It shows 1.8 percent. If you believe that all Mac owners comprise
1.8 percent of computer owners and that nobody in the Windows world is
using Safari (available for Windows users in 2007), things sort of add
up. Otherwise, the statistics are for Windows users only and Mac and
other OS users are not included in those statistics.
Any problems you're seeing may reflect that.

leo

 

[Diogenes]

I'm not claiming to understand everything you comment on,
particularly spoofing IE (is this automatic?), but the web
site I provided is a link to is an asp page which would indicate
an MS shop. FF had a 36% share on this site.

Your assertion about visitors to 'w3c' may be valid. But
where are the most reliable statistics?

FWIW, the microsoft sites, especially MSDN, are amoung the most
useless to solving a windows problem. IMHO, using the exact same
query on Google produces much better results than the MSDN search engine.

Cheers
-Dio

 

[Michael Fesser]

..oO(Diogenes)

I'm not claiming to understand everything you comment on,
particularly spoofing IE (is this automatic?),

Modern browsers allow their users to configure how the browser should
identify himself.

but the web
site I provided is a link to is an asp page which would indicate
an MS shop. FF had a 36% share on this site.

The used server-side technology says absolutely nothing about the users
of that site or the used browsers. It's the content that matters.

Your assertion about visitors to 'w3c' may be valid. But
where are the most reliable statistics?

Almost only on your own site(s).

Micha

 

[Dylan Parry]

I'm not claiming to understand everything you comment on,
particularly spoofing IE (is this automatic?), but the web
site I provided is a link to is an asp page which would indicate
an MS shop. FF had a 36% share on this site.

An "MS shop" on the server side, maybe, but that doesn't mean that their
users are any more likely to favour MS software. ASP doesn't require IE
to view the pages, so I can't really see that as having much of an effect.

Your assertion about visitors to 'w3c' may be valid. But
where are the most reliable statistics?

I doubt that the most reliable stats are actually available to the
general public. As cwdjrxyz stated, you'd only get these sort of stats
from a site that crosses all of the various demographics, and the only
sites that are going to capture everyone in their demographic are sites
like Google and Amazon - yet I don't think they publish their logs

FWIW, the microsoft sites, especially MSDN, are amoung the most
useless to solving a windows problem. IMHO, using the exact same
query on Google produces much better results than the MSDN search engine.

Perhaps for solving a Windows problem, but certainly form a developer's
point of view, they are second-to-none. I can't count the number of
times I have consulted the C# API documentation on the MSDN site.

--
Dylan Parry
http://electricfreedom.org | http://webpageworkshop.co.uk

The opinions stated above are not necessarily representative of
those of my cats. All opinions expressed are entirely your own.

 

[Andy Dingley]

Your assertion about visitors to 'w3c' may be valid. But
where are the most reliable statistics?

On your own site (analysing your own logs isn't hard). When the share
is so dependent on the market sector, you need to look at the stats
that are local to your particular needs.

There's also the issue that you just don't need to know this anyway,
because you're designing to support a standard, not to support
individual browsers - - aren't you?

 

[Travis Newbury]

Several articles I read recently regarding the demise
of Netscape Navigator stated that Firefox had managed
to get a 16% market share and that IE still has over 80%
of the eyeballs.

So what. Why does it matter, or should it, what browser someone uses
when they come to your site?

 

[Adrienne Boswell]

Several articles I read recently regarding the demise
of Netscape Navigator stated that Firefox had managed
to get a 16% market share and that IE still has over 80%
of the eyeballs.

Yet my statistics and those of others indicate a much
higher % than that. For example

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Comments anyone?

Cheers
-Dio

I have two sites that I monitor browser statistics (only because I am
curious and waiting for the demise of IE). Interestingly enough, the
site (apartments) that has visitors from a younger, more affluent group
is getting FF at 25-30%, and the other site (local Catholic church) is
showing 10-15%. Same city, different audiences.

 

[Diogenes]

I have two sites that I monitor browser statistics (only because I am
curious and waiting for the demise of IE). Interestingly enough, the
site (apartments) that has visitors from a younger, more affluent group
is getting FF at 25-30%, and the other site (local Catholic church) is
showing 10-15%. Same city, different audiences.

Grin. As am I. Thanks for the post.

Anecdotal numbers may not be the best but they can be useful
and they are usually interesting.

I've reposted (and cross-posted) here on a new thread.

Let the fireworks begin!

Cheers
-Dio