RSSGoogle Analytics starts tracking Chrome, with intriguing results
By Jacqueline Emigh | Published September 5, 2008, 3:37 PM
Since Google Analytics started tracking Chrome on Thursday, the new browser is showing a browser share of 6% or higher on some Web sites -- including BetaNews. But that's much higher than the under 2% share reported by Net Applications.
A follow-up look at Net Applications' hourly statistics for estimated worldwide Web browser usage share, conducted at around 2:00 pm today -- showed that Chrome achieved its peak penetration of 1.73% of the world's HTTP requests on Sept. 5 at 4:00 am EDT.
Now, Google's own analytics engine is tracking Google's own browser -- and on at least some Web sites, including BetaNews, Google Analytics is showing a lot more relative usage for Chrome.
Google Analytics first added Chrome to its browser tracking capabilities on Sept. 4, but the intent to do so was already in place. In a blog post on Sept. 2, the day that Chrome entered beta, Jeff Gillis of the Google Analytics Team told Web site customers that Google Analytics would start listing Chrome as a browser in its reports "very soon."
A Google Analytics report run by BetaNews at about 2:00 pm on Sept. 5 gave Chrome a 6.83% browser share, in contrast to 42.85% for Firefox (all versions and platforms), 39.38% for Internet Explorer (all versions), 4.63% for Safari (all platforms), and 3.97% for Opera (all platforms). All additional browsers got lumped together under "other."
The big gap between the Net Applications sample worldwide and Google Analytics' results for BetaNews alone, may not be all that surprising given BetaNews' more technically-minded readership.
A similar discrepancy appears in browser share data for IE and Firefox. Although Net Applications is running hourly tracking reports on Chrome, Chrome hasn't appeared yet in its monthly browser report. But where BetaNews' Google Analytics' report shows Firefox as the number one browser, Net Applications' latest monthly report indicates the reverse, with IE in the lead.
Specifically, IE gets a 72.15% share, followed by 19.73% for Firefox, 6.37% for Safari, 0.74% for Opera, 0.72% for Netscape, 0.10% for Mozilla (those early experimental builds, non-Firefox), and 0.17 percent for "other," according to Net Applications' monthly report.
Technology websites would show higher use of Chrome - it comes with a territory of the users who visit these sites. My stats show a very different picture: Firefox 52.75%, Internet Explorer 37.38%, Safari 5.80%, Opera 2.45%, Chrome 0.69%. I run a photo blog.
Do I like Chrome? Yes, it is quick, functional and simple to use. I stress the word USE. For page development and testing Firefox/Firebug combination is still hard to beat.
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|Hey everybody read this: http://edition.cnn.com/2...ew.chrome.ap/index.html
IE become the best in term of CPU using.
Why dont they include Opera. Im using Opera.
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|Why dont they include Opera. Im using Opera.
Yeah, you and two other people. ;)
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|A beta version of a browser being used to access a site about beta versions of software is more popular than average.
Would you Adam and Eve it?
Just for comparison, my stats are:
Internet Explorer 71.87%
Firefox 21.18%
Safari 3.74%
Chrome 1.53%
Opera 1.26%
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|Could it be that Chrome is installed with Google Desktop without people knowing it?
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|There is no evidence for that is there?
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|No, it couldn't be.
Not yet, anyway. ;)
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|Well the score makes it clear that IE-user are the perfect NOOBS.
A serious user, uses Firefox, and gets rid of the google-crap with a decents HOSTS file, and a proxomitron ;)
There you have it, Google analytics is only good at seeing which browsers the noobs use.
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|Mozilla Foundation totally blew it-- one of the reasons Google came up with its own. But that's been so for a couple of years-- you've been wearing dated fashions for a long time now.
Smug Firefox users putting down IE users are like noveau rich fashionista wannabes who drive BMW / Mercedes & wear Rolex putting down the brands of other commoners-- w/o realizing there are much better though much lesser known brands out there...
Like the sixth grader putting down those in lesser grades-- until he runs into some high school or college student who quickly smacks him down to size.
Anyhow, with the widespread dissemination of information-- there aren't very many noobs today-- that demographic has largely been displaced by legions of folks who know about these things you allude to...but choose to have a life / could care less about uselessly spending their scarce disposable time in geek fashion.
And THAT potentially makes them better persons than you or I...enjoying life much more than us.
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|I'll second that. I remember the first time, years ago, that my browser sat there doing nothing with some crappy google site showing on the status bar even though my intended destination was nothing to do with them. It didn't take more than a few seconds to type this in my hosts file:
127.0.0.1 googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 www.googleadservices.com
127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
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|Firefox offers an add-on called "NoScrpt" which, by default, blocks all javascript activity to every site one visits.
The user is provided with a simple menu which allows for permanent or temporary permissions for selected script elements of each site.
For instance, as I type in this site the following script elements are being blocked:
google-analytics.com
googleadservices.com
googlesyndication.com
The only element of this page that has my permission is betanews.com
NoScript will remember the permissions you grant so you will not have to keep repating the process, unless you choose to grant "temporary permission" in which case you will need to do it again on your next visit.
For those of you who use Firefox, I suggest you give NoScript a try.
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|Chrome is the Green Party =)
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|as a member of a European Green Party I resent that comparison.
Green party is not evil
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|Neither is Chrome.
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|I would believe the 6% for the Beta News website. For instance I am using Chrome right now and have been since its debut.
It's not like the average user comes to Beta News... usually techies of some variety.
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|^^^This
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|I am not buying the stat that IE has a 72% share. Who uses IE anymore other than servers that have not had the default browser upgraded to Firefox? And yes I do mean "upgraded". When I walk into someone's office and they are using IE it is like watching a grandparent try to use a computer. It is slow and painful.
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|Who uses IE?? I would say 90% of windows bases business. When you manage large enterprises updates are a HUGE issue.
Chrome looks good but already it's been crashed and we will start to see alot of attacks on it.
In fact alot of companies DO NOT want internet because employee's don't make money on it!
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|What pains me more is walking into an office of drones with FF and IE icons on their desktops because some IT guy can't possibly grasp the concept that 90% of the people in the world don't understand what to do with a computer. Old people with FF makes me angry too. Every time I see this, and I mean EVERY time I ask if they installed it themselves and if the answer is "no" then I fire up appwiz.cpl and dump the thing.
What about all the techs that install FF as a fix for a spyware infected PC? I see this all the time as well (I'm looking at you Geek Squad). I'll dump FF and fix the PC correctly. These reasons alone have to account for at least 5% of FF's share.
I sort of agree with a previous user's comparison of FF users to snobs that drive BMWs. But I like BMWs. I'd say it's more like people who never shut up about how nice their new Kia is. I don't care how smooth it drives, it's a friggin Kia! Get out of here with that BS and worry about your own affairs. Just like FF users should.
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|Who still uses IE?
The vast majority of businesses and home users.
The folks here are not a valid sampling of the whole of internet users. Most of whom are content with IE, or are simply unaware of the alternatives.
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|@afewtips.com:
Margin for error only applies to a sampling. BetaNews's tracking results are the entire population - no sample error. Margin of error *might* apply to the Net Apps numbers, depending on how they calculate them, though with such large sample collection there's not likely to be much error s***.
In a related news item who's URL I don't have handy, the claim was made that Chrome eroded FF, not IE usage based on the Net Apps numbers. This makes perfect sense -- if you're not technically minded enough to try FF, why would you get a blatently beta software such as Chrome? Obviously the Chrome Bump is a boatload of techies trying out a new goodie. I predict there will be little overall change in adoption rates until/if the most useful FF plugins are ported to Chrome.
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|the claim was made that Chrome eroded FF, not IE usage based on the Net Apps numbers
Makes perfect sense.
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|Yah im not buying those stats from Google.
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|Are these numbers actuals or derived statistically and account for a margin of error?
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|margin of error??? come it's google analytics no errors reported.
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