RSSBrowser Usage Stats Show IE Up, Down
By Nate Mook | Published October 10, 2006, 5:32 PM
Two different browser statistics companies issued contradictory reports over the past week, highlighting the difficultly in obtaining accurate usage numbers of Internet Explorer and Firefox. But despite their differences, IE6 still holds a commanding share of the market in both surveys.
Net Applications, based in the United States and whose statistics are based on its HitsLink visitor tracking product for Web sites, said that usage of IE6 has fallen to its lowest levels yet: 82.1 percent. That number is down from 83 percent in August, the company reported, adding that Firefox picked up much of the difference.
According to Net Applications, Firefox usage has reached 12.5 percent worldwide, up from 11.8 percent in August and 11.3 percent in July. Apple's Safari Web browser also picked up a few points, moving from 3.2 percent to 3.5 percent usage, according to the survey.
"Internet Explorer continues to lose market share with Firefox and Safari showing a steady increase over the past 9 months," Net Applications said in a statement.
However, Dutch analytics firm OneStat.com offered a contrary report of the market. It claims Internet Explorer reclaimed nearly 3 percentage points worldwide, while Firefox usage has dropped 1.44 percent in the same timeframe. According to OneStat, IE holds 85.85 percent of the global browser market.
OneStat, which uses a random sampling of users to establish its numbers, also reported that Safari usage only reached 1.6 percent worldwide, less than half the number claimed by Net Applications. Although Firefox usage was only 11.5 percent globally by OneStat's count, the alternative browser has been making inroads in the United States, as well as Australia and Germany.
According to OneStat, Firefox now accounts for a whopping 33.42 percent of the browser market in Germany, and 25.55 percent of the market in Australia. Firefox is used by 14.88 percent of Web surfers in the United States, the company claims, and 14.45 percent in Canada.
Both browsers are set to receive a major boost in the coming weeks, as Microsoft prepares to launch IE7 before the end of the month and Mozilla completes testing on Firefox 2.0. The releases are the first major browser upgrades by either vendor in two years.
Still, Microsoft will likely retain the upper hand and even gain market share, as IE7 will be delivered to all Windows XP users through Automatic Updates - although they will be able to opt out of the upgrade. Windows Vista, the next-generation desktop operating system, will also ship with IE7 built-in.
Dual Use, Required Use, and Enforcement:
Dual Use is the use of both browsers by any user. How do we know which way these measurements are weighted? Are both hits counted even when from the same IP?
Required Use is when banks, the US Government, and other agencies [Microsoft Security Updates for example] refuse to load unless you use the current flavor of IE. This, by definition, forces people to continue using IE even when the have Firefox as the "default browser."
Enforcement is the threat of termination by employers, software-blocking by educational institutions, and other backhanded or restrictive practices that forgo the installation of Firefox no matter how much the user may desire to be using it.
I believe that the true measure of how popular IE is would be to measure how much it's "really" preferred when the above conditions are excluded.
That means that measurements of "popularity" done by or on .gov, .edu, and other websites which require IE or ANY specific browser [Some require Netscape 4+] are invalid because the user has no choice.
Raw usage is well documented, and these are the numbers that are being collated by the agencies in this article. These are raw hits, indexed. That's all.
I personally would strip IE out of the OS if it weren't required by Windows Update and several other programs. This is also why I bought a commercial copy of Red hat.
In my opinion, IE stats are vastly overblown. That's like saying that ALL AMERICANS ride bikes to work, just because we all HAVE bikes rusting in our garages. Imagine if you were only allowed to park bikes at your worksite, at the grocery store, and anywhere in the downtown area? Cars would be impounded on sight. Would you accept that Bikes were the "preferred" transportation of consumers?
I doubt it.
Don Lee
US Navy vet
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|I agree with you comment and that would be an interesting stat to examine.
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|A majority of you sound like ridiculous browser fan-boys! Is it really that important which browser you use? No. You're still viewing the same internet.
You'll always have a division based on what technologies are available for each browser and what W3C standards are present, if any. You just suck it up and quite b****ing. If you're a developer you just take it into consideration that you have to dev a site for multiple browsers, get paid, and move on.
What are you going to argue over next? Next gen gaming consoles?
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|That's oversimplifying to say the least. Especially when you've got a site contract worth $750,000.00. Creating millions of pages, and developing it to work on all browsers in an impossibility without sacrifices.
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|There are plenty of tools and resources available to ensure that your site is interoperable with different browsers. If you're writing a million page web application and are not creating some type of modular code/script, then I hope you're not receiving a contract worth $750K. I'm not saying that you can't set a baseline for intentional functionality. Then if something is developed or a requirement is added afterwards, then you live with it as an issue and do you best to create a work around, but not being able to take into consideration your audience and what browsers they use is pretty sad.
It's not an oversimplification by any means, especially since most people end up using an editor that "generate" all of your code for you. That just shows that you're willing to perform a job but not understand how the technology works.
If my statement is an oversimplication then creating a site with "a million pages" is a drastic over-dramatisation.
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|A majority of you sound like ridiculous browser fan-boys! Is it really that important which browser you use? No. You're still viewing the same internet.
You'll always have a division based on what technologies are available for each browser and what W3C standards are present, if any. You just suck it up and quite b****ing. If you're a developer you just take it into consideration that you have to dev a site for multiple browsers, get paid, and move on.
What are you going to argue over next? Next gen consoles?
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|"What are you going to argue over next? Next gen consoles?"
Too late
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|Yeah, I know. I just read the PS3 presale article. Sad.
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|My internet is *far* better than theirs. Mine doesn't have ads. :P
/sarcasm
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|There's always a good fanboy fest to be had when anything like this is mentioned. We've got:
Mac vs. Windows
Windows vs. Linux
PS3 vs. XBOX360 vs. Wii
IE vs. Firefox vs. Opera
Intel vs. AMD
Nvidia vs. ATI
...just about everything.
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|I pray for the day that Sony bursts into flames and dies.
/prays
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|Dont forget:
Left Wing vs. Right Wing
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|...
"usage of IE6 has
fallen to its lowest
levels yet: 82.1
percent. That number
is down from 83 percent"
...
What non-news !
IE dropped a whopping less than 1%.
Next they'll reveal that the Mac has finally
broken 3% of the desktop market !
...
The Computer Rodent
...
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|Firefox reminds me of North Korea. Nobody pays attention to it, so it's desperately striving for attention - "look, we got WMD and we are not afraid to use them! please, don't ignore us! please?" same crap with firefox - nobody cares about the couple of losers who use that browser so the proponents of the Gecko technology are trying to get some attention - "look, it's 10 per cent of the market. eh, no, wait, it's even 11!" who the ph*** cares? It's like boasting to a millionaire about your 10$ account. IE dominates the market, live with it. This is not due to the dominant position of MS on the market, but simply because IE is better in EVERY regard, it launches faster than firefox/netscape, it consumes less memory, it renders pages in a better way than any other browser, it supports vbscript/jscript/dhtml/activex technologies, which makes it real fun to write code for this browser. Whoever uses Gecko/opera browser, is out of their minds
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|...
"Firefox reminds me
of North Korea.
Nobody pays attention
to it, so it's
desperately striving
for attention - 'look,
we got WMD and we
are not afraid to use
them! please, don't
ignore us'!"
...
Exactly.
...
The Computer Rodent
...
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|Hahahahahaha
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|yeah but maybe more people will start looking at firefox for exploits and leave ie alone for a bit.
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|IE is better in every regard? ERROR! Or are you claiming that it's better at displaying ads or installing spyware? *snicker* And people (like me) who try to make websites that work in more than one browser know what a pile of trash IE tends to be (though IE starts off with better XML support).
Support for ActiveX in a browser is not a good thing nowadays as ActiveX apps have the run of your computer.
IE is not as easy to extend as Firefox and does not have as much functionality as Opera. Firefox 2.0 RC2 does make it much harder to search a page and to block third party cookies, however. http://www.eweek.com/art...2/0,1895,2026597,00.asp
Please try to educate yourself before spewing. There are things I like about IE, but your rant does not have much merit.
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|Stockholm syndrome should be renamed IE6 syndrome.
“My little dungeon isn't too damp, and look I can stretch one arm and then one leg. I've gotten used to the noise. And once a month Master brings me patches.”
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|"because IE is better in EVERY regard"
You keep telling yourself that..... it may eventually come true.
"Whoever uses Gecko/opera browser, is out of their minds"
and insanity has never been better.
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|"Firefox reminds me
of North Korea.
Nobody pays attention
to it, so it's
desperately striving
for attention - 'look,
we got WMD and we
are not afraid to use
them! please, don't
ignore us'!"
That's a nonsensical statement by any definition.
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|"it renders pages in a better way than any other browser" lol tell that to the IE that decides its going to IGNORE my fixed width table cells and resize them how IT wants to
and in the process makes the table looks stupid
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|I thought Firefox was more popular than IE now.... less security hassles...
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|You give me the impression you are a "go with the flow" kinda person. So be it. I am not one to jump off a bridge just because everyone else is doing.
You make it sound like vbscript/jscript/activex is a good thing. . These three components are the Achilles Heel of I.E.. The majority of security flaws in I.E. come from these three.
Your choice is to use a web browser that is outdated. Your choice is to use a web browser that uses proprietary technologies. Again, I prefer a more secure (notice I said, "more secure," and not "completely secure."
And just on a side note... I prefer a web browser that allows me to customize it the way I want with relative ease.
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|I love IE7 it's best browser MS has ever made. So simple.
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|IE7 the best IE ever...sure. IE7 enough to make people drop Firefox...Highly debatable.
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|"Simple?" Not with that UI...
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|Especially when Microsoft will slip it into your next security update.
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|Just like firefox will "slip" version 2.0 in the latest security update?
Also, I know many HOME USERS thatare using IE7 RC1--many people calling in have tried it. Also, many that were initially skeptical of IE6 and moved to Firefox tried IE7 RC1 and told me they aren't using firefox again.
These are people who are "dumb-users" who just happen by microsoft.com and see the update to version 7.0...I am not saying everyone is moving away, especially not the one's on the Mozilla bandwagon since FF 1.0, but some home users that were convinced to try firefox dislike it's interface but "live with it" due to the security. IE7 is the prefered interface by home users in my experience, though even I admit I was initially not to fond of it myself.
Point is, I think IE7 RC1 is the difference in these reports--one specifically mentions IE6 numbers vs. firefox and one just says "Internet Explorer" versus "Firefox". IE 5 may even have a small hanfull of folks still running it too...
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|I don't like IE7.
It slow down my computer significantly.
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|Upgrade past a Pentium II.
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|I have a pentiumIV and it still slowed down my computer.
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|"...even gain market share, as IE7 will be delivered to all Windows XP users through Automatic Updates..."
But (based on RC1) the IE7 update does NOT automatically change the default browser to be IE, so if those users have already chosen Firefox or anything else as their default browser, they must deliberately switch back to IE regardless of whether IE7 is delivered to them automatically or not.
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|Firefox was my main browser but i fell in love with (gulp!) Netscape 8.0.Try it..you might be surprised.Opera is not bad either.
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