[Updated] Has Internet Explorer lost the fight?
May 28th, 2007 | Posted in Techy Talk | 2 Comments
Update - Discovered this site detailing Latest browser stats
A day doesn’t go by when we aren’t presented with another figure on how many Firefox downloads there were this week.
To track user stats this site uses an application called Mint which is a brilliant PHP/MySQL driven stats package that presents figures in an easy to comprehend way. A feature of Mint is its Pepper plugins, which are add-ons to provide additional functionality not only in reporting but also in capturing live data.
One of the Pepper plugins I installed was User Agents. This captures and displays the browser and browser version as a percentage total. With several months worth of statistical data, Firefox was literally kicking IE’s arse.
As of 17/05/2007
Firefox - 89%
IE - 6%
Does this mean that Firefox has won? Obviously, one site isn’t a true indication of general browser percentages. Being a technical biased site will attract users with similar interests of which a large percentage are Firefox users. Techy people tend to be.
Is it possible to even answer the question? Sites such as W3School has figures which breakdown browser usage on their site. The problem with this is that the site, again, is a technical site appealing to technical people. i.e. people who would be more likely to use an alternative browser. Lets say my interests lie in Cookery, chances are the typical visitor would be a part time PC using home maker. The sort that use what’s in front of them rather than investing time in researching alternatives. When presented with a computer, there instinctive reaction would be to use IE thus resulting in higher IE and lower Firefox percentages.
I personally don’t think that it is possible to arrive at a definitive answer. It would involve a wide selection of sites divulging user statistics over a long period of time which is unlikely to ever happen.
Fifefox users are usually into technology websites, such as yours.
In my point of view, firefox has wan because it’s better, not because it’s more popular or installed by default on Microsoftware. I use Opera most of the time, but Firefox has come a long way and since version 2 i use it more frequently. Overall the fastest browser is Opera, the robust one is Firefox and the activex one is IE.
In terms of features and usability, i agree. Firefox is the winner. Because of this, i think if more people were aware of Firefox then they would realise the benefits of moving over from IE. On the flip side, are these people occasional internet users? If so then i can imagine they wouldn’t care.