StatCounter Blasts Microsoft's Claim About IE Still Being the Number 1 Browser 160
An anonymous reader writes "Do you remember when Microsoft tried to claim that Internet Explorer was still the most-used browser by accusing StatCounter of using a flawed methodology? Well, StatCounter has just posted a response that walks through a number of errors and omissions in Microsoft's reasoning. They (rather politely) explain the importance of sample size, discuss the value of page view counts versus unique visitor counts, and explain the difference between their methodology and that of Net Applications."
Re:Who cares (Score:2, Interesting)
It matters to the people who like to use these stats when they show negative things about Microsoft. But when the same source publishes stats that show Linux has less than 2% marketshare they decry the source as being untrustworthy.
Comment removed (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Who cares (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, but this is a relatively unusual workflow. Even as a power user, the only time I ever launch a different browser is when I'm testing a website to make sure it works in another browser. Unless you use some particular site that works correctly only in a particular browser, most people simply do not use multiple browsers on a regular basis, and sites that work correctly in only a single browser should be excluded from this sort of statistic anyway. So basically, the benefit they're claiming is better precision for the 0.5% of people who have intranet sites that are IE6-only and then forget to switch browsers when visiting a web page initially. It's lost in the noise. More to the point, because those people forgot to switch browsers, they don't really care which browser they use, so as far as web developers go (deciding how important it is to support a given browser), they really are 50-50 because your site could support one or the other, and those users wouldn't really care which.
By contrast, most people use only a single browser. Thus, for the 99% case, if there are differences between the page count stat and the per-user stat, this tells you that people who use certain browsers tend to look at fewer pages. This may be an indication that the browser sucks, but it also may be an indication that your site does not support that browser well enough, or it may be an indication that the sorts of users who use that browser are simply too busy to spend time browsing a lot of sites. Thus, the two numbers provide significantly different information, and the question of which one is more useful is largely dependent on why you are asking the question. If you are trying to find out how many people will hit your site with a given browser, the per-user stat is more useful. If you are trying to figure out which browser is more likely to have people browsing around your site and looking for products, the per-page-hit stat is more useful. Understanding the differences between the two metrics can also help you better tailor your site to the sorts of users that browse it using different varieties of browser.
Re:Who cares (Score:3, Interesting)
I certainly believe statCounter as it it logical and things with NetMarket do not make sense like IE 6 going up 15% usage last January?? The statCounter shows smooth graphs with less variation and I agree that no one outside of slashdot runs linux.
I stopped using Linux in March 2011 after Gnome shell, Unity, and all the new browsers hit 6 week release cycles for security and bug fixes. Linux lost out for me and millions of users.
However, it kicks ass on the server. NetMarketshare does not even show Linux either.
I do not understand the obsession of Linux beating MS. I used to be in that crowd when Windows 98 was so problematic but those days are LONG gone. Linux never does just work if you do updates as the lack of ABIs with drivers and config files changing becomes a nightmare when you have 3k apps installed. I am seriously not trolling but just stating my experience as someone will say it works fine for me etc. Ubuntu is not kind with my laptop and older desktop.
Android and IOS are more consumer oriented and people running Linux servers should not be browsing websites on them.
Re:Who cares (Score:5, Interesting)
but then there is also the embedded browser factor - I open my newsreader app and that counts as a IE page view, or I open my OSS dev tool and that counts as a webkit view.
Nowadays its not easy to really get anything other than a broad estimate of browser usage.