Which Browsers Are People Using?

I am a self-confessed addict to statistics. I won’t lie

So when someone mentioned the latest “kill IE6” campaign I thought it would be interesting to have a look at browser stats for a couple of the sites that we run

Our main site (and its various offshoots)
Irish ISP Test

Irish ISP Test

Over the last 30 days the site has had just under 90 thousand page views

The browser breakdown shows that Internet Explorer is “top dog”, with just over 52% of visitors, with Firefox at just under 35%

What about versions?

IE8 accounted for just under 48%, IE7 just under 40%, while IE6 still had nearly 13%!

Compare that to our main site…

Main Blacknight Site

Not surprisingly the visitor profile for our site is quite different.

Firefox is “top dog” this time round, with just under 48%, with Internet Explorer in second place at 33.5%

Checking the versions of Internet Explorer reveals that IE7 is the most popular version, followed by IE8, with IE6 coming 3rd (9%)

So while there are still a lot of people using IE6 (and IE5!) both IE7 and IE8 are definitely becoming more widespread (at least among the users who visit the two sites mentioned).

If you are a Microsoft Windows user upgrading to IE8 isn’t that arduous!

I’m not sure if these “kill IE6” campaigns are a good idea or not.
While I understand that IE6 maybe awkward to code for I also don’t like developers denying me access to websites based on my browser version, so if you are going to code for newer versions of Internet Explorer please don’t block older ones – let people still access the site, but encourage them gently to upgrade.

About the Author: Michele Neylon

Known for his outspoken opinions on technology and the Internet, Michele Neylon is the award winning author of several blogs and co-host of the Technology.ie podcast. A thought leader in the Internet community, Neylon is active within ICANN and an expert on policy, security, domains, ICANN, Nominet and Internet Governance. You can stalk him on various social media networks including Twitter and Instagram

11 Comments

Kyle August 7, 2009 at 15:50

Thanks for those stats, it’s good to see IE6 is slowing dying!! While I fully agree with the IE campaigns, I wouldn’t go so far as to block vital users/customers from my site. Coding with IE5/6 in mind is a pain though!!
Kyle
David Henry August 7, 2009 at 16:59

I love stats but I think some pespective is needed here, the visitors of those sites are more likely to be clue’d in, my mother would never look at Blackight. Personally I don’t think IE6 can’t die quick enough but here’s the breakdown of one of my clients sites. These guys are quite often based in the HSE and other such organisations…
75% use IE, of that 50% use IE7, 33% use IE6, 15% use IE8.
That’s a quarter of their visitors using IE6.
17% on FF and 6% on Safari. Total visits since July 7th is about 10k.
David
Michele Neylon August 7, 2009 at 17:07

David
I won’t disagree.
The two sites’ stats I provided were bound to show a different usage pattern to “normal” consumer sites.
I might post a followup on some of the more “normal” sites I run personally, which would have a very different user profile entirely
Michele
Aedan Ryan August 7, 2009 at 23:16

As another fan of stats I’m only too happy to add mine to the mix.
Here’s our stats for the last month – maybe PuddleDucks shows usage for a “normal” site. They’re actually quite similar to David’s stats above.
In the last month 26k page views
72% IE of which 26% IE8, 50% IE7, 24% IE6
20% Firefox
4.5% Safari
3.2% Chrome
Aedan
Michele Neylon August 7, 2009 at 23:21

Aedan
Thanks for sharing the stats.
I’ll see if I can do the same for some of my personal ones, as mentioned.
Michele
Mike August 10, 2009 at 08:56

I noticed something really interesting about who uses what browser. IE is a favourite one for those who don’t care what browser, technology or software they use – they just want find something quickly. Firefox on the other hand is a favourite browser by those who know something about technology.
james August 11, 2009 at 14:12

Alot of the earlier IE percentage account for people using dated computers in their workplace or similar setting where the computer’s administrator rights mean the user can’t upgrade the version of IE6 or even install a different browser like firefox.
Car Sales August 12, 2009 at 11:55

Good to see ie6, is on it way out, it’s such a pain to develop websites that render correctly for it.
Mark August 12, 2009 at 16:33

So what OS’s are people using?
Mark Spitz August 14, 2009 at 17:51

It’s interesting to read comments such as IE being a “favourite” browser to some people. Perhaps this is confusing ubiquity with preference. IE is the browser many people see because of Microsoft’s phenomenally effective (note: I avoid the word successful!) marketing.
The EU did not approve of them forcibly bundling IE with their O/S and fined them appropriately.
So, let’s suppose it were a genuinely level playing field and at the time of purchase of your computer from PC World or Dixons or wherever, and you had a choice of browsers.
How many people then do you think would regard IE as their favourite if they saw the alternatives?
Let’s not forget the simple truth and acknowledge that IE is so predominant because it is force fed to so many by a bullying near monopoly incapable of writing stable, secure, atractive and easy to use software.
pc Masters forum August 16, 2009 at 13:34

On our page we have 49% using the firefox and 48% internet explorer. The other 3 percent are something like (iphone) safari and opera.