Browser Stats
Browser statistics for this site for the month of January. I’ve read that those who are somewhat more technically inclined tend to use Firefox or Chrome instead of Internet Explorer and the data seems to bear this out.
It’s surprising how quickly Chrome has muscled its way to the top of the pile. At least among readers of Signal and Noise. Click the image for a better look.
Posted on February 1, 2010 at 9:00 pm by Jeff · Permalink
In: blog · Tagged with: browser, site, stats
In: blog · Tagged with: browser, site, stats
on February 2, 2010 at 4:30 am
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That’s such an astonishing result that I immediately rushed to check the stats for a couple of my sites.
At g4ilo.com the figures for January 2010 are:
MSIE: 55%
Firefox: 24%
Chrome: 3.5%
Mozilla: 3.5%
At my business website which has technical articles and promotes technical software the figures are:
MSIE: 44%
Firefox: 29%
Mozilla: 13%
Chrome: 7%
I doubt that the more technically minded would use Chrome as it lacks support for all the extensions that make Firefox the browser of choice for power users. I think you need to look deeper for an explanation.
on February 2, 2010 at 6:29 am
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Chrome has been a bit of an experimental browser that Google is building an entire OS around which makes it well suited for those “power users”. My own opinion is that FF has become big and bloated because of all those extensions and its market share seems to have peaked.
on February 2, 2010 at 9:51 am
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I’ve actually started using Opera again… It’s more Linux-friendly than Chrome, and both Opera and Chrome have better performance than Firefox.
on February 2, 2010 at 10:29 am
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I checked some of my personal sites and Chrome is the following on them over the past month:
6.4%
7.3%
6.2%
My sites (some ham radio related and other not or partially ham radio related) are more in line with G4ILO’s visitor usage.
You might want to drill down, if you can, and see if there’s something specific about what users of the Chrome browser were doing. Are they sucking down some RSS feed very often?
on February 2, 2010 at 10:35 am
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Just to add, if it matters, the top 2 OSes associated with the 3 above domains are:
89% Windows – 5.4% Linux
89% Windows – 6.5% Mac
58% Windows – 37% Mac
on February 2, 2010 at 10:45 am
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The sort by OS is interesting. For me in January it looked like this:
Windows 53.3
Linux 25.4
Unknown 12.3
Mac 8.4
Less than 1 pct came from Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation, and BSD combined.
Didn’t know those gaming devices could Web surf?
73, Jeff
on February 2, 2010 at 10:53 am
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I don’t think it’s the extensions that has made Firefox a bit bloated – after all, they’re optional. I’d hazard a guess that it’s the security stuff that has been found necessary because its user base is big enough to be worth targetting, and the fixes to issues that have only been found because so many people use it. Once Chrome has been around as long as Firefox people will be complaining that’s bloated too.
As for Chrome being suited to power users, I don’t see it. Though I do all my work online and could conceivably do it all using a browser based OS, all the complex stuff I do – which includes all my ham radio PC usage – requires dedicated software running locally on a powerful and flexible OS, which from what I’ve read is just what Chrome isn’t. I think Chrome is aimed at the masses who use a computer as an appliance, which is a good thing as I’ve always said Windows is too complicated for most people.
on February 3, 2010 at 7:19 am
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I use Chrome, and I’m a 20 year IT guy and not an appliance type. It’s just fast and has a clean interface without all the bloat. Now that they have bookmark sync which works with my Gmail/Google Apps account, I have everything I need. After using Chrome for awhile, I find IE and FF annoyingly slow and the GUI clunky.
Chrome OS is a different story. That is essentially a watered-down netbook OS. I haven’t used it and I doubt I ever will.
on February 3, 2010 at 12:27 pm
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Just an interesting (to me) side note … it seems that I’m precisely the target audience for Google’s new Chrome OS.
My computing needs have changed significantly through the years and I have arrived at a point where I can live comfortably in a “browser”. Web surfing, email, streaming audio and video, audio and video chatting, news (rss) reader, document creation and editing, blogging…
I’m wrapped up in Google more than I’d like to admit — GMail, Google Reader, Google Voice, Wave, Google Talk, Google Docs, Android phone, etc. — these are where I spend 95% of my time now.
Just for grins I tried a Web interface to IRC and it worked fine and dandy too.
There is practically nothing that I want or need to do that I can’t do in the browser.
Most radio hams wouldn’t be able to say that because of the many client applications that have grown up around and with the hobby. Thankfully, I have no need of those in any client version. My IRLP node requires special software, but it’s running on a box dedicated just to it — I have no desktop ham radio applications right now and can’t imagine ever wanting one.
The other thing that I can’t do with Chrome OS is sync my iPod but that’s of little consequence as I am about to dump iTunes anyway. The walled garden that Steve Jobs is busy constructing is starting to make me feel claustrophobic and I think I’ll just get out while the getting is still good.
I use Ubuntu on the desktop and when Chrome OS is ready for prime time, I’ll put it on a couple of new netbooks and maybe some sort of pad like device and call it Nirvana.
73, Jeff