Community Profile - Browsers

How else would those who know me expect me to build a profile?

So, over the last two days, I've been running a script which analyzes the user agent string of people who are online at random points during the day. I did this because I was interested in developing an understanding of what browsers people really used. Did many of our users stick to Safari? Did many of you download a superior browser or did you use Firefox? How many of us use the best browser? How many of you were clearly browsing at work (I'm looking at you IE users)? (Oh yes, I'll take any chance I can get to critique browsers).

I realize that we have a "which browser do you use" thread but that doesn't tell me much - it tells me what you were using when you posted and that's it. Our browsing habits change and some of us use multiple browsers which makes a one time post largely irrelevant. Plus, this script got all users - those who posted in that thread are likely those who care about browsers and I wanted to present a much richer understanding.

So, without wasting more of your time, here are the results. I took 29 samples which included 1307 users. For those that don't know, "PubSub" is the Safari RSS reader.


And, for the visual learners:


Limits:

1. If it wasn't Safari, Firefox, Opera or Chrome, I didn't count it. That includes you SeaMonkey (yes, there was at least one of those).
2. These samples were taken during my daytime. Read that as EST so there is a bias.
3. If you spoof your user agent string, you skewed the results.
4. I didn't count mobile devices for one simple reason: 95% of you are using iOS and 99% of those will be Safari (including Atomic users).

Nota bene: I don't expect this to stand up to statistical scrutiny but I figure it gives us a rough understanding.

You finally figured out something you could use Google Chart Tools for... . On the bright side - you get the nerd gold medal for the day.

So what you're saying here is that Safari is the dominant browser on the Mac?

I for one am shocked. SHOCKED!

I honestly do find the results to be surprising. Although Safari has the greatest percentage of users, it is significantly less than 1/3 (at least in your limited sample) and that strikes me as quite low for what should in theory be the default choice.

I use FireFox mainly because I switched on my Windows machines and when I transitioned to Mac I stuck with what I had gotten used to. But, the above (if truly representative of the larger Mac base) seems to point to significant real or perceived shortcomings with Safari.

vansmith said:

How many of you were clearly browsing at work (I'm looking at you IE users)?

Click to expand...

Hey now I resemble that comment..but I'm hiding with the Chrome users so you can't find me..

It is as expected to note that Chrome and Firefox are running neck to neck and that Safari is the most popular browser..

Amazingly, nothing in the chart looks crazy..

I'm not surprised either. Although, more people here use the RSS feed than I had thought.

These results are somewhat reflective of general trend (with some substitutions) - Chrome and Firefox are relatively even and Safari (combined with the RSS reader) is roughly equivalent to IE's market share of 50-60%. In this sample, IE has roughly the same user base that Safari does in global market share. And of course, Opera is under appreciated.

BrianLachoreVPI said:

On the bright side - you get the nerd gold medal for the day.

Click to expand...

Can I sell that for cash?

Razormac said:

I use FireFox mainly because I switched on my Windows machines and when I transitioned to Mac I stuck with what I had gotten used to. But, the above (if truly representative of the larger Mac base) seems to point to significant real or perceived shortcomings with Safari.

Click to expand...

I suppose it could be argued that many Mac users come from Windows (or Linux) where Safari is either non existent (Linux) or irrelevant (Windows) which might explain why significant portions of the user base use something else.

Raz0rEdge said:

Hey now I resemble that comment..but I'm hiding with the Chrome users so you can't find me..

Click to expand...

Oh, you can't hide that well - clearly you're at work. Your IP is listed as pba.army.mil and you're using IE 8.

I must be the 1 SeaMonkey...

yikes.

is this a secret governmental spy agency?

vansmith said:

I'm not surprised either. Although, more people here use the RSS feed than I had thought.

These results are somewhat reflective of general trend (with some substitutions) - Chrome and Firefox are relatively even and Safari (combined with the RSS reader) is roughly equivalent to IE's market share of 50-60%. In this sample, IE has roughly the same user base that Safari does in global market share. And of course, Opera is under appreciated.

Can I sell that for cash?

I suppose it could be argued that many Mac users come from Windows (or Linux) where Safari is either non existent (Linux) or irrelevant (Windows) which might explain why significant portions of the user base use something else.

Oh, you can't hide that well - clearly you're at work. Your IP is listed as pba.army.mil and you're using IE 8.

Click to expand...

this is a cool thread... This last one where you told Razor his IP was great....

That was really interesting to see.

I use Opera on my Windows machine and I really love it. However, I use Chrome due to issues with Opera and Safari on my Mac. They both tend to freeze and crash. Plus, Opera still has scrolling issues that aren't yet fixed in 11.61 or 12.00.

I am still surprised how many people still use Firefox... I thought most of those people jumped ship to Chrome. I may give it another go, but it just doesn't feel right to me.

I recently ditched safari as my default, because I've been finding safari buggy, and bloated in general. Chrome seemed much faster, so I thought the only really way to tell, is to use it everyday for a bit.

So far, it beats safari by a long shot.

alexsd123 said:

Plus, Opera still has scrolling issues that aren't yet fixed in 11.61 or 12.00.

Click to expand...

What scrolling issues are you seeing? Scrolling seems fine here.

alexsd123 said:

I am still surprised how many people still use Firefox... I thought most of those people jumped ship to Chrome. I may give it another go, but it just doesn't feel right to me.

Click to expand...

Many did but it seems as if Chrome's growth has leveled off a bit lately.

vansmith said:

What scrolling issues are you seeing? Scrolling seems fine here.

Click to expand...

They fixed the scrolling for the trackpad so it was very similar to all the other browsers (I believe one pixel at a time), but it brought on a big issue with certain sites, such as Google News, where the CPU usage would go through the roof while scrolling. It is very laggy, but it is a known issue so it will probably be fixed sometime soon.

fluhartz said:

this is a cool thread... This last one where you told Razor his IP was great....

Click to expand...

Except of course, Van's only partly right that I'm at work (which I am), but don't work for the military..that part was a joke..

Raz0rEdge said:

Except of course, Van's only partly right that I'm at work (which I am), but don't work for the military..that part was a joke..

Click to expand...

You know, I have a tendency to get you and Razormac screwed up (maybe it was him?) - all you razors look alike.

Don't make me mod this thing so it reports as Lynx

I alternate between Safari/Firefox/Chrome constantly within 1 day. Does that mean you took my stats 3 times?

I may have taken your usage into account multiple times. I did a "snapshot" of who was online at random times over a two day period and as someone who's fairly active, I have no doubt that you are represented more than once in those figures.

Okay, that's cool. I only asked because I don't have a die-hard preference for either, and wouldn't someone to think otherwise. Just saying. Each browser has certain good features that I like.

Oh yeah, this "profile" is far from statistically precise. The fact that I browsed MF with Opera to get the info skewed the results (and one other member made a concerted effort to represent Opera as the underdog, haha).

Dysfunction said:

Don't make me mod this thing so it reports as Lynx

Click to expand...

Why not the real thing?