Internet Browser Usage

Being the end of the year I figured I would post which browser visitors use for the engineering data base. Some people watch these numbers, and even small changes make one of the technical papers. But like me, once in a while they probably just need something to post about.

I could care less which browser is doing better than another, because I use all three at once. I have some pages open in Firefox, others in Explorer and still others in Google Chrome. I just wish they would put the buttons and options in the same place in each of the programs.

The graphic shows the steady decline in Internet Explorer usage over the last four years, and the steady increase in Firefox usage. Although Firefox has only increased less than 1% from 2009. It would appear that Google Chrome is taking the steam out of Firefox's usage, increasing 6% over the last year. I assume 6% Firefox would have gotten if not for Chrome. Safari has also passed Opera usage for the first time, but only by a half percent.

I don't use either Opera of Safari, but years ago I did try Opera for a while. But like I said, as soon as the PC boots up, the other three browsers open.... once. The data for 2010 account for 3,094865 unique visits so it's a big data sample. Counting the return visitors would make the data sample larger, but what's the point, it would just make the browsers on the increase look better and the ones on the decline look worse.

There are other browsers being used to access the web site but their percent usage are all below 1% ~ Below 20,000 web visits, or two days of web visits. The site receives about 9,000 hits per day.
.
.

IE 8 takes forever to shut down

I'm not really sure why but Internet Explorer takes a long time to close down. When I close down a single tab, the tab closes right away. However when I close down the program it takes forever to shut down, with the first few tabs taking the longest amount of time. I always have three browsers open; IE, Firefox and Chrome.

I tried looking up reasons on the web, but no luck. Just a bunch of real old IE crashing issues or out of date info.

Anyway here is how the top five browsers are doing on the engineering site: Explorer usage continues to decline, while Firefox seems to have stalled. Both browsers seem to be getting hurt by the increase in Chrome usage. Chrome did not exist before 2009.



1/1/2010 to 8/21/2010
Internet Explorer = 49.08%  [800,493 visitors]
Mozilla Firefox = 35.15% [573,338 visitors]
Google Chrome = 8.66% [141,218 visitors]

Web Browser Usage

I figured I would post which Web Browser people use to visit the web site [the Engineering site, not this blog].
Every now and again I see some news article about how one of the web browsers is doing. Normally the article just posts data for the year, as in how one browser increased by a few percent for the year. In most cases the data is centered around how Firefox gained a percentage as Internet Explorer dropped a percent. Maybe sometimes that Google Chrome increased a percentage as Internet Explorer dropped some amount.

The point is that this chart shows four years of web browser usage for this web site, and not just one year of data.

Chart Data
Explorer; Microsoft Internet Explorer [MS IE]
Firefox; Mozilla Firefox
Chrome; Google Chrome
Opera; Opera Software
Safari; Apple Safari

The two things to note about the graph is that it only covers 2010 up to 5/3/2010, and Google Chrome only started in 2009.

Internet Browser Wars

Seems with the issue of the new flaw found in Internet Explorer I went out and checked which browser was being used most to access the web site. Well IE still gets used the most, but it looks like it's down another 3%, with Google Chrome inching up another few percentage points.
But that's nothing like I'm reading on the web about the large increase in downloads of Firefox. However most of my visitors come from the US and I think most of the recent Firefox downloads were in Germany and France [which had recommended dumping MS IE].
I also see that version 3.6 of Firefox is ready for download, so I'll do that now. I'm using 3.5.7 and sometimes it would hang for maybe 45 seconds? ~ That went well....

I did check how a few pages were doing, both speaker related. Neither page is doing well.
Mechanical Speakers. Companies that produce speakers, with out a case or speaker box.
Computer Speakers. Companies that make computer speakers or AV Speakers.
Both of these pages have been on the internet for years now.

Visitors by Web Browser

Just in case any one is still following the Browser wars. The chart shows the type of browser used by visitors to the web site so far this year. Click the graphic for a larger image. The related links below provide graphs of previous years data. All the data shown here is from Google Analyics for visitors to the interface bus site.


Browser Comparison
       Firefox vs. Internet Explorer
2009 = 34.12% vs. 56.22%
2008 = 30.01% vs. 63.36%
2007 = 25.10% vs. 69.06%
2006 = 20.93% vs. 73.08%

Related Postings.
Is there a Browser War, 6/11/08.
Web Browser Issues, 7/4/06.

You can see from the chart that Google Chrome which just started a year ago is already getting 3% of the traffic or users, winning out over Opera.

What is wrong with Internet Explorer 8

What the heck is going on with MS Internet Explorer version 8.0.
Most times [but not all] when I right click on a link to either open in a new window or new tab, they open but the page never comes in. So I'm on a site which I want to remain open, right click the link to display in a new tab. Well the tab opens, but I just get the hour glass [for ever]. However the page opens immediately in the original window or by pasting the address into an already open tab, I can get the page to open in any other window.

So what is the deal with MS IE 8 about opening new tabs or windows?

I use three different browsers in two different displays to open up three different sets of web pages, so I still want to use IE even if I have problems with it.

I'm using IE version 8.0.6001.18813
Protected Mode; On
Photo credit; US Army, Stryker hit by a IED in Iraq.

Browser Compatibility

I just came across one of my pages that does not display correctly in Internet Explorer, I thought those days were over. Of course I might have a coding error on the page. I'm currently using IE 8.

However the page does render correctly in Mozillz Firefox [version 3.5.2] and Google Chrome [version 2.0.172.39]. I use all three broswers; Firefox, Chrome and IE on every power-up.

Unlike years ago I no longer browser check my pages so I don't run older program versions. I also don't run other programs like Safari or Netscape or any others. Oh, the page does display correctly in my HTML editor also.

So the page just shows Intel Processor Release Dates. Not sure why I ever added it, but I see no reason to remove. it

2009 Visitor Data from Google Analytics:
Internet Explorer = 56% [Versions; ver 7.0 = 51%, ver 6.0 = 38%, ver 8.0 = 10%]
Firefox = 34%
Chrome = 3%
Opera = 2.6%
Safari = 2.35%
Mozilla = 0.88%
SeaMonkey = 0.12%
err, that page was viewed 1,075 times this year

MS Web Site Issues

OUTDATED TEXT REMOVED, 6-28-2010

Same thing happened with the browser that Google came out with; Chrome. I could not access the site data using that browser either ~ There is a previous post about that issue, I think. So now, Firefox now longer works. What, it's an MS site, so only Internet Explorer will work on a Microsoft Soft web site.........

Any way I posted a graphic which shows hits to serialphy.com, which is another site I operate. The two main items are the Orange line which shows unique visits, and the yellow line which depicts number of visits.

I see an increase in visitors, so I'm fine with that. Notice I do not provide any hard numbers ~ there to low...... Oh, November is low because it's still mid-month, so that data will not be available for another 15 days.

Googl Chrome Stats

I'm not seeing any real increase in visits from the Google Chrome browser.

But, I just noticed something else..... I was just out trying to check a new page that was added a few days ago, which had a link off of one of the dictionary pages. However the page did not contain the link to the new page. Checked the server and the server showed the page was just up-dated a few days ago. Hmm, I hit the 'reload this page button' and the link shows up, "Pulse Shape".

In Internet Explorer, for example, there is an option to 'Automatically' check for a newer version of the page, but I can not find that option in the Chrome Browser. Yea, we don't like that........

Browser Analytics

I took another look at how Google Chrome is doing on the web site, or with the web site. Seems the new browser is doing good. As the attached graphic shows, in the last several days Google Chrome has now reached 1.61% of the traffic. That's not so bad for just a few days, it's already at number five in the list. Click that graphic for a larger view...

Seems like by next week it will pass both Safari and Opera and place third on the list. If I remember I'll post again next month to show how the new Browser is doing....

Google Chrome Web Broswer

Just down loaded and started using Google Chrome and already found a bug. When I try to open my MS Office Live site, Microsoft sends me to a page saying I need to use either IE or Foirfox and it provides links to down load them? Hello, I'm using Chrome.... There's a screen shot just above, click to see a larger image.

Here is a link to down load the new broswer: http://www.google.com/chrome

Each of my sites seem to render ok, I don't see any issues.

Hmm, I just made another bug report. The pages do not always open from the top, but several inches down from the top. Clicking a link to go to a new page, the new page opens half way down its page.

Yet another bug, I think. I was out editing one of my Knol's and I noticed that there were no words underlined as misspelled. There should have been many terms 'high-lighted' as misspelled because of all the acronyms used [knol]. In fact, I see a misspelled word here that is not highlighted? Guess I will report this bug too.

A few hours later I noticed that the address bar is also used a the search bar. I came to that conculsion after not being able to find the search bar and just words typing into the address bar ~ and it worked. Now I see an artical in cnn that indicates the same thing. Google calls it the Omni Box

Is there a Browser War?

It looks like it just may be a matter of time before the war is over or comes to a draw. The data from the web site indicates that Firefox only inches ahead and only in sub-percentages. Seems a small increase in Firefox usage.

After a 1,000,000 visits Firefox still gets the same 28% of users. What is that a few thousand new users over the last few months? I started a new poll, left of screen for Browser usage.....

Btw I use both IE and Firefox, so my usage is 50/50. Both Browsers are set up to open multi-windows on start-up. The previous topic was "The Browser Battle Update", from 4/9/08.

The Broswer Battle Update

Looks like Firefox is continuing to gain ground over Internet Explorer. The attached picture shows Firefox being used by 28.53% of the visitors to interfacebus.com. That's up from 23.89% over the same time frame last year. In fact IE is only accounting for 65.48% of the incoming hits, that's down from 70.44% last year.

The figures from March - Dec, 2006 show Firefox at 20.88% and IE at 72.33%. So IE usage has dropped 7%, while Firefox usage has increased 8%.

Java Support;
2006 = 96.47%
2007 = 98.15%
2008 = 98.25%

93.73% of the people are using the Windows OS so far this year.