Ironworks Gaming Forum - View Single Post - Internet Explorer pulls ahead in market share

LennonCook · 09-30-2005, 04:41 AM

Stats are useless.

Given the user-agent switcher, the number of sites that lock you out if your user agent string isn't IE6/Win, and the fact that IE hits the server again for the data even if it has no reason to and doesn't use that data (eg, going back), means that IEs stats will be bloated more than a little. Also, alot of scripts don't recognise the UA string properly: some identify Opera as IE6 (since by default it uses something like "IE/Compatible (Opera 8)"), the various "I know what you're doing!" images identify me as using Firefox (when I actually use Epiphany), etc.

And where do they get their data from? Given the nature of the web, it is infeasable that they have monitored any more than a small subsection of it - which will always be atleast a little biased.

EDIT: And Firefox didn't "convert to a for-profit corporation". The non-profit Mozilla Foundation founded a for-profit subsidary, the Mozilla Corporation, which is wholly owned by MoFo - it is still a non-profit organisation, they were just worried that the amount of donations they were getting were putting them on the (extremely) high end of what a non-profit can earn.

[ 09-30-2005, 04:46 AM: Message edited by: LennonCook ]

09-30-2005, 04:41 AM	#3
LennonCook Jack Burton Join Date: November 10, 2001 Location: Bathurst & Orange, in constant flux Age: 38 Posts: 5,452	Stats are useless. Given the user-agent switcher, the number of sites that lock you out if your user agent string isn't IE6/Win, and the fact that IE hits the server again for the data even if it has no reason to and doesn't use that data (eg, going back), means that IEs stats will be bloated more than a little. Also, alot of scripts don't recognise the UA string properly: some identify Opera as IE6 (since by default it uses something like "IE/Compatible (Opera 8)"), the various "I know what you're doing!" images identify me as using Firefox (when I actually use Epiphany), etc. And where do they get their data from? Given the nature of the web, it is infeasable that they have monitored any more than a small subsection of it - which will always be atleast a little biased. EDIT: And Firefox didn't "convert to a for-profit corporation". The non-profit Mozilla Foundation founded a for-profit subsidary, the Mozilla Corporation, which is wholly owned by MoFo - it is still a non-profit organisation, they were just worried that the amount of donations they were getting were putting them on the (extremely) high end of what a non-profit can earn. [ 09-30-2005, 04:46 AM: Message edited by: LennonCook ]