Browser Usage Statistics
Knowing which browsers are out there is just part of the battle. What really matters is how many people are actually using them. Browser usage is constantly shifting, so it is important to keep up with the latest trends.
Whether you use a free general statistics listing or your own server logs, knowing what browsers are most used can be helpful in deciding which technologies to adopt and where to draw the line for backwards compatibility. For instance, if you find that for some reason 45% of visitors to your site are still using Version 3 browsers, you might not want to switch your site over to style sheets just yet.
Browser Usage Resources
There are several methods for tracking browser usage: log analysis tools which you run on your own server, free general statistics listings, and professional statistics services.
Server log analysis
The most meaningful statistics are those culled from your own site’s usage. There are software tools designed just for this purpose, all of which work basically the same way.
When a browser accesses files from a server, it leaves a record of that transaction on the server, including a little data about itself: specifically, its version and the platform it is running on. This information is known as the user agent string , and it is used by analysis software to generate statistics about the browser usage for a site. A typical user agent string might look like this:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98)
There are dozens ...
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