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Browser BulletinWho's using what browser? What version? Where are they? Who are they? If you're building a Web site, you need this information. You especially need to know where the Microsoft-versus-Netscape Web war is going. Say that you're creating a site using Javascript, the common scripting language which allows visitors to interact with your pages. It would be useful to know who's using Netscape 2, which implements the original Javascript 1.0, and who's using versions 3 and 4, which support the more advanced Javascript 1.1. You'd also need to know how many people are using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (MSIE) 3.0, which supports a weirdly underdeveloped version of Javascript called JScript, essentially a version of Javascript 1.0, and how quickly they're turning to the early-release MSIE 4.0, which provides much fuller JavaScript support. But you'll struggle to find this data. Ironically the Web - usually the most self-obsessed, self-referential medium around - can't give you the answers to some basic questions about its own users. Battle Of The NumbersIn Australia, you can turn to www.consult's Internet surveys. Though www.consult doesn't post survey results quickly on its Web site, representative Maya Sydney quotes MSIE's market share as rising from December 1996's 22.7 per cent to June 1997's 38 per cent. Netscape's share is just 57.1 per cent. If www.consult is painting an accurate picture, Australia seems unusually keen on MSIE. US-based Browserwatch's browser statistics section suggests about 62 per cent of the Web audience is using Netscape, and 29 per cent is using MSIE. A mouse-click away at the Computer Intelligence Fact Page, run by the Ziff-Davis publishing group, Netscape does better still, holding a whopping 71 per cent of the market, with MSIE at just 14 per cent. And the sixth GVU Web survey, conducted late last year, said: "Both European and US users expect to use a Netscape browser in the next 12 months (80.45%), with 12.18% stating Microsoft's Internet Explorer". None of these sources, though, will tell you who's using which versions of the two big browser brands. Software group Interse used to have a site with all this information, and when I checked it a couple of months ago it was suggesting MSIE's penetration had stalled a bit at below 30 per cent. But Interse got taken over by Microsoft and the information is no longer there. Don't get paranoid, now. Microsoft In Decline?The best site currently in operation looks to be the one set up by WebTrends, makers of some highly-rated server log analysis software. WebTrends gets its figures from visitors to its site. Since they're the sort of people interested in Web servers, you might reckon they're generally a bit ahead of the average user, and not many of them will be using relatively primitive but widespread browsers like the one provided by America OnLine. And indeed, the WebTrends visitors seem to use very shiny new software; back in June, more than 12 per cent of them were already using Netscape and MSIE version 4.0 browsers. But there's no obvious reason why they should be particularly biased to Netscape rather than Microsoft, or vice-versa. When I went there last, WebTrends was recording Netscape with a 70.9 per cent browser share and MSIE with 26.5 per cent on a sample size of 94,000 hits. And the WebTrends site confirms that fascinating development first hinted at on the defunct Interse site: MSIE's world market penetration has stalled. Back at the end of 1996, according to earlier WebTrends data, MSIE pushed above 30 per cent, pulling Netscape Navigator's total share down below two-thirds. Through the back half of 1996, MSIE seemed to be marching towards matching and maybe beating Netscape's share sometime in 1997. In late January, Zona Research declared MSIE the world's fastest-growing browser. Whoops. MSIE use seems to have been declining since that very month. Netscape Under The GunWhatever its share, Microsoft seems unlikely to be satisfied with its current share, what ever it is. WebTrends also has a site reporting on platform use, and it shows 32-bit Windows computing steadily on the rise. Future versions of Windows will integrate MSIE right into the Windows interface, making more and more people wonder whether they really need Netscape. Indeed, the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported on how early versions of the Windows 98 operating system tend to bring Internet addresses up in MSIE - even when users set Netscape as the default browser. Keep your eyes on those figures.
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Business Week