State of the Web Browser, Q4 2012
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If you’ve ever spoken with a web designer for more than five minutes (myself included), you’ve heard complaints about Internet Explorer’s non-standard methods of rendering web pages. While Google, the Mozilla Fondation, and Apple (makers of Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, respectively) have made every attempt to adhere to web standards, Microsoft (creator of Internet Explorer), historically, has not. Thankfully, Microsoft got its act together with the release of Internet Explorer 9; IE9 is a huge improvement toward web standardization.
Web designers and front-end web developers currently spend countless hours applying fixes (a.k.a “hacks”) to their code to make it display correctly in older versions of Internet Explorer. Not only do old versions of Internet Explorer waste time, they also hinder creativity and innovation as web designers are unable to implement new techniques and features that aren’t compatible with legacy browsers, for fear of alienating some users. Needless to say, the web design community longs for the day when old versions of IE are no longer used, and we can stop wasting time adjusting our sites to work with outdated, non-compliant browsers.
Although that day hasn’t yet come, we are getting much, much closer. Various sites, such as StatCounter (the source of the data for my graphs below) track and share web browser use data, allowing us to see if testing our web sites on a specific browser is still worthwhile. As most of our clients (and most of our clients’ clients) are located in the United States, I retrieved data for both US-only and worldwide user bases.
What does this all mean for your site?
While some differences do exist between browser market shares in the US and global user bases, one common thread exists: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE9 and IE8 make up around 95% of web traffic. This is good news as it means the world is moving in the right direction for web designers and web site owners alike; outdated, non-standard browsers (Internet Explorer 8 and below) are rapidly declining in popularity. One note to consider is that the user base of your site may not share the browser use habits of the nation (or world) as a whole. Google Analytics tracks browser use, and, as such, can be useful in determining whether or not your site needs to be compatible with a certain browser. For example, if your site’s audience is somewhat tech unsavvy, it is likely a larger percentage of your users are browsing with older software.
If you are considering rebuilding your web site, or are concerned that your current web site may be incompatible with the browsers of your user base, contact us. We’re experts at designing and developing web solutions which create an excellent user experience, regardless of browser or device.