Database dig: Browsers and Operating Systems

Written by Daniel in General at 4:26pm, Fri 4 Jun 2010

Daniel is one of our developers - not only does he help bring new features, he also compiles these web browsing and operating system stats for us to look over. You can follow him on Twitter over here.

There are many, many different web browsers out there, and we keep a careful eye on their popularity with our members. This is how we determine the browsers used for testing Trade Me changes. Not all browsers are created equal, and the newer ones have lots of sweet stuff that we can use to bring you a better user experience. It’s quite interesting to us web development guys and gals, so we thought we’d share it.

Here at Trade Me, Internet Explorer is by far the most dominant player - over 62% of you visit Trade Me powered by one of its versions. But this May, for the first time ever, Internet Explorer 6 went below the 5% mark. Compared to the rest of the world, us Kiwis are doing pretty well in getting rid of the nine-year-old browser (based on NetApplications stats, 17% of the world is still using IE6).

We have noticed that the usage of both Google Chrome and Safari browsers has increased, with Chrome on 8% and rising rapidly. Firefox 3.6 and 3.5 make up almost 19% of browsers.

Operating system-wise, there aren’t too many surprises. Windows XP is at 48%, Vista at 28% and Windows 7 is chipping away at its older siblings with 13%. Apple users are almost into double figures.

We’ll be bringing these updates to you every month, so stay tuned! Meanwhile, help a developer out, and upgrade your friends from IE6.

(Statistics from Nielsen Online)

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