Smashing Magazine, which I find to be an excellent source of information for web designers, posted some updated information today about what operating systems and web browsers people use to view the web.
The Smashing Magazine post references the W3Counter Global Stats page that tracks browser usage, operating system usage, screen resolutions, and countries. A few points to note:
- Internet Explorer version 6 is still the most popular browser (Editor’s note: It’s also the most difficult browser to code standards-compliant sites for)
- 1024×768 is the most popular screen resolution
- Only about half of people browse with their web browsers maximized, so site designs should still accommodate the 800×600 resolution unless you have data for your site that contradicts this.
It’s painfully obvious that designers (and yes, web developers too) need to test sites on Windows and Mac platforms, and using multiple browsers.
October 13th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
Bill Rowell says:
Rick,
We noticed the same trends in the Google Analytics data we’ve gathered over the last year or so. Oddly enough, even though we use both Mac’s and PC’s at the office, we sometimes forget to test simple changes on all browsers. Especially with small teams. You’re definitely right that we all need to do a better job of browser testing.
-Bill