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Browser Statistics and Other Metrics for Irish Web Users

Web User Stats in Ireland For March 2008

Recently on the Irish web master forums there was a question regarding web browser usage in Ireland. After having looked for data and not being able to find much, (except for this article, which is a few years old) I decided to share some data provided by some major Irish websites. You could assume that other markets will provide this information, however as we will see different markets can vary greatly.

This can be due to the demographic market, technology in the region and technology adaptation rates. As an example the W3C Schools Browser Statistics shows a high market share for Firefox, however as mentioned in the foot notes of the page, this is more than likely due to the demographic visiting the W3C pages. It is relatively safe to assume that Internet Explorer has a large stake of browser share for users on most websites.

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of web design is screen resolution. Currently this is only been tracked on one of the websites I got these results from, however its a relatively simple metric that shouldn’t vary too much across websites.

Screen resolution

  1. 1024×768 41.60%
  2. 1280×800 25.40%
  3. 1280×1024 13.40%
  4. 1440×900 5.40%
  5. 800×600 3.30%
  6. Rest 10.50%

Screen Resolution Distribution in Ireland

So lets take a look at some of the user stats in Ireland, first we will look at a Dublin event guide website which receives a decent amount of traffic on a daily basis.

www.indublin.ie – Accepts Cookies

  • Accepts Cookies – 93%
  • Not Accepting Cookies – 7%

www.menupages.ie – Accepts Cookies

  • Accepts Cookies – 90.8%
  • Not Accepting Cookies – 9.2%

www.cbg.ie – Accepts Cookies

  • Accepts Cookies – 94.7%
  • Not Accepting Cookies – 5.3%

www.modifiedmotors.ie – Accepts Cookies

  • Accepts Cookies – 97%
  • Not Accepting Cookies – 3%

www.indublin.ie – Javascript On / Off

  • Javascript On – 96.8%
  • Javascript Off – 3.2%

www.menupages.ie – Javascript On / Off

  • Javascript On – 95.1%
  • Javascript Off – 4.9%

www.cbg.ie – Javascript On / Off

  • Javascript On – 91.8%
  • Javascript Off – 8.2%

www.modifiedmotors.ie – Javascript On / Off

  • Javascript On – 99.3%
  • Javascript Off – 0.7%

www.indublin.ie – Browser By Version

  1. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 38.30%
  2. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 33.70%
  3. Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12 14.50%
  4. Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.13 2.70%
  5. Mozilla 1.8.1.11 1.40%
  6. Rest 9.40%

InDublin Web Browser Share

www.menupages.ie – Browser By Version

  1. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 42.30%
  2. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 36.40%
  3. Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12 10.80%
  4. Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.13 2.10%
  5. Safari 5.23.12.2 1.20%
  6. Rest 7.10%

MenuPages Browser Share

www.cbg.ie – Browser By Version

  1. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 48.60%
  2. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 33.40%
  3. Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12 9.90%
  4. Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.13 1.70%
  5. Netscape 4.0 0.70%
  6. Rest 5.70%

Car Buyers Guide Browser Share

www.modifiedmotors.ie – Browser By Version

  1. Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 54.00%
  2. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 29.10%
  3. Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.12 9.20%
  4. Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.13 2.00%
  5. Opera 8.01 0.90%
  6. Rest 4.80%

Modified Motors Browser Share

Summary

What’s interesting here is that Netscape 4.0 still appeared in the top 5 of browsers used on Car Buyers Guide. I thought this browser was well and truly dead, but it seems like that’s not the case. So perhaps hiding styles from Netscape 4 is still a good idea if you are targeting the largest audience possible.

In terms of demographics I believe the websites above cover a majority of them. Modified Motors for example covers the younger age group. Generally 16-30 year old males, however the site also attracts young females interested in modelling work. MenuPages appeals to everyone interested in Dining out, however it does have a strong 50/50 male / female userbase. Generally I’d say it wouldn’t appeal too much among younger users, as fast food is generally part of their diet :). (Hey I was young and naive once too).

Car Buyers Guide appeals to anyone looking to buy or sell a car, which would generally be anyone over the legal age to acquire a license. Not being from Ireland I’m not sure of the legal age?

What’s also slightly varied across the sites is the use of Javascript and Cookies. If you plan to implement AJAX based user functionality. You should plan to implement a fall back mechanism to handle those users who don’t have javascript enabled. Its a pain (I know), but it should be done as part of any web development project.

Cookie adoptation rates can also affect your tracking or web analytics package. Generally a cookie is used to track a user throughout your website. This can have an affect on your order tracking and conversion tracking. Generally 3rd party cookies are rejected more frequently and many web stats packages use these. Just something to keep in mind.

Finally although the data above indicates a major share of browser market by Internet Explorer 6.0 and 7.0, its important to keep in mind that many visitors originated from other standards compliant devices and in some cases blackberry devices and other portable browsers. Standards based design is the best way to ensure your message reaches all users, regardless of browser or operating system. Many designers who comply to these standards will display a W3C logo.

I hope you enjoyed the article and as always feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try and respond as soon as possible.

14 Responses to “Browser Statistics and Other Metrics for Irish Web Users”

  1. […] stats program puts out . If only we used Google Analytics *Sigh*. Anyway, as promised here it is. Browser Statistics for Web Users in Ireland | Gavin Doolan Would appreciate any feedback / comments. Thanks, __________________ Adwords Qualified […]

  2. Thanks for that gav its great to get stats relevant to the Irish market , I am surprised at the number of people that accept cookies , I would have thought it was much lower .
    Mick

  3. Interesting data and I know those sites are doing quite a bit of traffic 🙂

    Michele

  4. interesting stuff…

    “Netscape 4.0 still appeared in the top 5 of browsers used on Car Buyers Guide. ”

    eeek … these people must have the patience of job – looking at the web through N4.0 is no field day !!

  5. To be fair, Netscape 4.0 could have been the result of people testing the site in the browser rather than actual users and it only really made the top 5 because the majority of browsers are split between IE, FF and Safari.

    Some browsers also disguise themselves as other browsers. I believe Opera used to do this to access banking sites as many banking sites would look for IE only and exclude other browsers.

    Browser exclusion used to drive me nuts, but that’s a whole new story.

  6. Good man Gavin, thanks for the resolution stats, just what I was looking for.

    800 x 600 seems to be well and truely a thing of the past!

  7. Anybody got stats on the increase in online sales via Irish based online stores? We know that their was an 11% increase in UK store in June 08.

  8. Thanks for this, it is interesting that at a certain stage we had on our website, targeting Ireland, stats saying that 80% visitors were using Mozilla – could this be any true?

  9. Hi Marketing Consultant.
    I doubt that to be honest. As much as I’d love it to be true unfortunately Internet Explorer has majority market share in most places in the world.

    It can vary from website to website and specific sites target certain users who will be more likely to be on Firefox, see http://www.w3c.org as an example of a site where a high Firefox user base would be normal.

    Most news sites / blogs / forums would probably get 80% IE though.

    What stat package were you using? Google Analytics is quite good.

  10. when did safari 5 come out?!!

  11. Hi Dave,
    I wasn’t aware it was released yet or had been announced at all. Is Google Analytics reporting this browser?

  12. Actually I just noticed the stats I pulled mention Safari 5. As I now longer use this web analytics software I can’t confirm if this was an error on behalf of the web analytics tool or not.

    I’ll have to check how Safari’s older versions are reported.

  13. Hi Dave,
    I put these stats together a while ago with a web analytics package called Nedstat. Unfortunately (or fortunately for me) I no longer use this package so I cannot verify what version of Safari it was. It appears you are correct, in that I am wrong Safari 5 is not and would not have been out. So either the user-agent passed was spoofed or I copied the data incorrectly.

  14. Interesting stats, mobile browsers are on the up

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