Creating websites is no easy task if you are trying to make it cross-browser compatible. Especially since you have to keep in mind old versions of Web browsers because not everyone upgrades right away. Looking at the statistics for our site over the past month reveals that we have had more than 165,000 unique visitors and here are how the browsers stack up:
- Firefox – 51.69%
- Firefox 2 – 71.56%
- Firefox 1.5.0.8 – 14.91%
- Firefox 1.5.0.7 – 9.49%
- Firefox 1.5.0.6 – 1.01%
- Firefox 1.0.7 – 0.87%
- Internet Explorer – 42.18%
- Internet Explorer 6 – 59.93%
- Internet Explorer 7 – 39.49%
- Internet Explorer 5.5 – 0.18%
- Internet Explorer 5.01 – 0.17%
- Internet Explorer 5.0 – 0.09%
- Opera – 3.21%
- Opera 9.02 – 59.64%
- Opera 9.10 – 13.76%
- Opera 9.01 – 9.08%
- Opera 9.00 – 7.71%
- Opera 8.54 – 4.43%
- Mozilla – 1.43%
- Mozilla 1.8.1 – 52.61%
- Mozilla 1.9 – 22.81%
- Mozilla 1.7.13 – 4.31%
- Mozilla 1.8.0.7 – 3.80%
- Mozilla 1.7.12 – 3.58%
- Safari – 0.97%
- Safari 419.3 – 82.66%
- Safari 312.6 – 9.38%
- Safari 417.9.2 – 1.68%
- Safari 420 – 0.92%
- Netscape – 0.22%
- Netscape 7.2 – 33.96%
- Netscape 8.1.2 – 31.32%
- Netscape 8.1 – 12.08%
- Netscape 7.1 – 9.81%
- Konqueror – 0.12%
- Konqueror 3.4 – 52.35%
- Konqueror 3.5 – 45.64%
- All other browsers have less than 0.10% of the traffic on CyberNet
So the results show one thing and that is everyone doesn’t use the latest browser. There are even some Internet Explorer 5 users still out there that are visiting our site but the problem that Web developers have is testing their sites with these older browsers. Getting your hands on an old version of Firefox has never been a problem because you just have to checkout their FTP server. Internet Explorer, on the other hand, is much more difficult to try your website out on.
I wanted to make sure that CyberNet News was looking okay in Internet Explorer 5 and I eventually found a site called Evolt that offers IE 3, 4, 5, and even 6 as a standalone browser. That means you just have to download the ZIP files and run the executable that is included. The screenshot that I took above shows both IE 5 and IE 3 running on my XP machine without any issues, well, IE 3 obviously doesn’t read the stylesheet but the browser runs just fine.
Evolt has a whole directory devoted to Web browsers many of which I have never even heard of. Looking through some of the folders, like the Mozilla one, does show that it hasn’t been updated in over a year though. It is still a great tool for anyone looking to test a website in an older browser like IE 5 or 6.
Wow I am impressed by the number of Firefox users. I am a bit surprised by the number of 1.0.7 users, thought that would have been a bit higher.
Great find!
What do the “standalone” versions add or leave behind on your system? Do they essentially function as a portable application, that is – not change anything on your computer?
Thanks!
Kind of funny because one of my friends was using 1.0.7 for awhile and I told him about Firefox 2. He didn’t think it sounded special but once he tried it he was amazed. He actually reads this site and comments every now and then…let’s see if he will see this.
From what I can tell they don’t leave anything behind on your system because they use your existing Internet Explorer’s settings where it can. It pulled in my bookmarks and stuff but I am sure it isn’t a portable version like you would think.
Tredosoft ([tredosoft.com]) has created an installer for these earlier versions of IE to simplify the process. There are some quirks with these standalone versions but they work pretty well to test most aspects of a web page.
I have all those “standalone” IE 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0 versions installed. And i have IE 7.0 installed, but I’m not using it, I’m using my beloved Firefox 2 exclusively.
What I can tell about “standalone” IE versions:
They all are working, and each of them uses its own rendering engine. Very useful for web designers and web developers!
Standalone IE 4.0 have one bug: you CAN’T enter address in “Address” bar, instead, you have to enter it in File/Open dialog window.
In any other standalone IE version (3.0, 5.0, 5.5, 6.0) you CAN use “Address” bar.
But I don’t recommend changing any IE settings in your “standalone” versions. This could damage your “built-in” IE version’s settings. Instead, make all IE configuration settings in your “built-in” IE version.
Ryan, your traffic statistics is very uncommon, because this website is for geeks only.
Btw, I could classify this website as “entertainment for geeks”.
Since this is a geeky site I’m surprised that 42% readers use IE.
Nice find! Best of all that software is free.
I couldn’t figure out how to open a web page for the life of me in IE 4! I didn’t even think about the dialog window.
I think it is great that you classify us as entertainment because we try to make the site as fun as possible. Technology should be fun and interesting at the same time.
True, but we get around 1500-2000 visitors a day from search engines which I’m sure helps explain some of those Internet Explorer numbers.