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Know Your Web Audience
When
you want to know what browsers people are using these days, there are
several sites that offer monthly statistics for surfing trends. One of the
best known is TheCounter.com.
The stats they give are based upon their own server logs and those of
their customers so don't take them as being anything other than that.
Browser
News hedges the bets by giving stats from four different sources - and
they differ quite considerably. They also go to great lengths to point out
that no single source of statistics can be considered meaningful and warn
'use statistics with extreme caution', which is very sound advice.
Google
provides a browser stats graph based upon people who used their search
engine over the previous few years, which must cover just about everybody,
but they are careful not to be too specific and the graph only provides a
rough overall picture. Interesting though!
The only stats that really matter are those from your own site visitors.
At the lower end of the market, ISPs don't provide any logs, which means
you have to use page counters. Some page counters can be set to be
invisible on the page and only show in the source code.
A step up from that, the ISP gives you access to the raw log data and it's
up to you to make sense of it - which isn't easy. Raw server logs
generally record every 'hit' which means that if you have a page with six
rollover GIF buttons, an external style sheet and JavaScript file, that
will give you one hit for the page request, six for the rollover 'off'
buttons, six for the rollover 'over' buttons, one for the style sheet and
one for the JavaScript file making fifteen hits total.
Ideally, your server logs should be 'parsed' by some log analysis software
such as Analog or Webalizer.
These break down the raw data into more human readable forms.
I use Webalizer, which is installed on the server. When I log into it from
my browser, it gives a summary graph showing the number of unique visitors
- which is the most meaningful figure, the total number of pages visited
and that less-than-useful, hit count of each and every object requested.
There is also a count of the kilobytes of data served up which is useful
if you have bandwidth limits.
Out of interest, Web Crafts (partner) had its most successful month ever
in November with 65656 unique visitors reading 215662 pages. The Webalizer
report shows me that the web design page had the highest percentage of
visitors (which prompted this month's 'inside-out' format). It also shows
where the hits come from, both the part of the World and the sites that
referred them.
Unfortunately, browser stats are not very reliable at the best of times
because some browsers are deliberately supplying 'wrong user agent
information. For instance, my bank only allows me to log-in if I'm using
IE or Netscape 4.x. If I use Safari, the bank's website puts up an alert
message saying 'unsupported browser!' and blocks further access. If I go
into the normally hidden 'Debug' menu, I can set Safari to pretend to be
Explorer and send an IE 5.2 user agent. Then the bank's site lets me in.
Opera also allows the user agent to be changed in its preferences. Of
course, this means that Safari and Opera get a raw deal when it comes to
browser stats. They just don't get noticed.
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