Browser Stats For The BBC Homepage

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Browser Stats For The BBC Homepage

Posted by Zonk on Sunday October 23, 2005 @10:45PM from the edification-early-and-often dept.

Lord_Scrumptious writes "An interesting article titled 'The software used to access the BBC homepage' has recently been published on a blog by a BBC employee. It's all about the different browsers and operating systems accessing the BBC's homepage. The analysis is from a week of page requests in September 2005. Not surprisingly, Internet Explorer accounted for 85% of site visits, but Firefox had a very respectable 9.7% share. Even requests from Sony's handheld PSP device were recorded, but interestingly there's no mention of mobile phone devices."

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Finally.... by odaen · 2005-10-23 22:49 · Score: 5, Insightful

Finally some reliable website records which arn't off some obscure coding page. :)
errr by scenestar · 2005-10-23 22:52 · Score: 5, Insightful

Linux (various distributions) 0.41%

Windows Vista 0.15%

MSFT's unreleased os has nearly the same market share as linux?

We've got a long way to go.

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perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
1. Re:errr by odaen · 2005-10-23 23:04 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  So what you are saying is that 1 in 11 people I walk up to on the street will be using Linux?
  
  I think not.
2. Re:errr by Tet · 2005-10-23 23:29 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Most linux people use a browser string to look like windows so sites wont reject them.
  Errr... no. Most Linux users will use the default setting for their browser, which for most people will not identify them at using Windows or IE. Yes, a very small number of people will do this, but to claim that it's "most" is just laughable.
  
  --
  "The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
Variability by site by danfreak · 2005-10-23 22:54 · Score: 5, Insightful

Interesting. I wonder how much variation there is of browser use by other sites... I imagine BBC is higher than most in the Mozilla-bred catagory, as the BBC News site has posted lots of articles about Firefox over the years. I wonder how different it would be for msn.com, foxnews.com etc.
On a related note, I hosted some pictures on my website last week that were posted into a fark.com forum, 47.6% of fark readers seem to use Firefox (from some 14,000 hits in two days) - I bet slashdot beats this though!
Fatally Flawed by Anonymous Coward · 2005-10-23 23:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

I visit the BBC web site multiple times a day, but I haven't been to the "main" page in months. I expect most regular Firefox visitors will have bookmarks or just type a URL that goes past the main page.

The author does point this out:
And I must stress again, these figures don't represent the breakdown of visitors to the BBC site as a whole, they are based on requests to the homepage alone, over the course of one week in September. Nevertheless I think they provide an interesting snapshot of web activity.

but it should have been avoided
BBC news, typically read at work by Colin+Smith · 2005-10-23 23:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

So it's probably about right for UK business desktop stats.

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Deleted
No MSI build for Firefox - no mass deployment by ph1l0r · 2005-10-23 23:14 · Score: 5, Insightful

at companies that run Windows clients. I wouldn't bother to install Firefox more of less by hand on hundreds of desktops myself. The Firefox guys should really get a MSI build ready for easy deployment _and_ update. Firefox is just not 100% enterprise ready like IE is with it's managabilty by group policies. I wonder how many people check bbc.co.uk from their workplace. They might even have Firefox installed on their home computer.
Super Respectable by Mulletproof · 2005-10-23 23:18 · Score: 4, Insightful

"but Firefox had a very respectable 9.7% share."

I use firefox and even I can't keep a strait face reading that line. I mean have some self-worth, man. There's nothing respectable about that. Can't we aim just a tad higher here? Especially if we're gonna tag on the word "very"?

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You need a FREE iPod Nano
Re:As always, defaults play a role by IngramJames · 2005-10-23 23:35 · Score: 4, Insightful

Firefox comes a preloaded RSS feed ... that points to the BBC for news

Maybe so, but that's not the homepage, which is from where the stats were taken :-)

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'No rational religion claims "supernatural" exists, that's an atheist slander.' - seen on slashdot.
Re:Opera by peterpi · 2005-10-24 00:02 · Score: 4, Insightful

To the nearest few percent they are trustworthy, even with your Opera install skewing the figures.
We need to remember that people who do unusual things with unusual browsers are an incredibly small fraction of all internet users. The message of the article is that there's very rougly a 8/1/1 split between IE, firefox and 'other'. That message is not affected in the slightest by Opera, lynx or any other niche browser.
Re:LATE BREAKING NEWS!!! by julesh · 2005-10-24 01:37 · Score: 4, Insightful

Is the BBC homepage supposed to reflect some important or signifigant user base?

Yes. It is probably the broadest cross section of mostly British web users you are likely to find on a single site.

The fact that nearly 10% of those users use firefox is particularly relevant, and is a good weapon for those of us who do commercial web design to persuade our clients that the extra work to support alternative browsers properly *is* worth it.