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StatCounter Blasts Microsoft's Claim About IE Still Being the Number 1 Browser
An anonymous reader writes "Do you remember when Microsoft tried to claim that Internet Explorer was still the most-used browser by accusing StatCounter of using a flawed methodology? Well, StatCounter has just posted a response that walks through a number of errors and omissions in Microsoft's reasoning. They (rather politely) explain the importance of sample size, discuss the value of page view counts versus unique visitor counts, and explain the difference between their methodology and that of Net Applications."
I was, at least, interested in the bit about why they use Page Views instead of Unique Visitors. My initial reaction would have been to side with Microsoft with the Unique Visitors metric, but StatCounter makes a great case...
- Person opens IE on a machine (for whatever reason) and uses a site that's part of their network. Let's call it five pageviews.
- Then they close IE and use Chrome or Firefox for 500 more pageviews, to every other site, for the rest of the day.
Now using Uniques, you'd show that person as an IE user. Or at maybe you'd 50/50 it. Both methods poorly represent that person's browser usage than the total pageviews by browser. It's not perfect, but it does make sense.
Their youtube video makes it quite clear, and it's good that they did this.