Browser use statistics -Reply

[Dan Lester]

This mini survey of browser stats confirms my previous
impression that the answer is "it all depends".  To get any
realistic numbers, on a general basis, you'd have to cumulate
figures from many sites, and/or look at major national sites
that are not oriented to a particular platform or a particular
browser.  

For specific analysis, you can only analyze your own stats. 
Our current figures are less than one percent lynx, since
almost all of our local clients, on or off campus, are using
graphical browsers.  Two years ago we had over fifteen
percent lynx for a variety of reasons.  

We've seen the same change in IE catching up on NS, but
not at the rate that is touted in ads and national articles. 
Why?  We have a large installed base of NS users, both
internally and externally.  After all, NS was there first and
many people don't change or upgrade as often as some of us.
 However, now that all new campus computers come with
Win95 and IE on them, some are starting to change.  Also,
the New User CDROMs from local ISPs generally include
recent versions of both NS and IE.  

I recommend that people use lynx-friendly techniques, but
with GUI web page creation tools it isn't always as "easy" or
"automatic" to do so.  And, many simply don't bother.  I don't
obsess about it, as our pages are not graphics intensive
anyway, and we don't use graphics-only links.

So, as is usually the case, "it all depends".  o-)

dan