[WEB4LIB] Re: Browsers

[Thomas Dowling]

Because of AOL's enormous caching operations, the Conventional Wisdom
® is that AOL users, and consequently their browsers, are chronically
underrepresented in log files.  In some more partisan contexts, this has
been used to argue that the number of IE users on the web is higher than
most log analyses suggest.  I'm sure that argument will be used in reverse
when AOL starts using Netscape.  Of course, a large number of their
current users will keep their current browser, so AOL will be an
increasingly diverse browser environment.

As that happens, of course, Mozilla will be moving to beta and to official
release (in fact, isn't AOL waiting on Mozilla code to make their
switch?).  It's a matter of defining terms whether or not all of its
incarnations count toward "Netscape Communicator" in log analyses.  From a
web authorship perspective, however, it certainly means more variation in
users' browsers rather than less.  The history of the Web suggests many
people will be scrambling to figure out why their pages fall apart in the
new browser.


Thomas Dowling
("Run, Don't Walk, To Your Nearest Validator")
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu




----- Original Message -----
From: David Merchant <merchant at bayou.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Friday, June 04, 1999 4:44 PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: Browsers


> I've heard that AOL will have, in the near future, Netscape as it's
> browser, so maybe NN use will go back up.
>
> I may be fuzzy on the above "facts" though!
>