Browser Statistics

[aphido]

I'm trying to convince my boss that FF is a browser to be taken seriously- Now I pointed to the W3C browser stats which show that FF has a roughly 20% usage share, which has been increasing steadily. However our log files show that IE6 forms over 90% of browsers to our site- does anyone use any other sites for browser usage stats? I need to stop my boss using IE!

[Blackie]

Hi Aphido,

Just keep showing W3C stats to your boss if you want to convince him on this matter. Still it looks like the visitors of your site are on your bosses side :-)

Or it could be that the functionallity of your site presses users to use ie (if the site does not work well with FF, Opera and others) You can use this argument if this is the case.

Good luck.

[bumpaw]

I need to stop my boss using IE!

I think some folks are just against free things. They wonder how can something that's given away be as good as that which Microsoft spent millions developing for a profit. They may even associate the term "Free" with sales gimmicks. If they can't be objective and consider the quality of the offerings then you are lost.

[chriswragg]

I need to stop my boss using IE!

If your company has a firewall and antivirus software like most companies do these days, your boss probably thinks that it isn't worth the hassle, and he's/she's probably right.

[Farix]

Exactly what is your goal? Do you just want your website to be accommodating to Firefox? Or are you trying to replace IE in your office environment with Firefox? The former really should be that hard of an argument to make. You just reference the number of Firefox instillations there are and show your boss just how your website is "locking out" this potential market share. It may also be worth pitching in a site optimization angle to reduce the overall bandwidth. I just hope you are not dealing with a boss who is in the "It's not broke, so it doesn't need to be fix" camp.

But the latter may be something that will be near impossible to achieve.

[aphido]

"It's not broke, so it doesn't need to be fix"

I'm afraid he sits firmly in this camp :( As for the idea that if you have a firewall / antivirus running then you dont need to bother switching browsers, I have to disagree- Surely the only way to move away from the nightmares of HTML soup, proprietary plugins and CSS hacks is to use a browser that follows web standards? IE might be getting better (IE7 is supposed to address a lot of current issues) but FF IMHO is by far a better and safer browsing experience.

This is starting to sound like the conversations I have with my boss....

[Farix]

Again, are you trying to accommodate FF on the website or are you trying to replace IE in your office environment? Judging by what you have already explained, you seem to be attempting the latter.

[aphido]

The latter. I guess like most designers, I've always tested my sites across numerous platforms... however getting people in your office to use a different browser is a different matter. Still, managed to convert a few people...