Posts Tagged ‘firefox’

Browser Share Report and More…

December 10th, 2009 by Richard Zwicky

Last week I posted some information about user behavior in relation to depth of visit. This week I’m going to share some data regarding how different browsers result in varying user behavior.

For the month of November, I decided to break down the user behavior differences behind Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE), Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Google’s Chrome. At first glance one would assume that if someone visits a web site time on site and pages viewed should not be affected by browser. Yet, this is not the case. One could argue that Chrome and Firefox users are more sophisticated, as evidenced by the fact that they deleted their default browser, Safari and MSIE usage is almost identical, which should be the norm if default browsers were used, as it reflects the simplest behavior patterns. The most sophisticated users would change away from the defaults, and be faster / less patient in navigating sites.

Are Mac users really any more sophisticated than Windows users; perhaps not…?

Browser Percentage of Visitors Average Pages Viewed Average Time on Site
MSIE 60.38% 4.60 0:04:08
Firefox 25.08% 3.85 0:03:42
Safari 8.58% 4.33 0:04:01
Chrome 3.42% 3.65 0:03:35

The change in browser usage away from MSIE is truly stunning. I’m going to monitor this drop, and Chrome’s surge in case it was Holiday related. Stranger things have happened.

About the data. Enquisite works with thousands of sites worldwide and captures a trove of relevant search-related data every day. The browser shares reported here are based on data from a selection of Enquisite-tagged sites that cumulatively represent over 350 million page views/month, across most major industry sectors - a very significant sample size. The data reported solely reflects our data.


Browser Market Share Update - Oct 2009

November 4th, 2009 by Richard Zwicky

Ongoing trends continue to bear out in the browser share numbers. It will be interesting to observe what happens in November and December with the Android numbers due to the Droid phone releases at Verizon (VZ). With their incredible reach, we might be able to observe the trends relating to number of phones that are activated reflected shortly in Android browser market share.

July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009
MSIE (all) 67.59% 66.75% 66.61% 64.65%
Firefox 19.09% 21.99% 21.13% 21.70%
Chrome 1.83% 2.27% 2.38% 2.28%
iPhone 0.45% 0.59% 0.58% 0.66%
Android 0.04% 0.04% 0.04% 0.05%

About the data. Enquisite works with thousands of sites worldwide and captures a trove of relevant search-related data every day. The browser shares reported here are based on data from a selection of Enquisite-tagged sites that cumulatively represent over 350 million page views/month, across most major industry sectors - a very significant sample size. The data reported solely reflects our data.


Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox Continue to Grow; Don't Ignore Mobile

October 6th, 2009 by Richard Zwicky

Around this time last year, I looked at browser market share in the context of Google’s Chrome browser release. The market has definitely changed quite a bit since last year. Most surprisingly for me is how Chrome rebounded from a soft launch. Firefox, Chrome and Safari now account for nearly 31% of search queries worldwide, up 50% over September, 2008. Interestingly, Firefox and Safari have both grown by almost 45% in their combined market share vs. November, 2008.

At first glance this particular data set doesn’t appear to help much with SEO. But usability is a major concern of any SEO, and browser compatibility is key to usability. So SEOs need to understand these trends and plan accordingly to render properly within the leading browsers.

Separately, my friend Cindy Krum is always asking me about mobile browser data. Total mobile browser market share now surpasses 1% of all search engine referral browser views. Not surprisingly, the iPhone leads the pack at is at almost 0.6% marketshare, which is significant, and double the share vs. April of this year. RIM, Opera and Android and a few others make up the remainder. One year ago, Android was a non-issue. Now, it’s 0.04%. Still tiny, but noticeable. SEOs need to pay attention to this emerging trend. The real estate in the organic listings on the mobile browsers is much smaller, and the likelihood of people on mobile browsers going to page 2 in the results is also lower, so being at the top of the page one listings in mobile really is all that matters.

July 2009 August 2009 September 2009
MSIE (all) 67.59% 66.75% 66.61%
Firefox 19.09% 21.99% 21.13%
Safari 5.12% 6.86% 7.08%
Chrome 1.83% 2.27% 2.38%
iPhone 0.45% 0.59% 0.58%
Android 0.04% 0.04% 0.04%

About the data. Enquisite works with thousands of sites worldwide and captures a trove of relevant search-related data every day. The browser shares reported here are based on data from a selection of Enquisite-tagged sites that cumulatively represent over 350 million page views/month, across most major industry sectors - a very significant sample size.

Lastly, yesterday marked the kick-off for SMX East. Sadly, I’m not going to be there this year, as I had to bow out at the last minute for personal reasons. I know a few people, Jessica Bowman among them, had commented that were looking forward to some data, so in that vein, I hope this provides some insight into what’s going on in the search world. More data on blog posts to come.

postscript - for those who don’t like having 2 windows open… here’s the numbers from last year…

Date Chrome Firefox Safari MS IE (All)
09/30/08 0.501% 15.007% 4.321% 79.832%
10/15/08 0.433% 15.387% 4.178% 79.592%
10/20/08 0.462% 15.643% 4.296% 79.183%