On 06/02/09 11:09, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> Why is Net Applications (Hitslink) changing its browser stats after publishing
> them?
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | I was curious to see how the uptake of Google's Chrome browser would be,
> | considering that they were promoting it on their front page. I looked it up
> | on a special page set up by Net Applications to track Chrome usage before I
> | left for work. It seemed to do pretty well, as it climbed above 1%, passing
> | Opera's alleged market share. Not really surprising considering the massive
> | media coverage it was getting.
> |
> | When I got back later and reloaded the page, I noticed that it had gone down
> | to 0.5% or so the last few hours. I still left the page open, and returned a
> | little later. To my surprise, the page was no longer showing the same numbers
> | for the same time. It's as if it had never shown 0.5%.
> `----
>
> http://my.opera.com/haavard/blog/2008/09/04/why-is-net-applications-hitslink-changing-its-browser-stats-after-publishing
>
> Hmmmmm...
>
> Let's see...
>
> Microsoft (and Apple) money on their table with results that satisfy both.
> Might logs from Apple.com explain the Hackintosh share?
>
> One of the executives used to work for Microsoft.
>
> Net Applications uses a Microsoft stack for hosting.
>
> Net Applications does not count traffic.
>
> Net Applications admits its stats are flawed.
>
> Net Applications keeps its methods secret.
>
> But hey! hey produce charts!! Therefore it must be true.
It's interesting that this Net Applications thing is coming up all the
time now. I had never heard of it before the other day, when I announced
that Firefox had overtaken IE as most popular browser according to
W3Schools's stats (news I found in this very group).
People immediately pointed to Net Applications which shows only
20-something percent for Firefox. Now, I admit the W3Schools stats are
probably biased towards what web developers use (I mean, what web
developer uses IE? Seriously..) but Net Applications stats seem
completely biased towards Microsoft.
This is also evident in their OS stats page which reports "Linux" at
just 0.8%. This is below estimates that were made some years ago.
Compare it to W3Counter: http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php and
W3Schools: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp
In the end, the browser and OS stats are meaningless anyway, though.
Think of all the poor users forced to use Windows and IE at their
school, library or work. One has to wonder what the picture would be
like if all users had a choice. This is why I welcome the EU action on
IE included with Windows, of course.
I know that as far as browsers go, I am prepared to say that Firefox is
the most popular *choice* among browsers. In fact it probably was a few
years ago, it may now be the overwhelmingly popular choice, and rightly so.
--
George Kettleborough
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