Here are the browser statistics for NZS.com over the month of October 2009.

The key trends that we’re seeing in this month’s NZ browser statistics;

• IE8 is now the most used browser on NZS.com with a 3% margin to IE7
• Internet Explorer has dropped by over 1% overall
• Firefox, Safari and Chrome are all gaining in popularity

This month Internet Explorer has dropped by over 1% with most of this drop related to IE6. Over the past few months Internet Explorer 6 has been decreasing rather slowly, but this month has seen it drop by over a percentage.

Is this due to the highly anticipated Windows 7 now being released? Could this be the IE6 killer that us web developers all long and hope for? We will have to wait and see, but next month’s stats could well tell us if there is any truth behind this theory.

This data is taken from Google Analytics on NZS.com over the month of October 2009. You can see more information on the number of visitors the data is sourced from on the NZS.com Statistics page.

Here are the browser statistics for NZS.com over the month of September 2009.

The key trends that we’re seeing in this month’s NZ browser statistics;

• Firefox, Safari and Chrome are all making small but steady percentage gains.
• Internet Explorer on the whole has declined slightly
• IE8 is on the brink of taking over from IE7 as the top used browser on NZS.com

Internet Explorer 8 is again on the move and has taken its gains from IE7 and IE6, bringing it ever closer to being the most used browser on NZS.com. The slow demise of Internet Explorer 6 is arguably due to the “corporate” users whose companies systems rely on IE6, or only upgrade their browsers when they get a new OS such as Windows Vista or the newly awaited Windows 7.

This data is taken from Google Analytics on NZS.com over the month of September 2009. You can see more information on the number of visitors the data is sourced from on the NZS.com Statistics page.

The New Zealand newspaper industry has come a long way since the first primitive printers introduced to the country cut their teeth on our flagship publications.

While the style, tone, content and context of newspaper in New Zealand continues to change to keep up with the evolution of society and technological advancements, daily newspapers in NZ still retain a loyal readership, both regionally and nationally.

While the advent of online newspaper has brought news into the digital age, most New Zealand news sources have kept up, offering readers both print and online options for their preferred news consumption.

Here are the browser statistics for NZS.com over the month of August 2009.

The key trends that we’re seeing in this month’s NZ browser statistics;

• IE 8 has taken another 5% from IE7.
• Safari and Chrome have taken small percentages away from Firefox and IE

Again IE8 is making strides in its bid to be the top IE browser on NZS.com taking another 5% from IE7. Within the IE statistics the percentages are; IE7 44%, IE8 35% and IE6 at 20%.

This data is taken from Google Analytics on NZS.com over the month of August 2009. You can see more information on the number of visitors the data is sourced from on the NZS.com Statistics page.

As promised late last month, here are the browser statistics for NZS.com over the month of July 2009.

The key trends that we’re seeing in this months NZ browser statistics;

• FireFox is now above 20%
• Chrome has risen above 3%
• IE8 has overtaken IE6

As above, one thing to note behind the Internet Explorer statistics is that in July ‘09  IE8 has stormed past IE6. Within the IE statistics the percentages are; IE7 49%, IE8 29% and IE6 still at 22%.

So, while IE7 is still the dominant browser being used on NZS.com it looks like IE8 could be set to take over the mantle of #1 browser before the end of 2009. The demise of IE6 has not sped up at all over 2009 so it looks like the browser is still set to be around for some time yet, much to the dismay of most web developers.

This data is taken from Google Analytics on NZS.com over the month of July 2009 . You can see more information on the number of visitors the data is sourced from on the NZS.com Statistics page.

SME’s make up some 96% of businesses in New Zealand and it’s almost a national tradition for SME owners to get out, network with their peers and finding answers to their business questions around a barbeque or over a beer.

While NZS.com is currently focused on building an online resource for SME’s to help find answers for presenting themselves on the web, it’s bizchat that’s working to build a community site aiming to recreate those peer-to-peer conversations over the barbeque covering the complete spectrum of Q & A’s.

Any site that’s looking to help SME’s in such an open, community oriented way is a great resource for the New Zealand business community and well deserving of support.

Founded by SME owners, bizchat aims to fill a hole in the market where answers to questions are facilitated better by conversations with other SME’s who have already been through the same situation and are interested in helping their counterparts.

Building a vibrant and dynamic forum with varying channels of information is a key part of their initiative as they look to cover SME specific news feeds, events relevant for SME’s and a resource library sourced from varied support organisations.

If you’re thinking of starting a business or already have one and are looking for sales & marketing ideas, pop through to www.bizchat.co.nz and have a look around their forums.

The team here are very excited with the way the recently launched Website Resources section on NZS.com is building momentum since it was launched last month. Businesses from across New Zealand are getting involved by adding their business details directly to NZS.com including using the extra marketing options for marketing descriptions, search tags and even marketing URL’s like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Anyone adding their business details also receives a “Business Info” button next to their website listing in the normal category results which is proving a valuable addition. For an example, have a look at the Black Sheep Marketing listing further down the page on the Strategic Marketing category. This helps increase clicks through to your website from NZS.com and it only takes a few minutes to complete.

To give you an idea of the information you could have on NZS.com as well you can see what Avatar Web Promotions have entered on the Avatar.co.nz Site Profile.

All you need to do is head along to the Website Resources section on NZS.com, register and follow the instructions.

While you’re there, if you’re interested in a succinct introduction on how New Zealand websites can enhance their performance, usability and visibility, read The First 15 – A Guide To Improving Website Performance.

Investigating a search trend in any one day almost always turns up something unexpected.

After looking through the latest top searches on NZS.com I came across a number of searches for the “new zealand flag meaning” and similar terms.

Sounds like there’s a school project going on with students researching the meaning of the New Zealand flag on the Internet?

If you’re looking for the New Zealand flag meaning, you can have a look at our own Flags Category for clues, or perhaps the history of the NZ flag from the Ministry of Culture & Heritage will provide a helpful resource.

For interest, you may want to be careful how you display the New Zealand flag as the Flags, Emblems and Names Protection Act 1981 defines how the flag can be used, and allows for prosecution on misuse!

Good luck with the research!

Image from Flickr.

Looking for a way to save your hard earned cash, but spend at the same time? The best way to get great deals is to clip coupons, but you don’t have to scour the weekly junk mail from your letterbox for them anymore!

Virtually clipping printable coupons means you can enjoy discounts from all of your favourite service providers – from video stores to local bars and thousands of things in between. We’ve come a long way from clipping coupons from circulars on a weekly basis, they’re now printable! That’s right, printable discount vouchers are the wave of the future. Simply select the vouchers you want to use from many of the top brands and companies from your city, print, and redeem.

Whenever you plan to go out, print off some more money saving coupons – there are no limits, no fees, no worries! Spending and saving at the same time doesn’t get simpler than that.

With the OCR at a record low of 3.5%, it’s a great time to invest in a new house as you can get a low mortgage rate, but those with savings investments get the short stick with lower interest rates. Investing definitely has its ups and downs.

Are investments ever absolutely safe? Cars and houses can depreciate, stocks can fall and businesses can have rocky times, so of course not. However, having savings in the bank is a pretty safe investment to have, and believe it or not, you can still get great, competitive interest rates. While the market average interest rate is 3.55% from the big banks in New Zealand at the moment, there are online banking services which can give you an on-call interest rate of 4.50%.

How do they do this? Online banks have no branches and no tellers, meaning smaller overheads. Smaller overheads means small margins need to be made to cover costs, so instead of contributing to a bank branch’s power bill, you get a higher interest rate (meaning more interest earnings in your account). Nice to know that in these financially challenging times you can still get a high interest rate, isn’t it?