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.

Do you know your Firefox from your Safari? Your Chrome from your Opera? Do you know what web browser you use when you use the Internet?

A link was sent to me today to this cool little website, brought to us by ‘some folks at Google’. The back story is that when Google launched Chrome they did a survey in Times Square in New York, asking more than 50 passersby of different ages and backgrounds one seemingly simple question:

As you’ll see if you check out the video footage the results are pretty embarrassing, and the What Browser? website offers a quick snapshot and overview of what exactly a browser is for anyone too embarrassed to ask…

I’m happy to admit I actually learned a thing or two myself!

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.

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.

While some IE users haven’t yet made the switch to Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft has launched the first beta form of IE 8.

Is Internet Explorer still the most-used browser?
From our own statistics, we can see around 75% of visitors to NZS.com are viewing the site through Internet Explorer. Of these, around 57% are using IE 7 and 41% have stuck with the earlier IE 6. (In October 2007, we noted the slow uptake of IE 7 which was released in October 2006). Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still has the largest market share in Internet browsers worldwide, competing with others including Apple’s Safari and Mozilla Firefox, Google’s preferred browser.

So, what’s new with the new IE?
Microsoft advances further with beta IE 8. Tech-eyes are scouring Internet Explorer’s newest iteration and comparing it with Mozilla’s soon-to-be-released Firefox 3. While it’s mainly suited to Web developers, this early version of IE 8 does have a couple of new user features:

• Activities – allows users to highlight text and right click to open an Activities window in the same tab, rather than opening a whole new Web page. This means you can quickly and easily view a map for an address or translate text to a different language without leaving the page.
• WebSlices – when enabled in a site, a WebSlice is detected by IE 8 and a button appears on the browser tool bar. Clicking on this button will subscribe you to the WebSlice, adding it to your favourites and enabling you to view content from the tool bar without launching the website.

There is also an enhanced security feature and a handy button to switch your browser back to an IE 7 rendering of the site you’re viewing (great for developers). And developers will be happy too with IE 8’s default standards-compliant mode.

Where can I get IE 8?
In its early form, Internet Explorer 8.0 is rated developers-only and not recommended for regular users. If you’re keen, you can download IE 8 and get exploring on the Web with the latest version.

As a New Zealand Search Directory with almost entirely New Zealand traffic (close to 300,000 user sessions; see Nielsen statistics), NZS.com is in a good position to follow New Zealand Internet browser usage statistics.

With the introduction of Internet Explorer 7.0 (commonly known as IE7) in October 2006, the browser statistics on NZS.com have shown a surprisingly gradual change from IE6 to IE7.

The graph to the right shows Internet Explorer percentages over the last five months (May 2007 to September 2007), indicating that IE7 is slowly taking over from IE6 but is taking longer than many expected. With the launch of IE7 a full year ago now, as well as the increased functionality (eg. tabbed browsing) which has been introduced in IE7, there were many expectations that it would quickly surpass IE6 in usage.

A recent blog post on Microsoft’s official IEBlog shows a change this month in the way IE7 is distributed:

Internet Explorer 7 installation will no longer require Windows Genuine Advantage validation and will be available to all Windows XP users.

With this new development, it’s likely there will be an increase in percentage uptake of IE7 over IE6. We’ll keep an eye on our statistics with interest.