[wdvltalk] Re: javascript survey (was Site Check Please [Rudy])
Will, Useful link! I think one needs to be cautious, though, about giving much weight to any such survey ... I couldn't quickly find a description of how thecounter.com gathers their stats, but such sites often use either their own access records or combine the access records of a few other sites. Thus, you're seeing how many users *of that site* have javascript enabled--useful if you believe that your site will have a similar demographic, but that isn't guaranteed. If you know (for example) that your site will be used by visually impaired users, then you'd better go find a survey of javascript enablement for *that* demographic. This issue has been rather on my mind of late, because I design web applications used primarily by university-based biologists. We made some design decisions based on general browser stats (most users have IE, most have a relatively recent javascript version enabled, etc)--then it turned out that university labs have a radically different base of installed operating systems (and thus browsers) than does the general public. Linux and Mac actually seem to dominate ... so back to the drawing board on some of those decisions. Brings home how essential it is to know *your* users. Amanda Birmingham Web Application Developer At 12:11 PM 1/8/2004 -0500, you wrote: I know I'm coming into this late, but here is a statistic (not sure if it's accurate or not) of the percentage of JavaScript users: http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2003/December/javas.php HTH, Will The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To set a personal password send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words: set WDVLTALK pw=yourpassword in the body of the email. To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub http://www.wdvl.com ___ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with.
[wdvltalk] Re: javascript survey (was Site Check Please [Rudy])
The counter gets its stats from website that are using the free counter they offer. Generally the stats will be skewed towards hobby sites since they are generally on free hosting or hosting provided as part of their ISP package and don't have access to real statistics. As you pointed out if you get a lot of academics you will see a much higher rate of Linux/Mac users than you will in the general population. I had a site that as recently as April 2003 received over 40% of its hits from NN 4.x users because it was a site related to a class I teach for a local users group. Their computer lab (and every other computer on the premises) had NN 4.67 as the default web browser. Since many of the members have the user group as their ISP when they would call for tech support it would be strongly recommended that they use NN 4.x. I kept trying to convince them that if they didn't want IE they should use Mozilla or NN 7 but those weren't stable enough for the admins, gh. Now they have standardized on IE 6 with XP Pro after the latest round of updates but I've still over heard tech support saying that NN 4.x was still the best. I'd bang my head in frustration if I didn't already have a headache. Cheryl D. Wise Certified Professional Web Developer MS-MVP-FrontPage www.wiserways.com mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 713.353.0139 Office -Original Message- From: Amanda Birmingham Useful link! I think one needs to be cautious, though, about giving much weight to any such survey ... I couldn't quickly find a description of how thecounter.com gathers their stats, but such sites often use either their own access records or combine the access records of a few other sites. Thus, you're seeing how many users *of that site* have javascript enabled--useful if you believe that your site will have a similar demographic, but that isn't guaranteed. If you know (for example) that your site will be used by visually impaired users, then you'd better go find a survey of javascript enablement for *that* demographic. This issue has been rather on my mind of late, because I design web applications used primarily by university-based biologists. We made some design decisions based on general browser stats (most users have IE, most have a relatively recent javascript version enabled, etc)--then it turned out that university labs have a radically different base of installed operating systems (and thus browsers) than does the general public. Linux and Mac actually seem to dominate ... so back to the drawing board on some of those decisions. Brings home how essential it is to know *your* users. The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To set a personal password send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words: set WDVLTALK pw=yourpassword in the body of the email. To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub http://www.wdvl.com ___ You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe via postal mail, please contact us at: Jupitermedia Corp. Attn: Discussion List Management 475 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016 Please include the email address which you have been contacted with.
