Australia highest % of users using FireFox

[Lucas]

The proportion of Australians using Mozilla Firefox to surf the web is among the highest in the world, according to internet trend research.

Firefox, the main competitor to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, is an open source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation that is free to install and use.

The Oceania region, which includes Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, had the highest percentage of Firefox browsers in the world at the end of last year, according to French web survey firm XiTi.

Almost one in three web users in the Oceania region – 31 per cent – were using Firefox, compared to 28 per cent in Europe and 21 per cent in the US, XiTi said.

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

http://www.news.com.au/technology/st...014111,00.html

We truly are the lucky country.

[kbob]

the real numbers are likely higher across the board. Many users, myself included, mis-identify their browser in order to get access to supposedly ie only sites that just happen to work fine in ff or opera. (note-I've bypassed all that for my trusted sites, including cmn)

The interesting part is that even the news blogs, not tech rags, but the politico sites right here in the US, report ff usage rates of around 60-72 %, not the 20's. Kinda makes you wonder what the real usage numbers would be if users were actually surveyed.

Further, if you filtered out the larger office users, frequently set up for ie only use, I'd think the numbers could be as much as 2 to 1 ff over ie, especially for medium or heavy internet users.

Actual CMN Server Browser Stats:

Browsers
Browsers Hits Percent MS Internet Explorer 4381417 67 % Firefox 1540694 23.5 % Safari 365207 5.5 % Unknown 146648 2.2 % Mozilla 49910 0.7 % Opera 32821 0.5 % Camino 8976 0.1 % Netscape 7902 0.1 %

[kbob]

Tim-for those of us that use proxy servers, most of which id themselves as something other than ff or opera, could your server stats figure it out?

Why would your proxy disguise the browser? Some sites (including CMN) actually work differently for different browsers. If it can't detect which browser you are using it might not work right for you. To answer your question, if the browser couldn't be detected then it would go into the "unknown" category.

[Riggs]

In Germany we have also over 31% (rounded) This is the highest rate in europe.

Then we are a lucky country too. Juhu!

Those numbers are more in line with US figures right now. If FF ever fixes the bugs in 2.x -- with the release of 3 (whenever that is) and if FF supersedes IE in usage then I'll happily primarily code for FF and in doing so....

Stick it to the Man!!

[kbob]

Tim-remember, I bypass my proxy server for cmn anyway!

I leave my set up to id itself as ie. It comes that way by default, and actually lets me get by several site blocks for public websites (in my case, usually county websites for real estate info) that won't let you access the site save in ie, but the site works perfectly for the entire site save the browser trap page. It also allows me to avoid browser specific attacks when doing generic web surfing et al.

When I have an issue at a site, I do try it out in opera and ie just to see if either will work. Right now, I've only got three sites I access (well, four if you count MS itself) that REQUIRE IE or you can't use it. Two are paid data sites using active x controls, and the third is a public county website where access to the mapping pages is around 5000% faster on ie than ff (not an exageration-less than 10 secs in ie, over 10-20 minutes for the same page load in ff).

By default, though, many proxy servers such as tor, privoxy, guidescope, and others mis-id your browser (sometimes to something like netscape gold v 3!) in an attempt to hide the real browser and protect the potential exploits that might be available.

[kbob]

here's the thread I referenced earlier-it's a poll not a sampling, but the results are really interesting to say the least!

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/lgf-poll.php

61% for ff, and less than 21% for ie in all its versions. Safari gets 11%.

The interesting part to me is that it's a non-techie site, rather just a political site, so that many voting for ff and against ie is a bit surprising to me. I've seen similar samples for tech sites I frequent, such as grc.com, scott finnies excellent blog, etc...

It is interesting to see the regional differences as well...

It sounds like proxies aren't helping in creating statistics that would make FF more popular. So, no -- my stats program will only record the information that's given. The real question about whether or not the stats are skewed would be, "how many users use a proxy -- and which false ID are they sending out?" I don't think that's something that can be measured with any accuracy. Just from knowing CMN's clientèle, though, I don't think the number of CMN visitors using a proxy are high enough to skew the stats dramatically. My guess is as good as yours.

[dovprst]

I don't change my browser identity (mostly Opera) and there are only a few sites where it does't work right. Is it really necessary to keep doing that?

[marimbame]

Back to the original topic... I use it and love it. I feel it is more secure, too.

Chris