Desktop Web Environments Currently Being Tested
Note that Nyetech may implement your website using “Graceful Degradation” techniques or “Progressive Enhancement”. In short, Graceful Degradation means that interface designs presented to the client, should visually be considered “Best Case Scenario”. Meaning that the interface design will likely look very similar in the most current versions of web browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Older browsers from a year or two ago may still display your website, but may certain modern design techniques (such as rounded corners and drop-shadows) presented as your “Best Case Scenario” design, will not display on older browsers.
As of July 2016, our Nyetech team will test your new websites using the following platforms, browsers and versions – typically using Graceful Degradation techniques; older websites created, may not be compatible with current standards. Newer versions of web browsers, may be substituted for any of the following, by Nyetech:
- Windows 10, Internet Explorer 11, Edge V38+, Firefox 47+, Chrome 53
- Mac OSX 10.11.5+, Firefox 47+, Safari 9+, Chrome 53+
Other testing environments and web browsers can be arranged, for additional project fees. However due to the complexity and cost of supporting additional environments/browsers, this is not provided by default.
Also due to a reduction in market share and technical limitations, as well as more complex coding and support requirements, Internet Explorer v6 SP3 (as installed by Windows XP SP3) and Internet Explorer v7, v8, v9 and v10 are no longer supported by Nyetech, for most of our projects. However IE v6, v7 and v8 can be added, in addition to other older browser versions or other browser vendors, for additional project fees.
Mobile Web/App Environments Currently Being Tested
As of July 2016, Nyetech will test your new websites & apps (when specifically specified as included – in a proposal) including website projects where “Responsive Design” (multiple grids supporting multiple device display sizes) or “Adaptive Design” techniques are utilized. Note that our devices are tested over a WiFi network (not necessarily a 3G/4G/LTE cell/mobile phone carrier) with the devices/environments listed below; older mobile sites and apps created, may not be compatible with current standards:
- iPhone 6 with iOS 9+ using Safari (1334 x 750 display)
- iPad mini [4] with iOS 9+ using Safari (2048×1536 display)
What Other Web Browsers Are In Use Today?
Web Browser Usage Analytics for the Existing Site
If you are redesigning or redeveloping your own website, or a portion thereof, the place you should look first for web Browsers in use, is what your own audience/visitors are using. You can find browser usage statistics in most Server web Logs. These logs can be interpreted by several open source web log reporting tools such as Analog, AWStats, or Webalizer. You may also have setup accounts with third party analytical software websites such as Google Analytics or Web Trends. These sites require special code to be included into your Web page HTML, to be reported on properly.
In general if a large portion of your audience is using a certain W\web browser or version of a browser, then you should take this into consideration when making plans for any major change.
General Global Web Browser Usage Analytics
There are several third party sites that attempt to determine the global marketshare of various web browsers. A summary of these sites and their history and pros/cons (and innacuracies) can be found on Wikipedia.
Several of the sites referenced in Wikipedia, and how these sites compile their data, is summarized below.
However, where possible, you should look at the statistics by browser version, not just all versions of a browser compiled together (which is usually the default view). The reason: because different versions of browsers support different web standards and enhancements. The biggest concern for Nyetech, is Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8. We typically no longer support these versions in our development, due to their non-compliance of current standards and cost/expense of continuing to support them (in general, support of older Internet Explorer browsers requires almost a different HTML front-end versus all other browsers). For more information IE6 and its ultimate fading into history, see http://www.theie6countdown.com (created by Microsoft).
StatCounter: Stats are based on aggregate data collected by StatCounter on a sample exceeding 15 billion pageviews per month collected from across the StatCounter network of more than 3 million websites. Note: select the “Statistics” drop down under the chart, and select “Browser Version” for best interpretation.
Net Applications/NETMarketShare: They collect data from the browsers of site visitors to their exclusive on-demand network of live stats customers. The data is compiled from approximately 160 million visitors per month. The information published is an aggregate of the data from this network of hosted website statistics.
W3Counter: Reports are generated based on the last 15,000 page views to each website tracked by W3Counter. W3Counter’s sample currently includes 47,262 websites. The browser market share graph includes data from all versions of the named browser families, not only the top 10 as listed.
StatOwl: Data is made up of an average of 28 million unique visitors per month to the network of websites that they collect data from. They do their best to collect data only from websites that have a broad appeal taking things like target market, audience, geographic location and type of website into consideration. They attempt to cover a good mix of all of these indicators to provide as accurate a look as possible into Internet browsing trends.
Clicky: Marketshare is calculated from over 300 million daily page views across the 300,000+ websites that use Clicky Web Analytics.
WikiMedia: Wikimedia traffic analysis reports are based on server logs of about 4 billion page requests per month, based on the user agent information that accompanied the requests. These server logs cover requests to all the Wikimedia Foundation projects, including Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikinews, Wikiversity and others.
In addition to the above sites referenced in Wikipedia, Nyetech has also referenced the following site for our clients. The reason we reference W3Schools, is the fact that many of our clients feel that their web users may be slightly more web savvy than then general population – and thus may be keeping their web browsers up-to-date. W3Schools data is taken from more tech savvy useres:
W3Schools: W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to the browser that comes preinstalled with their computer, and do not seek out other browser alternatives. These facts indicate that the browser figures above are not 100% realistic. Other websites have statistics showing that Internet Explorer is a more popular browser. Note: click the Web Browser’s name in the lists, to see a breakdown of usage by browser version, for best interpretation.