Browser stats and page optimization

11 July 2006

I can only have suspicions about which browsers are more commonly used on Macs. Don't trust any statistics, even if they are based on your own server log files. The reason for this is that very often in the past 10 years, silly site builders have constructed artificial roadblocks for minority Mac browsers, i.e. you couldn't even gain access to the site without doing one of two things:

  1. Switch browsers to access just these sites.
  2. "Spoof" the ID of another browser in the one you use.

Since there is so much spoofing going on, reliable statistics are pretty much impossible to get. I use OmniWeb, but can and do spoof Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox.

Having stated this, here are my suspicions:

  1. Safari
  2. Firefox
  3. Internet Explorer (obsolete, but still the default on older systems and in many companies)
  4. iCab, Camino, Opera, OmniWeb and any one of a dozen or so fine browsers

I'm also finding browser features popping up in more and more programs. These are usually based on WebKit, the foundation for Safari, but some are also based on Gecko, which is used in Mozilla browsers (Firefox, Camino, etc.). For example, NetNewsWire, which I primarily use for RSS/Atom newsfeeds, has an excellent built-in browser.

So, my recommendations as far as optimizing pages for Mac browsers:

  1. Be compatible. Write valid code and check it.
  2. Make sure things look great in both Safari and Firefox.
  3. Avoid adding features that only a handful of browsers can deal with.
  4. Never do "browser sniffing" that excludes visitors or insults them by asking them to use different software.
  5. Never assume that an HTTP request being made for one of your pages is actually coming from a program that is primarily a web browser.
  6. Check to make sure all content is still accessible with a text-only browser (lynx or links terminal programs).

You really don't want to shut out anyone by over-optimizing based on what can only be assumptions.