December 18th, 2008
Microsoft released a critical out-of-band patch for IE7 causing panic updating in IT departments around the globe. Some took advantage of this update to encourage users to make the switch to a more secure browser like Firefox or Google Chrome.
This prompted me to take another look at the figures for browser usage on some of the sites I maintain to see if there is a shift from IE after this update. I was expecting to see the usual 60-70% IE dominance split almost evenly betwen IE7 and IE6. However, it seems IE6 usage has significantly dropped off in the last few monts across a range of sites. The users don’t seem to have all shifted to IE7 either as overal IE usage has dropped to around 50%. The increase has been seen in Firefox 3, Safari and Google Crome. Safari seems to have gone up from an average of 2-3% to 3-5% depending on the site. Google a new entry is around 2-3% and Firefox is enjoying 30-35%. Dare I hope that soon I will no longer have to support IE6!?
Well I expect I’ll have to wait until Windows XP is no longer supported by Microsoft before it finally dies or an unpatchable security hole is found and users are forced to upgrade.
In any case if you haven’t done a windows update today do it now and get IE7 patched even if you don’t browse with it.
Will check browsers stats in a couple of weeks to see if there is a dip/change after everyone has update panic.
Filed under Browsers, Newsflash |