Re: Looking for reliable stats

At 03:48 p.m. 04/02/99 -0500, Jason Herber wrote:
>Wondering if anyone has a good site that tracks users' hardware/software
>setup.  Like: 40% Netscape / 59% Explorer, 60% 800 X 600, 30% 640 X 480 ...

Are you looking for stats on _users_ or for stats on _hits_?  You
can find plenty of the latter, but few of the former, simply because
the net is not set up to gather user stats.

All stats you read will be skewed a lot towards the 20% of the user
population that generates 80% of the hits, and those 20% are typically
people with newer browsers, faster net connections, and better
hardware than the 80%.

Ergo you have to take all stats with a large grain of salt.  And you
need to ask yourself why you _want_ stats in the first place; are you
planning to "design for" a certain subset of browser/resolution
setups?  If so, then you probably will want to reconsider, as such an
approach seriously breaks interoperability and is completely unnecessary
99% of the time.  Most people who think it _is_ necessary are only
showing their lack of understanding of the way the World Wide Web is
meant to function (and functions best).

--Kynn, the stats cynic

--
Kynn Bartlett  <kynn(at)idyllmtn.com>                   http://www.kynn.com/
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet      http://www.idyllmtn.com/
Professional ALT-text author                     http://www.kynn.com/+alt
Spring 1999 Virtual Dog Show!                     http://www.dogshow.com/
WWTBLD?  Validate your HTML!                     http://validator.w3.org/

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