It had been a long while since I'd given any thought to browser trending or user statistics, but a recent look at google analytics' visitor stats tells me that A. 54% of you are using Firefox and B. less than 5% of you are using IE 6. (woohoo?)

54% Firefox,
23% Internet explorer,
19% Safari,
4% Opera, Camino, etc.

Now- being someone who earns his livelihood from internet-related technologies, a few short years ago, figures like that would have come to me like music to my ears, but as I sifted through my analytics stats, I found myself very underwhelmed and -in fact- fairly indifferent.

I've kept close tabs on browser trends since the hay-day of NN vs IE, but I completely lost what little interest I had left the day I discovered javascript toolkits and conditional CSS selectors. Well, now we're at Firefox 3, Internet Explorer 7 and Flash 9... The web is a whole different place, so it begs the question: Do browser usage stats really matter anymore?

Facts and Figures

First and foremost- my stats come from google analytics' data of this site. They don't really paint an accurate picture of global browser trends. For more accurate numbers, turn to things like w3 schools' monthly browser stats. This is a technology blog, and its visitors tend to be ahead of the curve when it comes to web technologies. W3schools places firefox adoption at 42% and IE 6 use at 25% (compare that to the 5% I recorded here) - The difference is real.

Tools and Technologies

Browser wars: the epic NN vs. IE battle. old school.

The reason browser trending matters to any of us (creators and consumers of the web alike) is because it can be a challenge to build websites and web applications that look and function identically across all platforms and many developers fail to rise to this challenge.

Organizations like WaSP and the W3C create comprehensive standards that all browsers should follow in displaying the sites they visit- but most browsers bend the rules, and others completely ignore them. Even 5 years ago it wasn't uncommon to see websites load two completely separate javascripts: one for Netscape and one for Internet Explorer. We've come a long way, baby.

Now developers have tools at their disposal, such as javascript toolkits like jQuery and mootools that will do all the heavylifting and cross-browser juggling for us. We have conditional CSS comments, PNG hacks and countless resources available to help us iron out those other pesky IE bugs. Yes, the world is a friendlier place...

So does browser trending really matter anymore?

Good question, lets break it down:

Should browser trending have an impact in determining the design/interfaces/usability of our web apps?
No. Sadly it once did (remember IE's proprietary <marquee> tag?), but it should never be a factor again. ever. (please take note, "IE-only" web-apps)

Does browser trending still have an impact on determining whether or not the desired functionality of our web apps are feasible?
Nope. Nowadays, after minor fiddling, every browser can do pretty much the same thing. Sweet.

Okay, well does browser trending still have an impact on the development strategies used in building our web apps?
No way. Thanks to javascript toolkits and frameworks, we can ignore browser incompatibilities and focus entirely on building functionality. Developers can go back to actually... developing.

Unless you're building some crazy whoopla that uses bleeding-edge unimplemented technology, what browser your users choose doesn't matter anymore- and if you are, then you're making a conscious decision to ignore part of your target audience anyway, so it shouldn't matter what users you exclude. I'm not saying that web development has reached a state of perfection... far from it! Browser incompatibilities still suck, but at least things have reached a level now where we can iron out the development kinks in a matter of hours, not days.

A responsible web author knows that it doesn't matter what browser is the most popular. A successful web app needs to work in all browsers, for all users. The difference being that now more than ever, this is possible. So who cares about browser trending? Bite the bullet and make your damn website work in all browsers. I'm tired of seeing websites that say: "We are sorry, but this site can only be used in Microsoft Internet Explorer.".

Wake me up again when less than 2% of the population use non PNG-enabled browsers... In the meantime, go download Firefox.