The browser statistic numbers from W3 Schools are in for 2008, and there are probably not a lot of surprises for developers.

As of the end of 2008, Internet Explorer still holds the lead with approximately 46% usage recorded. But this is not a comfortable lead as Firefox is closing the gap with a usage rate of 44%. In December of 2007, IE held a comfortable 56% of the market share compared to 36% for Firefox.

The past year has seen a significant loss of share for Mozilla and IE5 has completely disappeared off of the radar. Based upon the track record of the Netscape browser, which disappeared off of the reports in 2006, this could also mean that Mozilla usage could disappear below the radar as well.

The Safari and Opera browsers have seen a slight increase, and are still strong contenders. A new contender in this years results is Google with their Chrome browser. They entered the results with a healthy 3.1% share, outdoing both Opera and Safari in their first 3 months of distribution.

The statistics for display and screen resolutions have not yet been updated.

Complete statistics for browser usage are here.

A word for Designers

As a Web Designer, you should not rely only on statistics. Statistics can often be misleading and their source MUST BE QUALIFIED.

The stats that are referred to here come from the log files at W3Schools as well as other sources that they monitor to ensure the quality of their numbers. The statistics provided are from a wide, global audience. Global averages may not always be relevant to your web site. Especially if your content is directed only to your local area, city or country. Some web sites attract professional developers using professional hardware, while other sites attract hobbyists that use older computers with lower specifications.

You should also be aware that many statistics applications may not provide accurate browser detection. It is quite common for many web-stats report programs to not be able to detect the newest browsers and therefore incorrectly report them.

If you have been running a website for some time, have a look at your web-stats application in the control panel provided by your hosting company. These will allow you to view the browsers and screen resolutions of your website visitors. In turn, this will help you understand the best screen size, and browser combination, for designing your web site.

Related posts:

1. Most Popular Browser, Screen Size
2. Resetting the Browser with CSS
3. What's in a Theme

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