Overview Of Our Readers

We looked at our web statistics for TechLogon to see what technology our readers use. Web Stats? Every time you visit a website the website hosting server (computer) collects a certain amount of general (non-personal) info about your computer – it gets this from your web browser e.g. in which country your broadband provider is located, which web browser and operating system your computer uses.

None of this information is personal or confidential and it cannot be used to identify you as an individual – it is just general info that all websites can glean from your web browser when you visit. Our type of stats are standard across the web so if you are surprised by how much info is available, don’t be.

It is a normal feature of website hosting that every website you visit has a similar ability to record the basic info which your web browser provides to it.

Where Are Our Visitors Mostly From?

USA – 60%
UK – 9%
Australia – 4%
Canada – 3%

No surprise that the major English speaking countries are most heavily represented – covering 76% of all visitors. We are surprised that the figure from USA is not even higher but it’s good to know that TechLogon has spread around the world! In addition, 90% of visitors had their web browser language set to English – the other 10% must have either emigrated, be bi-lingual or be sorely disappointed

What Web Browsers Do Our Visitors Mostly Use?

Firefox – 47%
IE (Internet Explorer) – 28%
Chrome – 15%
Safari – 5%

This tallies with industry figures across the internet except that our percentages for IE and Firefox are reversed – IE is usually around 47% of web browsers and Firefox around 28%.

We suspect that Firefox users have come to TechLogon more than average because we have featured many articles specifically focused on Firefox whereas we have not covered IE in the same depth – for the very good reason that we don’t rate it and our advice has always been to switch to a more modern and secure browser offering more features!

Which Versions Of These Web Browsers Are Most Used?

Firefox 5 – 78%
Firefox 3.6 – 12%
Firefox 4 – 4%

Whilst those few on version 4 should be upgrading to 5 (there is no reason not to), it is interesting that a die-hard group of users remain wedded to 3.6 – the reason is probably because version 4 introduced a new interface and design which some users hated so they have stuck with the older 3.6. This is only a short term solution – in due course Mozilla will force users to upgrade to the latest version or they will no longer receive security updates, putting them more at risk from viruses etc. We highly recommend that users of Firefox 3.6 take the plunge and either upgrade to the latest version or switch to another modern browser like Chrome…

IE8 – 56%
IE9 – 26%
IE7 – 14%
IE6 – 4% (god help them…)

Thankfully there are few visitors left on the hopelessly insecure IE 6 and 7 – most will likely be visiting from work environments that have stuck with the old versions for compatibility with their corporate software.

IE9 is not available for XP which probably explains why it still lags behind IE8 – if you have Vista/W7 you should certainly upgrade to IE9 because IE8 is a very dated browser. XP users stuck with IE8 as their only Microsoft option would be better off switching to Firefox or Chrome to benefit from better security and performance.

Chrome 12 – 57%
Chrome 13 – 34%

We are surprised that the older Chrome 12 is still more popular as Chrome should update to version 13 automatically. However, we have heard of issues with the upgrade process which some people could only resolve by uninstalling Chrome 12 completely and installing Chrome 13 from scratch – perhaps these upgrade issues are more widespread than Google let on…

Which Operating System Is Most Used?

Windows – 87%
Mac – 5%
Linux – 3%

No surprise there – we unashamedly focus on Windows (with occasional forays into Linux) because these percentages are typical of the home computer market where (like it or not) Windows is king.

What Versions Of Windows Are Most Used?

Windows 7 – 48%
XP – 38%
Vista – 12%

Industry averages typically put Windows 7 and XP the other way round (i.e. XP with about 48% market share whilst W7 trails on 38%). However, we have aimed more articles specifically at W7 than XP so we are not surprised that Windows 7 takes the lead amongst our readers.

Vista was such an abysmal operating system it is good to see it trail in last place! It does show how many users preferred to keep XP or else jettisoned Vista and upgraded to the quicker/more stable Windows 7 as soon as they possibly could.

Which Version Of Adobe Flash Player Is Most Used?

10.3 – 75%
10.2 – 10%
10.1 – 7%
10.0 – 5%

We have written before on Flash Player’s vulnerability to virus attack and why you should update Flash so it is disappointing to see that 25% of readers still do not have the latest version. In addition to better security, 10.3 added major performance and usability improvements – it should be an urgent upgrade for anyone still using an old version.

Is Java Installed?

83% – yes
17% – no

Java is a programming language that powers programs including utilities, games, and business applications. Lots of applications and websites have features that won’t work unless you have Java installed so it is surprising that 17% of users do not have it. For further info on Java see our article on why you should update Java.