Browser Wars: who comes out on top?

For those who don’t know, browsers are the windows in which the world views your website. This article has been put together to decide which browser is best for Estate Agents as well as establish the state of the browser market as it stands today in the UK.Â

There are five major Browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Apple’s Safari.

What version should you be on?

Above are the latest versions of all 5 browsers. Worryingly, a surprising amount of Estate Agents are using extremely outdated browsers. Be sure to update your browsers regularly.

Browser Usage:

This is always interesting to check out, if only to see if IE6 has finally died out. Finding out how users are actually viewing the web can be very informative.

The numbers represent data collected for the month of November 2011

It would appear from the graph above that Chrome has gained significant ground over the last year, mainly at the expense of Internet Explorer and Firefox, while both Safari and Opera have remained at a relatively constant level. Although Internet Explorer lost ground, it would seem that it still reigns as the most used browser by some way.

Next, let’s take a look at global browser version usage of this month (November 2011).

As you can see a lot of very outdated browsers are still being used (IE 6 was released in 2001).Â

Chrome has mostly solved this problem with an automatic update feature, with no permission from the user required. The effect of this can be seen on the graph above. The most recent version of Chrome, 15, was only released on October 25th, yet has already pretty much entirely replaced Chrome 14.

Unfortunately, Internet Explorer has always had big problems getting users to update.

Mobile Browsers:

Mobile browsing has gained serious traction over the last few years and for that reason it is worth taking a look at mobile browsers.

The graph above shows the mobile browser usage statistics for last month.

As you can see iPhone and Blackberry seem to dominating the mobile browser market.

Conclusion:

Resource Techniques would recommend the best browser for Estate Agents is Google Chrome. Not only is it one of the fastest browsers out there, with its automatic updates you won’t be constantly nagged with ‘Update your browser’ messages. You also won’t be able to fall behind with outdated software.

By Luke Stanley
SEO Consultant