All Those Crazy Browsers...

[Jason Dunn]

I'm preparing my post detailing the traffic burst from our 2003 Kick-off contest, and in looking through my log files, I'm seeing some very interesting browsers hitting the site. Here are some random bits of info that might raise an eyebrow or two:<br /><br />• 79.49% of you are using Internet Explorer. Much less than the industry standard of 90+%, which doesn't surprise me too much - you're mostly a tech-savvy audience, so you're using "alternative" browsers. Buncha' geeks. :lol: Of all the IE users, the vast majority are using IE 6.x or 5.x, and 3.11% of the total IE users are using Pocket Internet Explorer (I think - there's some confusion over <u>exactly</u> how Pocket Internet Explorer reports the user-agent string). And one of you is using a beta of Internet Explorer 7.0. Please email me a copy of that, would you? Thanks. :wink: <br />• 8.65% of you are using a flavour of Netscape. Surprisingly, 70.71% of that user base is using a 3.x version of Netscape. You poor souls! But really sad story is the guy using Netscape 2.02 to view this site. I'd have to get a <a href="http://www.bttf.com/main.shtml">time machine</a> to find a browser that old!<br />• 3.32% are using Mozilla, with version 1.2.1 being the most popular build.<br />• Mazingo is next with 2.2%, Opera with 1.3%, then things get really funky...<br />• The Googlebot accounts for 0.44% of our overall browser type usage. I love Google, and Google loves me, we're as happy as can be...<br />• There are some browsers I don't recognize at all: lwp trivial, PHP (the scripting language has its own browser?), NIF, Wget, Hantenna Antenna, ChinaClaw, SpaceBison...the list of strangeness goes on. 267 browser types in total.<br />• I can see a few other search engine spiders, and a few "site suckers" that download everything they can find, and thankfully few of you use such software - it's a huge drain on our bandwidth, but there's not enough traffic from it to warrant blocking.<br />• Some of the other interesting browsers that have visited the site: Sony Ericcson T68, Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider Protocol Discovery, Lynx 8O, Sony Ericsson P800, Nokia 7650, Sanyo SCP6000, Nokia 5150, and a few other phones. <br />• Some of you have hacked your user agent strings: "get lost leave me alone" and "the truth is out there" seem to be the most popular hacks.<br /><br />Hope you enjoyed the stats! :D

[dschur]

I wonder what ThunderHawk reprots itself as? I suspect probably Mozilla as I seem to recall that is what they (Bitstream) are using on they're servers to render the pages. It would be interesting to know.

I know that about half my visits are using ThunderHawk ;-)

[Fzara]

How do you hack a user agent string?
And what is it?

[John Walkosak]

I know that about half my visits are using ThunderHawk
Me too! About a third of my visits are with Thunderhawk. However, I have tried to use Thunderhawk on blogger.com, and if it is Mozilla, then it is a really early version of it.

[Mike Temporale]

How do you hack a user agent string?
And what is it?

The user agent string reports the type of browser you're using to the site you are visiting. (If the site asks for it). This is used to customize content and HTML tags for your browser. Since no two browsers are created equal, it helps to know what browser you are working with.

As for how to hack it, I don't know why you would want to. It could cause sites you visit to not display well. However, if you feel that you need to, just ask google. I'm sure there's an answer out there.

[twadzilla]

As for the PHP browser, I'd venture to say that some people are using the PHP function fopen() with a URL specified, in order to grab news from this site and display it on another.

Dave
(NetCaptor &amp; Chimera user.. yay tabs!)

[BevHoward]

the 3% ppc access is interesting... any way to break that down to approximate the number of different users?

Reason I ask is that the new ppc front page is pretty dissapointing compared to the old... it's as if it is not worth the effort to address those who use it as their primary access.

at the very least, _please_ either increase the download to several days of column content or offer a link to move to earlier content.

In my case, if that were addressed and the forums were readable, the ppc would be my only access here.

[blade_of_narsil]

And now we got an apple browser coming. I promise I would switch to that if they make one that runs on Windows.

[bdegroodt]

And now we got an apple browser coming. I promise I would switch to that if they make one that runs on Windows.

Or iSync that syncs the PPC :P

[mv]

Why so few using netscape? the last one (7) is really better than IE. Really better.

[sub_tex]

As for the Mozilla browsers, i have always found Mozill and it's variants big and bulky.

I have IE tricked out as a tiny strip on only. Basically an address bar and small icons for back and forward/home etc.

But i just found a different Mozill abased browser called Phoenix which is great!

It's just as fast as IE, and since it has Mozilla there, it can use all the plugins.

http://texturizer.net/phoenix/index.html

Tabbed browsing, popup blocking, extension managing, javascript console, mouse gestures, the list goes on and on.

It's slowly replacing IE as my default browser.

And that's a BIG deal considering my complete devotion to IE 5/6.

[sfjlittel]

I used lynx once because i was upgrading Mozilla. The main page is at least viewable :-), so it wasn´t that bad. I normally use Mozilla, but the one thing I find annoying is that the results of the polls do not display correctly (this could be a plugin-problem, of course). Otherwise it does just fine

[Mike Temporale]

I used lynx once because i was upgrading Mozilla. The main page is at least viewable :-), so it wasn´t that bad. I normally use Mozilla, but the one thing I find annoying is that the results of the polls do not display correctly (this could be a plugin-problem, of course). Otherwise it does just fine

The poll results are done in client side Javascript. Last time I looked at Lynx, I didn't have support for that :wink:

[Rirath]

Dang, if I knew you were counting that close I'd see what the Dreamcast's old browser comes up as. Eh, probably just a version of IE.

[johncj]

You can make Internet Explorer report anything you want, at least on a Windows machine, by putting a value in the following registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]


It's a really, really bad idea to put anything in that key, unless you know what you're doing. [Insert Standard Disclaimer]

[bdegroodt]

You can make Internet Explorer report anything you want, at least on a Windows machine, by putting a value in the following registry key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent]


I think that's

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform]

However, your machine may be different than mine. Windows XP Pro with IE 6.x and NN 7.x.

[ppcsurfr]

Hmmm. I know I went through the thing using 1. My desktop PC on IE6 via dial-up... 2. via my PPC using Passthrough, and 3. My PPC using a GPRS connection via a Sony Ericsson T68i.

Hehehe... That's how much I love Pocket PC Thoughts.

ppcsurfr

[whitey]

:( After failing several times to connect to your site with desktop I.E. during the competition I tried with wireless connection T68i & iPAQ and it worked perfectly. Anyone else had similar problems?

[Kati Compton]

I was at my inlaws for the first half of the competition, so I was using whatever they had (wasn't paying attention but it was rebranded as SBC Yahoo, so I assume it's a Netscape variant?)

At home I used IE.

Since then I've switched to Mozilla and am quite happy with it.

[johncj]

bdegroot -

[Post Platform] is for adding things to the end of the string. [User Agent] is for changing it completely. I believe the key that is actually used is the one in the \5.0\ path, but I haven't checked in a while. Now, there's an afternoon diversion.....


JohnCJ

[Pat Logsdon]

I'm in the Opera camp. I'm addicted to tabs. Just...one...more tab, man...just one more! :roll:

I was curious about SpaceBison, however, if only because the mental image of a space bison amuses me, and found out that it's the user-agent header string id for a proxy called Proxomitron. I found it interesting, so I thought I'd share. :D

[DavidHorn]

Jason- what stats software do you use on the site?

[bdegroodt]

bdegroot -

[Post Platform] is for adding things to the end of the string. [User Agent] is for changing it completely. I believe the key that is actually used is the one in the \5.0\ path, but I haven't checked in a while. Now, there's an afternoon diversion.....


JohnCJ

Odd. I don't even have a User Agent selection under my 5.0 folder.

Is this getting "off topic?" I don't want any trouble :P

[Venturello]

Surgical Snack, check out Netcaptor, most of the features you like in Opera (I LOVE opera but I miss a lot of stuff) but with IE's compatibility and universalness (is that a word).

I love it, used it a month and registered it in a heartbeat.

[donkthemagicllama]

For those who like NetCaptor, but are too cheap to register it (like me), try CrazyBrowser (http://www.crazybrowser.com/)

It's essentially the same (tabbed browsing with IE), but leaner and completely free.

[johncj]

bdegroodt (notice correct spelling this time) -

The original topic was about user agent strings, so i don't think we are off-topic of this off-topic post.

I did a little spelunking with Regmon (from http://www.sysinternals.com they rock!) and discovered that my version of IE (6) checks several keys to build the UA string (including Pre Platform, Platform, and Post Platform) to give you the ultimate in flexibility in adding to the string that IE uses, but it doesn't appear that you can completely replace the UA string, unless you use a local proxy (like proxomitron).

JohnCJ

[gandi]

avantbrowser is worth a look for all people which are addicted to tabs whilst missing the visualization from ie...

http://www.avantbrowser.com/

[Mr. Anonymous]

I'm viewing the site from Apple's new browser, Safari, and it looks great. Wonder what it's user agent string is?

[BevHoward]

For the other "minimalists" out there, take a look at http://www.HomePageSW.com for the "Off by One" browser.

It has become my standard way of going to any site that is even remotely suspect, but even better, it is _fast_

Has a few quirks... for example, the top "reply" button on this page works, but the bottom one does not... however the images display (locate) properly

[ExtremeSIMS]

I am now using Safari. I normally use Chimera, and it is still my default.

[marlof]

I am writing this from the public beta of Safari too. All us geeks downloaded it and came back to this thread to report on it. :)

[octop8]

I think ChinaClaw is a searchbot available in the Greater China region. I myself use Netcaptor as my browser - the tabs function is great! And it kills pop-ups very well too. Have used Netcaptor for 2 years now as my default browser and it's great. Works on the IE engine completely. Highly recommended if you haven't tried it before.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I used to use Opera until Jason posted recently on AvantBrowser. I also use a browser called Offline Commander which effectively downloads specified pages to my laptop HD for viewing offline (as you would guess), though I normally specify ahead of time exactly what links I want to see (as opposed to telling it to download everything in sight).

Interesting stats....

[questionlp]

If you want an archive of the many different browsers that have been released, check out:

http://browsers.evolt.org/

You can find everything from Internet Explorer prior to Microsoft buying it out, Mosiac, and even Netscape Navigator 1.22!!!

That site saved me a couple of times that I needed to download IE4.01 SP2 after finding out that Microsoft didn't provide it as a download anymore.

BTW - I'm using Mozilla and haven't mangled the UA string by using XUL Planet's PrefBar for Mozilla. :P

[Landis]

Why so few using netscape? the last one (7) is really better than IE. Really better.
Because version 6 really sucked. REALLY sucked.

I thought the Netscape percentage looked high. Surprised more aren't using Opera.

[Ekkie Tepsupornchai]

I thought the Netscape percentage looked high. Surprised more aren't using Opera.

Loved Opera. Loved it. Great browser, but I did have problems with certain sites that seemed to employ ActiveX or some form of dynamic HTML. Even with those issues I continued to use it and only used IE on the occasion that a site wouldn't display correctly.

AvantBrowser provides many of the same benefits of Opera while being built on-top of IE. I still miss some things about Opera (overall speed increase, built-in download manager) so I'll keep my eyes on their progress...

[chirurgen]

I suspect that the reason most of your posts use IE is that other browsers emulate the IE name to enable them to get into poorly written sites.

Take a look at Opera v 7 - it has a small screen function that would look really good on the PPC. I don't know how they do it but it looks like a really good solution for small screens 8O