Month: January 2013

Browser statistics – time to wake up!

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Hello World! Time to wake up and smell the browser statistics of 2013! All of those sites and developers who still claim that you need Internet Explorer for viewing or using their site needs to wake up.

According to several sources Chrome is now the individually largest web browser at roughly 35% market share. Noteable exception from this statistic is tracking done by NetApplications that pegs Chrome at only 19% (and Internet Explorer at 54%). Still, 19% market share means almost one in five visitors use Chrome!

It’s time to let go of the past. Reverse your conditions and say that this site is best view in ANY web browser EXCEPT old Internet Explorer versions. Adhere to standards instead of individual browser versions. A website can be made to look and work almost identical in majority of web browsers (including the latest version of Internet Explorer) if one simply takes the effort to learn how to do that.

The only case when I can accept shortcuts with limiting testing to a single browser (and even version) is for intranet applications in a controled environment. The rest of the world should head for the future and develop for Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera and of course also Internet Explorer!

2013 – my wish list

Things I wish for (professionally) in 2013:

  • HTML5 comes to your tablet, smartphone, desktop, TV and preferably also toaster and refrigirator – HTML5 is allready in most of those devices, I just hope people will stop using the argument that HTML5 is not versatile or fast enough for most applications.
  • SEO where content is king – when link schemes and other black hat methods become secondary to creating great content.
  • Apple, Google, Samsung, Oracle and the rest… PLEASE STOP THE PATENT WARS!
  • Android invading the game console market – I really don’t know what to expect of this other than that an open source alternative in the console market seems like a good idea (see: Ouya, Game Stick and most recently Shield). This also brings console programming one step closer to my line of work.
  • Facebook doesn’t turn evil and sell my life to the highest bidder – I must believe this or I couldn’t keep using Facebook. I try and fool myself for another year.
  • Perl … please come back! (OK, Perl never left, but it could benefit from more popularity in my opinion)