IE usage recently dropped below Chrome usage on Mibbit (Including our widget which is deployed on various non-techy websites).
Firefox 55.1%
Chrome 20.7%
IE 15.2%
Other 4.4%
Opera 3.0%
Safari 1.6%
The time when you have to support IE, for many, is coming to an end.
On a related note, I got a phone call from Microsoft adCenter the other day, asking why I hadn't spent any money with them for a year (Different website I run which needs big ad spend).
I said "Last time I tried the interface in Chrome, it didn't work".
She replied "Ah. Chrome is Google and so it's not compatible".
Yes, for many sites with a technical audience. But for sites with an older, less technically sophisticated userbase, IE still has the vast majority over other browsers.
I hear what you're saying about the widget. But is that downloads? In which case: selection bias. What do the stats look like as far as impressions go on the non-techy sites?
What country? I suspect figures in Europe are very different from those in the US. European versions of Windows are now required to offer a selection of browsers at install time.
Those stats combine main client (chat.mibbit.com) with our widget, split roughly 50/50. The widget is used on various websites, gaming, stock trading, dating, etc etc
Sure, it's still probably going to be slightly more tech, but I'm guessing there's quite a few other webapps who have similar demographic.
It also depends on how 'global' you are. IE usage varies wildly by country.
"Surprising" is not how I would describe it. In fact, given their own Microsoft-centric view of the tech universe, it's nothing but expected. "Boneheaded", perhaps, would be more appropriate.
Have you seen how poorly non-Microsoft browsers are supported by Microsoft's web tools?
Exchange is a pain. Hotmail, on its last (last I saw - no longer use it) big change took months (many) for the Firefox version to arrive at a comparable feature set as the IE version. If you are not running Windows, you will face an even worse browser compatibility. For a long time, any ASP.NET application built with the GUI tools on Visual Studio was pretty much guaranteed not to work properly on anything but IE.
No. I don't think the reaction of the call center worker is surprising in any measure. He could know non-Microsoft browsers were not supported and inferred the thing being from Google meant it would not be compatible.
BTW, would it be compatible with Firefox on Linux?
On a related note, I got a phone call from Microsoft adCenter the other day, asking why I hadn't spent any money with them for a year (Different website I run which needs big ad spend).
I said "Last time I tried the interface in Chrome, it didn't work".
She replied "Ah. Chrome is Google and so it's not compatible".
MS never cease to amaze me.