Popularity of IE7 in Ireland ?

iMax · 21-07-2011 12:24pm #1

Anyone know where I could get stats on the popularity of IE7 in Ireland (& to a lesser extent, the UK) ?

I just tried my site in browserlab & got it verified on a system with IE7 & the site is totally broken. in 6 & 7. 6, I'm not so worried about.

It's perfect on all other browsers.

Pixelcraft · 21-07-2011 12:33pm

On a non web/tech related site I've a stat of 9% with the majority of visitors Irish

anbrutog · 21-07-2011 12:40pm

Pixelcraft wrote: »

On a non web/tech related site I've a stat of 9% with the majority of visitors Irish

From my own stats on my sites I'd say in the region of 10-15% IE7 ( I must stress , my stats! ) . Still appears to be the browser of choice for the majority of the big corporations and companies in this country. Typically what happens in those companies is that users desktops are fairly locked down and any upgrades are left up to the admins , who usually have more important things to do. Id say unfortunately we've another 2-3 years left of this horrible browser. Die!

Pixelcraft · 21-07-2011 12:43pm

Yes I should point out that's my stat, not necessarily in line with national statistics. A large section of the visitors would come from 3 or 4 corporations, which may have impacted the results

iMax · 21-07-2011 12:46pm

Bugger it anyway. In the grand scheme of things, I'm aiming at home users, so I guess I'll have to hobble on & hope for the best. It's horribly broken though

anbrutog · 21-07-2011 5:41pm

It really is an abomination of a browser , I wish it would just fcuk off and die. The cause of many wasted hours of heartache.

donbon · 21-07-2011 5:51pm

IE7 is definitely considered a major browser. I would attempt to fix it. Why not post a link to the site here and someone may be able to help.

cormee · 21-07-2011 10:25pm

In the last month I have 16.7% on one site, it's an Irish site with an international audience, and 17.74% on another site with a majority of visitors being Irish. That covering a total of just under 50k unique visitors and both sites are non tech, visitors' ages would probably range from about 20-45.

iMax · 21-07-2011 10:32pm

Which area are your sites in guys ?

(as in what's their focus & demographic)

iMax · 22-07-2011 8:29am

Got this back from my developer:

there is no easy fix for this as IE 7 is an old browser that doesn't support gradients or inline elements in CSS, so we don't officially support IE 7 or older

JDxtra · 22-07-2011 8:54am

Pay him 15% less then for the job and see what he has to say about that.

Even if you are aimed at home users that doesn't mean they won't be looking at your site in work.

cormee · 22-07-2011 9:30am

JDxtra wrote: »

Pay him 15% less then for the job and see what he has to say about that.

Even if you are aimed at home users that doesn't mean they won't be looking at your site in work.

Excellent suggestion.

iMax - I'm still designing for IE6; not by choice I should add.

Your developer can very easily overcome any of the issues he mentioned by using conditional statements.

Regarding user demographics, one of my sites is parenting related, the other is travel related (but not tourism) and both would be in the 20-45 age groups.

iMax · 22-07-2011 9:55am

Problem is it's an out of box (written by him) solution that he's customising for me. It would probably require a total re-write, which I'm not going to pay for.

Cormee, can you forward me on the URL of your parents site please, we may be able to complement each other.

cormee · 22-07-2011 11:24am

It wouldn't need a rewrite to add new styles and/or conditional statements, especially if he has the source code. My parenting site's software was out-of-the-box and is unrecognisable now from its original format.

You'll find someone on elance who's more willing to do what you want.

PM sent... possibly in competition!

iMax · 22-07-2011 11:43am

Nope we're not in competition. On iPhone right now so will get back to you when I get home

donbon · 22-07-2011 11:58am

iMax wrote: »

Got this back from my developer:

there is no easy fix for this as IE 7 is an old browser that doesn't support gradients or inline elements in CSS, so we don't officially support IE 7 or older

IE7 doesn't support inline elements!! wtf? He's talking absolute rubbish. A bold tag is an inline element. Can you give us a link to the page? There's no reason your site should be 'horrible broken' as you put it in IE7. It's not even that old of a browser. IE7 won't support certain new features but there's no reason why the basic layout shouldn't work.

tricky D · 22-07-2011 1:55pm

iMax wrote: »

Got this back from my developer:

there is no easy fix for this as IE 7 is an old browser that doesn't support gradients or inline elements in CSS, so we don't officially support IE 7 or older

Unacceptable.

22-07-2011 1:58pm

tricky D wrote: »

Unacceptable.

Depends on the specification set out at the start of the project

iMax · 22-07-2011 2:09pm

Well at the start I wasn't aware (only became aware by accident), however, I don't have the money or timeframe to worry about it now. I'll most likely attempt to have it fixed when I've got some money coming in. It works on all other browsers & I'll have to be happy with that for now.

Unfortunately I'm not in a position to link the site here right now as I'm still a couple of weeks away from launch, but as soon as it's up I'll allow you guys to tear it to shreds

tricky D · 22-07-2011 2:15pm

28064212 wrote: »

Depends on the specification set out at the start of the project

A spec that neglects around 10% or more of the market is not acceptable. That's a terrible way to conduct business.

The only scenario where it might be ok is an intranet.

As cormee mentions, an alternate style can easily take care of the matter.

22-07-2011 2:21pm

tricky D wrote: »

A spec that neglects around 10% or more of the market is not acceptable. That's a terrible way to conduct business.

The only scenario where it might be ok is an intranet.

As cormee mentions, an alternate style can easily take care of the matter.

Depends. Was the developer up front about which browsers they support? Browser support should be part of every website spec. Someone who is only going to support IE9 is going to be a lot cheaper than someone who's supporting everything from Lynx up.

kippy · 22-07-2011 2:24pm

Not sure how accurate this is but I'd say it'd be near impossible to be totally accurate with this type of query anyway.
http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-IE-monthly-201006-201106

iMax · 22-07-2011 2:25pm

It's my fault for not checking it out in the first place, I assumed (& we all know what they say about that), it would be compatible in all browsers. In fact I had anticipated an issue with my browser as I'm on a mac (Safari) & when I didn't see that, thought it would all be good.

kippy · 22-07-2011 2:27pm

iMax wrote: »

It's my fault for not checking it out in the first place, I assumed (& we all know what they say about that), it would be compatible in all browsers. In fact I had anticipated an issue with my browser as I'm on a mac (Safari) & when I didn't see that, thought it would all be good.

A major part of site design is ensuring it works in as many browsers as possible (if aimed at a general audience)

donbon · 22-07-2011 2:31pm

iMax wrote: »

I assumed (& we all know what they say about that), it would be compatible in all browsers.

I don't think you were wrong to make that assumption. You are not the technical expert in the situation. You asked for a solution that was fit for purpose.

tricky D · 22-07-2011 2:34pm

28064212 wrote: »

Depends. Was the developer up front about which browsers they support? Browser support should be part of every website spec. Someone who is only going to support IE9 is going to be a lot cheaper than someone who's supporting everything from Lynx up.

Yup, it's a matter of professionalism. Not supporting any browser with significant browser market share is unprofessional in my book and would and should not be accepted.

cormee · 22-07-2011 2:40pm

28064212 wrote: »

Depends. Was the developer up front about which browsers they support? Browser support should be part of every website spec. Someone who is only going to support IE9 is going to be a lot cheaper than someone who's supporting everything from Lynx up.

Who in the name of God would ever support just one browser? They'd be out of business in a week. It would never happen. Please don't confuse matters by suggesting it could. OP has every right to assume his site will function on all major browsers.

22-07-2011 2:51pm

cormee wrote: »

Who in the name of God would ever just support one browser? They'd be out of business in a week. It would never happen. Please don't confuse matters by suggesting it could.

I'm sure a one-browser developer would be out of business in a week. Just as I'm sure a dev who supports every single browser in existence would be. Between the two extremes it's a line, not a series of discrete points. It's cheaper to develop a site for IE8+ than it is for IE7+. If the dev is explicit that they only support the former, then that's the service they are offering, customer has the choice of taking it or going somewhere else

donbon · 22-07-2011 2:55pm

28064212 wrote: »

If the dev is explicit that they only support the former, then that's the service they are offering, customer has the choice of taking it or going somewhere else

I agree, but in this instance, I don't think that was the case as the OP said that he assumed it would work. That suggests that it wasn't specified that it IE7 wouldn't be supported. And if it wasn't specifically mentioned I think he is correct to assume it would work in IE7, given that it's not really that old a browser.

22-07-2011 3:04pm

donbon wrote: »

I agree, but in this instance, I don't think that was the case as the OP said that he assumed it would work. That suggests that it wasn't specified that it IE7 wouldn't be supported. And if it wasn't specifically mentioned I think he is correct to assume it would work in IE7, given that it's not really that old a browser.

Possibly. On the other hand, I've seen more than enough people swear blind that they were never told something, despite them signing off on whole documents about exactly that topic. This is why contracts and specifications exist.

cormee · 22-07-2011 3:07pm

28064212 wrote: »

I'm sure a one-browser developer would be out of business in a week. Just as I'm sure a dev who supports every single browser in existence would be. Between the two extremes it's a line, not a series of discrete points. It's cheaper to develop a site for IE8+ than it is for IE7+. If the dev is explicit that they only support the former, then that's the service they are offering, customer has the choice of taking it or going somewhere else

Nobody's suggesting the developer supports every single browser in existence. We are, however, suggesting he supports every major browser.

Any developer/designer with even basic experience should be producing standards-compliant, browser-independent code. And they should, when necessary, be tweaking their code to make allowances for non-compliant browsers.

It's really not rocket science or overly time consuming and OP is well within his rights to expect that level of service.

At the end of the day it's not about the detail of the brief, it's more than likely one of two things - the developer is either crap, or he's just lazy. My money is on lazy.

Popularity of IE7 in Ireland ?

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