unusual web stats

Any suggestions on how to gather stats on, say, window size and screen
size, and how to analyse them ? Are there any tools available, or do I
have to roll my own, gathering in javascript, analysing myself ?

I see odd web stats of screen size rankings, font availability rankings,
etc.
I'm well aware that all web stats must be taken with a large pinch of salt.
I'm also well aware that visitors to visibone or w3schools may be
unrepresentative of _my_ visitors.
So if I want any stats, I think I pretty well have to gather my own - I
get most of my regular stats using analog.

I think it would be useful to know what percentage of my users are still
at 800*600 or worse, what percent are at 1024*768 or better; and what
percent of those are viewing on a small window on the screen. I know the
absolute numbers won't be accurate, but statistics suggests the
percentages should be representative.
Just wondering if there's an easy way/tool to do it, before I re-invent
the wheel.

And yes, I know a web page should scale gracefully, but it's still
useful to know what size you want it prettiest at.

Chris

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:12:30 +0000, Chris Sharman
<chris.sharman (AT) sorry (DOT) nospam> wrote:

I think it would be useful to know what percentage of my users are still
at 800*600 or worse, what percent are at 1024*768 or better; and what
percent of those are viewing on a small window on the screen. I know the
absolute numbers won't be accurate, but statistics suggests the
percentages should be representative.

No it wouldn't simply because the ability to capture those stats are
not independant on the ability to capture them, it's like asking
everyone on a plane how many times they've flown - it's not
statistically accurate to then say "everyone in the world's been on a
plane"

Jim.
--
comp.lang.javascript FAQ - http://jibbering.com/faq/

Jim Ley wrote:

On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:12:30 +0000, Chris Sharman
chris.sharman (AT) sorry (DOT) nospam> wrote:
I think it would be useful to know what percentage of my users are still
at 800*600 or worse, what percent are at 1024*768 or better; and what
percent of those are viewing on a small window on the screen. I know the
absolute numbers won't be accurate, but statistics suggests the
percentages should be representative.

No it wouldn't simply because the ability to capture those stats are
not independant on the ability to capture them, it's like asking
everyone on a plane how many times they've flown - it's not
statistically accurate to then say "everyone in the world's been on a
plane"

You're suggesting that the probability of being able to determine screen
(& window) size is in some way related to screen size.

I can see that it's possible (if, say, xp machines shipped with
javascript disabled, and we reasonably assume that newer machines have
larger screens, there would be an indirect correlation), but I don't
believe it's true.

There certainly isn't a direct correlation as you suggest, where
javascript doesn't work above say 1280*1024 or something.

Chris

Chris Sharman <chris.sharman (AT) sorry (DOT) nospam> writes:

You're suggesting that the probability of being able to determine
screen (& window) size is in some way related to screen size.

Well, it's viewport size you're after. All you know about that is that
it's < window size and possibly entirely unrelated to screen size.

I can see that it's possible (if, say, xp machines shipped with
javascript disabled, and we reasonably assume that newer machines have
larger screens, there would be an indirect correlation), but I don't
believe it's true.

Other way round - smaller displays may be more likely to have
Javascript disabled. You're unlikely to get 80x24 showing up at all,
likewise the 200xSomething and 150xSomething phone devices often don't
have JS support.

There certainly isn't a direct correlation as you suggest, where
javascript doesn't work above say 1280*1024 or something.

Nothing so unsubtle. That sort of thing would be easier to account
for.

I'd recommend making sure that it looks good in at least the 700-1200px
viewport width range, and looks usable to half and double that, if you
can. The nature of the content might make that tricky on some pages,
of course.

--
Chris
863x633px today