Google Zeitgeist browser graph adds "Netscape 5.x"

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » February 12th, 2003, 12:38 am

<a href="http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html">Google Zeitgeist</a>'s graph of the browsers Google users use now includes a "Netscape 5.x" line. The graph is at the bottom-left of the page. (For comparison, see <a href="http://www.google.com/press/zeitgeist/zeitgeist-dec02.html">last month's Zeitgiest</a> and <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4423">a related Mozillazine thread</a>.)

nicubunu · Post by **nicubunu** » February 12th, 2003, 1:34 am

Nice, but IMO the "Netscape 5.x" title is wrong

Edit: see graph

<img src="http://www.nicubunu.ro/mozilla/jan03_browser.jpg" alt="graph">

jgraham · Post by **jgraham** » February 12th, 2003, 4:21 am

I emailed google asking if they could clarify the data that goes into the Netscape 5.x line, and suggested that the title could be changed to something more meaningful in the future. If they reply (I don't expect much, but maybe they have time to deal with such matters) I shall of course report back here.

bim · Post by **bim** » February 12th, 2003, 5:41 am

Is it correct that only Mozilla (and maybe Chimera and phoenix, the open source brothers) sais it's Mozilla 5. While Netscape 6 and 7 state they're Mozilla 6 and 7? So you might assume that Netscape 5.x is only Mozilla!?
If they want something meaningfull they should probably start by counting everything using Gecko...

nicubunu · Post by **nicubunu** » February 12th, 2003, 5:46 am

Netscape 5.x includes: Mozilla, Phoenix, Chimera, Netscape 6, Netscape 7, K-Meleon, Galeon (any other ?), all of those have in User Agent String "Mozilla/5.0 "
Counting for string "Gecko" is not good either, will count Safari as Mozilla (I'm not sure, maybe also Konqueror)

mikecop · Post by **mikecop** » February 12th, 2003, 6:26 am

What is the "other" ? Or may be the "others" ?

Can't think of another "big" browser out there.

Would they be other search engines ?

nicubunu · Post by **nicubunu** » February 12th, 2003, 6:37 am

mikecop wrote:Can't think of another "big" browser out there.

Opera ?

mikecop wrote:Would they be other search engines ?

And in others: Lynx, Netscape 1..3, IE 1..3, whatever Mac browsers, scripts ...

aab · Post by **aab** » February 12th, 2003, 8:30 am

mikecop wrote:What is the "other" ? Or may be the "others" ?

Can't think of another "big" browser out there.

IIRC Konqueror also has "Netscape 5.0" in its default UA string. At least Konq 3.1 I think. Not entirely sure tho'.

jgraham · Post by **jgraham** » February 12th, 2003, 10:35 am

nicubunu wrote:Netscape 5.x includes: Mozilla, Phoenix, Chimera, Netscape 6, Netscape 7, K-Meleon, Galeon (any other ?), all of those have in User Agent String "Mozilla/5.0 "
Counting for string "Gecko" is not good either, will count Safari as Mozilla (I'm not sure, maybe also Konqueror)

But (unless I'm missing something) how do you know they're just counting Mozilla/5.0 in the UA string? It seems like the most logical conclusion, I agree, but they can obviously distinguish between IE and Netscape 4 which both contain Mozilla/4.0 (I think), so maybe they're looking for Netscape & Mozilla/5.0 in the string...

mbrubeck · Post by **mbrubeck** » February 12th, 2003, 10:57 am

Depending on how inclusive the various categories are, the "Other" category may still include the following "major" browsers:
<ul>
<li>AOL and WebTV, which are (mostly) based on IE
<li>Various Gecko browsers, if they aren't counted under "Netscape 5"
<li>Konqueror and Safari
<li>Opera
</ul>
And of course there are dozens more browsers not related to the above, including Lynx, Links, w3m, Dillo, iCab, OmniWeb...

w3schools has good <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_war.asp">monthly browser stats</a> where it's more clear what they're counting.

Paper · Post by **Paper** » February 12th, 2003, 11:31 pm

I'm betting the vast majority of "Other" are all those scripts out there that use google. For example, Internet Transfer Control that comes with VB has a UA of "Microsoft URL Control - x.xx.xxxx" which would definitely be "other". Any webpage script or application that pulls results from google is most likely not using a normal UA string (or at least they don't have to)

jgraham · Post by **jgraham** » February 13th, 2003, 12:56 am

From Daniel Lemin at google:

Thank you for your interest in the Google Zeitgeist. Represented on the
January Google Zeitgeist under the category of Netscape 5.x are all versions
of Netscape 5.0 and newer and anything that uses Gecko; similarly, for
Netscape 4.x, all versions of Netscape 4.0 and newer are represented. We
will explore other labels to assign to this data for future reports to
prevent additional confusion.

bim · Post by **bim** » February 13th, 2003, 6:10 am

It is funny that so many sites refer to a non-existant version of a browser: Netscape 5.
Maybe we should make a "Netscape 5", like that album of Gaston Lagaffe - or am I getting off-subject

Sander · Post by **Sander** » February 13th, 2003, 10:31 am

well, there was a Netscape 5 of course; just never got to a point where it was released... Though I think I might have heard somewhere that some people outside of Netscape had beta versions...

AJUK · Post by **AJUK** » February 13th, 2003, 11:09 am

Netscape 5x? There is no Netscape 5x (except some Crapy Alpha)

I think Google must be on Acid because that makes you see thing that arnt there, So I've just sent Google an e-Mail asking them if they're on acid.

Google Zeitgeist browser graph adds "Netscape 5.x"

Google Zeitgeist browser graph adds "Netscape 5.x"

What is the "other" ?

Re: What is the "other" ?

Re: What is the "other" ?

"Other"

Other