Yes, but with browser spoofing, how can you really tell which browser is in use? How many of the IE percentage points are due to other browsers which are merely pretending to be IE so they can gain access to certain IE-only web sites?

Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

According to TheCounter.com:

June stats: http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2005/June/browser.php
July stats: http://www.thecounter.com/stats/2005/July/browser.php

From the article above and TheCounter's numbers, we can conclude three things:

1. Web site stats services are (probably) indicative of broad trends in the overall web audience, but little more; the only accurate reflection of the audience for a given site is that site's logs -- and even those are only as accurate as their UA sniffing algorithm.

2. Mozilla-based browsers are probably close to 10% of the 'general' audience and growing slowly, IE 5 is probably less than that and shrinking, and IE 6 usage is roughly static -- though it's due to start shrinkng once IE 7 enters public beta .

3. Safari usage and the growth thereof is limited by the adoption of Mac OS X which, while it is replacing OS 9 at a reasonable rate is probably not making significant inroads into the Windows market as yet. That means its overall share is probably limited to less than 5% of the total web audience, and given the presence of Opera, OmniWeb, Firefox and Camino on the Mac it will probably never get anywhere near there.

You readers are such Apple tools. If the article said Internet Explorer usage was slipping, you guys wouldn't be talking about how these numbers are not accurate due to browser spoofing, etc.

Mindless slaves, feel the pain!

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Mindless M$ Drone wrote:
You readers are such Apple tools. If the article said Internet Explorer usage was slipping, you guys wouldn't be talking about how these numbers are not accurate due to browser spoofing, etc.

Mindless slaves, feel the pain!

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Pissy Day wrote:
I apologize for my pro-Mac comments on this site. I am going to deregister my account here and start using Linux.

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Anonymous Coward wrote:
We Windoze drones are pinheads. We’re far more stupid than you cool, creative Mac users can ever imagine. In fact, we’re so stupid, we actually enjoy all the Windoze viruses, spyware and pop-ups. That’s why we Lemmings continue to use IE in LARGE numbers. And you poor little Mac users don’t have any malware on the Mac. Ha! We have over 100,000 for Windoze! Nah, nah, nah.

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Rainy Day wrote:
We Classic Mac butts are 15-pinheads. with a display port far more incompatible with monitors than creative Mac users can ever imagine. In fact, we’re so stupid, we actually buy soon-to-be-unsupported Macs in LARGE numbers. Then it's over! Nah, nah, nah. Uh huh. Whatever.

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Anonymous 7-year old Coward with Mac Envy wrote:
Gosh darn, I wish my dad would buy me a Mac, but he’s so cheap, all I got is this darn ol’ Dell with Windoze. But if my dad did buy me a Mac, it would probably be one of those soon-to-be-unsupported Macs.

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Tooth Decay wrote:

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Anonymous 7-year Mac wrote:
Gosh darn, no one supports me anymore.

Never fear, young Jedi, I'll be replacing my wife's feminine hygiene products that I used long before she gets home.

A drop of 0.7 percentage points may seem a lot, but given how rubbery stats are, it's hard to be sure how statistically significant they are....

So, I have to ask, do you just reprint press releases?

A single (possibly self-serving) source, questionable methodology (only NetApplications customers were counted), and no margin of error mentioned for a change of 0.64% ?

What does WebSideStory say?
What does Google say?
What does TheCounter.com say? (Two point increase.)
What does *anyone else* say?