User Preferences on Internet Browsers

by Joe Lee
 

Users have different preferences on using Internet browsers. Preferences may vary from place to place and change over time. We share with you the usage statistics collected in four scenarios.

 
(1) Browser preferences of users accessing the City University Homepage
 
The bar chart below depicts the usage statistics collected from visits to the City University Homepage. Obviously, Internet Explorer (IE) is the most dominant browser and Chrome is also popular on campus.  However, the picture is very different for off-campus usage as Chrome outperforms its competitors substantially.  The reason behind these interesting results is the fact that IE is the default browser on campus LAN PCs.
(2) Browser preferences of users accessing the Administrative Information Management System (AIMS), the campus Wireless LAN (WLAN), the Emails OWA (Email systems via Outlook Web Access) and the CityU Homepage
 
The pie chart below shows statistics collected from visits to AIMS, WLAN, Emails OWA, Homepage and a few other campus systems.
It was obvious that Chrome and IE are the two major browsers used and there are slightly more Chrome users than IE users. Safari has many supporters, and we can also see access from browsers of mobile devices are becoming popular too.
 
(3) Browser preferences of users accessing the e-Learning System (Canvas)
 
Usage statistics collected from the e-learning environment, Canvas, confirms that students tend to use Chrome more often.
(4) Usages of IE – based on student access to the Student Email System
 
Based on student email statistics collected from 1/1/2015 - 1/12/2015, students used different versions of IE to manage their email. Although most students used IE 11.x, many use IE 8.x, 9.x and 10.x. Microsoft’s new browser, Edge, has not gained popularity yet.

Since Microsoft has ceased support of IE versions below 11.x, we should see students who use IE will gradually switch to IE 11.x or Edge in the future.