Guardian Article On Browsers Fails

Yet another article on worldwide browser usage has failed because of the refusal to recognize Firefox.

An article in the Guardian refutes the StatCounter claim that Google Chrome is now the most used browser. It uses monthly rather than weekly stats. Fine. but then it uses something called the Open Heat Map to show what browser is #1 in every country, regardless of how far ahead it is of #2. Again, by itself this is fine.

What's not fine is this: The map isn't viewable in Firefox! Now this isn't the first time I've come across this out of touch behavior. In fact it happens way too much. But in an article on tech, & browsers in particular? Mind you, I use NoScript & made sure to allow all scripts on the page, & there are a ridiculous amount of scripts on the map. It still wouldn't load. So I loaded Internet Explorer. What a surprise. The map loaded immediately. I'm guessing that it also loads in Chrome.

I actually envision a day where I will be forced to install Chrome regardless of my dislike of Google's data collection, just because lazy website developers won't write for Firefox. They code for Chrome because it's Google. Mozilla shouldn't be a problem because it's been the #2 browser for years, but these programmers don't like having to code for separate browsers. But Google is so big that they do it.

Here's the kicker. While IE is still #1 in the US & Canada & the Pacific Region, Firefox is #1 in most of Europe & half of Africa. IE is #1 in China, Firefox #1 in Indonesia (largest Muslim country in the world) , Chrome is #1 in Russia.

So I don't know if the culprit is The Guardian or Open Heat Map. My guess is the latter. Amazing that a European news organization ignores something popular in it's local area.