[thelist] Browser Stats

[Joshua Olson]

> The misleading thing about percentages is that they are based on a number
> out of 100 (and even when you extend it two decimal places like this
you're
> still only getting representation of a number out of 10,000).  And when
you
> consider that there are something like 280,000,000 people in the US alone,
> that tiny-sounding 3.39% translates to nearly a million people!  Much less
> when you expand your net to the world.

Let's keep this in perspective.  First off, not everybody in the US has a
computer and the desire to browse the web.  That cuts the 280 million down a
lot.  Second, not everyone cares about your particular site... that cuts off
another huge slice.  Not everybody that cares about your site even finds
your site.  There goes another chunk.  Now, for example, that 280 million is
now 2.8 million.  3% of that is not nearly as bad as we've over dramatized.

I can see both sides, but one side is far more important in most
decisions...

The business person is only doing business if more money going into their
pockets as is going out.  Visitors to a website, given a good business plan,
usually means money.  So losing even 1 visitor is unacceptable to a true
business person... unless that 1 person was a sacrifice to save money
elsewhere.  The most obvious place to save money being the amount of time it
takes to develop the site to cater to that 1 person.  A good business person
will know the size of the audience, understand the penalty incurred to the
bottom line by taking the accessibility shortcut, and then decide how to
maximize profit.

So, for a profit driven site, this is simply a business decision driven
ultimately by money and all applicable regulations and laws of the land.  If
3% of the expected audience (which is NOT 100% of the target population, by
the way) is too much loss, then the dollar/yen/drachma/whatever will decide
what to do.

Just my 2c

-joshua