Net Applications

Net Applications was a web analytics company associated with the measurement of browser and operating-system usage on the internet. Its best-known reporting product was NetMarketShare, a set of usage-share reports that appeared in comparative discussions of web browsers, desktop operating systems, and related technologies. Rather than treating every page request as an independent observation, Net Applications described its methodology as being based on unique visitors to a network of monitored websites. The cited reference describes a sample of approximately 40,000 websites and around 160 million unique visitors per month during the period in which Net Applications data was reported. The company’s measurements were used as one source for tracking competition among browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera, as well as the relative position of Microsoft Windows and Apple’s Mac OS X in the desktop category. Its approach differed from services that counted raw page hits. A visitor who returned to a website multiple times could be counted once by a unique-visitor methodology, whereas a page-hit service could count each request. Net Applications also applied country-level weighting, intending to reduce distortions caused by uneven geographic coverage in the tracked sample and differences between the monitored audience and broader global internet use. The company’s data was influential but not free from methodological limitations. Browser and operating-system share figures can be affected by automated requests, browser preloading, caching, privacy tools, blocked scripts, user-agent spoofing, and websites that restrict access to particular browsers. Net Applications acknowledged that its statistics were skewed. This qualification is important because usage-share figures are estimates of activity observed in a particular measurement system, not direct counts of every internet user or every device in the world. Net Applications also had a connection to the commercial web-analytics market. Vincent Vizzaccaro was identified in the cited material as an executive responsible for marketing and strategic alliances, and the company stated that Microsoft and Apple were among its clients. The available reference does not establish the company’s founding year, legal structure, headquarters, ownership, or current operating status. It does, however, document Net Applications as a recognized source in historical browser-usage reporting, especially in comparisons covering the late 2000s and the 2010s.

Net Applications became known through its web-usage measurement activities, particularly the NetMarketShare reporting service. The available reference material does not provide a verified founding date, founder, headquarters, incorporation history, or detailed chronology of the company’s early development. Consequently, its documented history is best understood through the evolution and application of its measurement service rather than through corporate milestones. Net Applications’ principal contribution was the publication of comparative estimates of browser and operating-system usage. During the period covered by the cited material, NetMarketShare used information from approximately 40,000 websites receiving about 160 million unique visitors per month. This positioned the service alongside other measurement systems, including StatCounter, W3Counter, Wikimedia traffic analysis, and historical commercial web counters. These services did not measure exactly the same thing: some counted page requests, some used visits, some limited the number of page views per website, and some applied geographic or other weighting systems. As a result, their reported shares could differ substantially. A defining feature of the Net Applications approach was its use of unique visitors. Repeated visits by the same user were intended not to have the same effect as repeated page hits, making the service conceptually different from raw-request measurement. The company also used country-level weighting to address sampling bias. Websites in the measurement network did not necessarily represent the distribution of global internet activity, because tracked traffic could be concentrated in particular countries, industries, or audience segments. Weighting was intended to make the reported figures more representative of wider geographic usage, although it could not eliminate all sampling limitations. Net Applications’ statistics were frequently discussed in the context of browser competition and desktop operating-system market structure. The cited reference notes that the company’s figures routinely showed relatively high shares for Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X within the desktop category through 2013. The data therefore contributed to public analysis of the changing positions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and other browsers. The company also disclosed that Microsoft and Apple were among its clients, a fact relevant to understanding both its commercial relationships and the need to interpret its statistics with methodological care. The company acknowledged that its results were skewed. Several technical and behavioral factors can distort browser statistics: automated software may identify itself with a browser user-agent string; preloading can generate requests before a user views a page; caching can prevent requests from being recorded; privacy extensions and script blockers can interfere with tracking; and users or software can spoof browser identities. Websites that block unsupported browsers can also create selection effects. These issues apply broadly to usage-share measurement, but they are especially important when figures from different providers are compared as though they were interchangeable. The available material records Net Applications data through the historical reporting period ending in 2019, but it does not establish the company’s later corporate status. No verified information is supplied here about a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, rebranding, or formal discontinuation. Net Applications is therefore marked as having an unknown current status rather than being classified as active or defunct.

• 2019

  End of the historical Net Applications comparison series cited

  [1]Usage share of web browsersen.wikipedia.org

  The cited reference lists Net Applications data in a historical browser-usage comparison covering May 2016 through November 2019.

• 2002

  Vincent Vizzaccaro identified as a Net Applications executive

  [1]Usage share of web browsersen.wikipedia.org

  The cited reference identifies Vincent Vizzaccaro as Net Applications’ executive vice president for marketing and strategic alliances from 2002 onward.

A measurement and reporting provider focused on estimated web-usage shares, using unique-visitor data, country weighting, and a large monitored-site sample to produce comparative statistics.

• Web analytics and market-share reporting

  NetMarketShare

  NetMarketShare was Net Applications’ principal public reporting service for estimated usage shares of web browsers and operating systems. Its methodology was described as using unique visitors from a large network of monitored websites, together with country-level weighting intended to reduce geographic sampling bias. The service was frequently used in historical comparisons of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Windows, and Mac OS X. Its figures require methodological interpretation because tracking coverage, privacy settings, caching, automation, preloading, and user-agent identification can all affect results.

1. 1Usage share of web browsersen.wikipedia.org