Outside the Beltway

Blog Reader Monitor Resolution

James Joyner
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David Smith has been quietly adding new features to SiteMeter in recent months. One that’s been around for a while that I’ve just noticed is the ability to track the monitor resolution of the site’s readers.

I’ve noticed that more and more blogs are going to a bigger window for the main content portion, presumably on the assumption that most readers have newish monitors and are using much higher screen resolutions. A check of OTB’s stats would indicate that this is indeed the case:

OTB Monitor Resolution

Here’s the rub, though: A stunning 17.44% of OTB’s readers are still using 800×600. What’s the deal with that?

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12 responses to “Blog Reader Monitor Resolution”

  1. Steven Taylor Avatar
    Steven Taylor

    ’tis a mystery.

  2. Brian Drozd Avatar
    Brian Drozd

    Some of us prefer text you can actually read without squinting.

  3. M. Murcek Avatar
    M. Murcek

    Those surfing from work may have no choice. Many organizations “lock down” their client configurations, so users can’t change them even if the hardware supports higher rez…

  4. Mark Avatar
    Mark

    My dad sets his monitor to 800×600. Drives me nuts when I go to visit. So if I use the computer, I set the resolution to something lower which in turn drives him insane.

  5. Michael A Avatar
    Michael A

    After looking at the linked chart page and a refresh or two it looks like the data only covers a very short time period. Since I use a very rare resolution (1792×1344) I was able to watch my session be dropped from the chart (based on 80-85 data points it seems) after a few minutes. Resolutions of 800×600 are still common enough and as such remain the standard for web page design.

  6. Gary and the Samoyeds Avatar
    Gary and the Samoyeds

    Or, maybe people with portables or laptops.

    Did you get 0 responses for 640×480 (or lower), or did you simply not ask?

  7. Will Franklin Avatar
    Will Franklin

    I am 1680 X 1050…

  8. James Joyner Avatar
    James Joyner

    Gary–The pie is an autogenerated report. There isn’t a query function.

  9. David Kutzler Avatar
    David Kutzler

    Older users may have visual impairments that make a lower resolution more readable. With others, it’s just a matter of preference. My wife goes with a lower resolution than me, because she had laser eye surgery for her distance vision, but still needs to use reading glasses for near vision. If she uses a lower resolution, she can get by without the reading glasses.

  10. KevinM Avatar
    KevinM

    On many LCDs, the resolution is fixed. All the current 19″ ones I’m buying are 1280×1024, but I imagine that legacy LCDs, esp laptops, will keep the average down for years.

  11. bryan Avatar
    bryan

    David Smith has been quietly adding new features to SiteMeter in recent months. One that’s been around for a while that I’ve just noticed is the ability to track the monitor resolution of the site’s readers.

    I’d just like for him to focus on accurately tracking site visits for a while. My site statistics, while very small compared to yours, fluctuate wildly at times even within a day over the past few weeks. I’m just not sure I’m getting an accurate picture.

    I’d much rather have that than monitor resolution stats, which I can get from my control panel stats if I’m so inclined.

  12. ICallMasICM Avatar
    ICallMasICM

    I’ve done quite a bit of work on this for financial websites and these numbers look in line with typical results. The 8X6 are older users. It looks like this is a small sample size to have a consistent percentage on the very high resolutions. They should also be able to provide you with browser statistics which is more interesting.

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