December 17th, 2009 - 6 Comments
Browser Size: Google's browser 'fold' tool.
Google have released Browser Size, a Google Labs tool that allows you to see how much of your site is visible in people’s web browsers without scrolling.
This is a brilliant tool that I have been hoping Google would develop for a while now – I wrote about this area in relation to website widths previously.
Currently the data is based on a portion of visitors to Google.com – which is probably the best overall data we could have, however the type of business you are in or your geographic location could impact significantly on the overall data.
Therefore, while the information Browser Size makes available is incredibly useful, with any luck Browser Size will be added to Google Analytics, so that you could compare your own site’s traffic to benchmarking data, which would make it invaluable.
The data is intended to be used for laying out your site in terms of width and depth so that the elements that need high visibility are above the fold for the highest percentage of visitors.
Read the Google blog post on Browser Size to understand more about how the tool can help you with placement of elements on your site to increase conversion.
For example, on the download page for Google Earth, the install rate increased by 10% when we moved the “Download” button 100 pixels upward.
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6 Responses to “Browser Size: Google's browser 'fold' tool.”
The stats are showing the viewport size of a portion of Google’s visitors.
That users scroll is not in contention, therefore it’s not a matter of people not seeing content further down the page, but rather a matter of what do they see when they first land on the page.
That said, as I mention in the post, the absolute ideal would be to have stats for your own site, industry benchmarking and overall stats as well.
December 17th, 2009 at 8:06 pm by Frank Prendergast
Looks like it’s pretty flawed. Load up a site in the viewer and then resize your browser window.
The overlay positions are fixed to the left hand side of the viewport which is fine for left-aligned websites, but it completely fails for centre-aligned sites as the positioning of the site underneath is dependant on your current browser window size.
Nice to see, but definitely needs some work if it’s actually going to be useful.
I see what you mean now, oops!
However, I still can’t get my head around the fact that it says 99% of people have a viewport of less then 600 x 350!? And the 1024 x 768 minimum most of us design too only has 60%? Or am I wrong again?
Agree that more work is needed, and that the centered site thing is an issue, still though, assuming that you’re looking at the viewport sizes from top left, if you resize your window so your site is aligned top left your getting a good picture of the visibility.
They do say themselves on the about page:
Browser Size works best on web pages with a fixed layout aligned to the left. If the content reflows as the width is adjusted or it is centered, then the results can be misleading. In this case, you can obtain more accurate results by reducing the browser width to a percentage column, e.g. 90% and seeing what content falls below the 90% horizontal line.
December 17th, 2009 at 8:19 pm by Frank Prendergast
Hey Leon,
These stats are not the screen resolution but the viewport size – in other words they are the stats for the actual visible area when you take into account the fact that the browser may not be maximised, the browser chrome, any toolbars that might be open and so on.
For example, anything within 750px wide and 350px deep will be seen by 98% of people upon landing on the page.
Anything within 960px wide and 500px deep will be seen by 90% of people upon landing on the page.
For more info have a read of my blog post on website widths.
December 17th, 2009 at 8:24 pm by Frank Prendergast
Yeh, its useful alright but not sure about the stats. If its all based on Google.com visits and there’s no scrolling anyway on Google.com as we know, then is it reliable or correct information!?
I mean if my 1 page, loads of scrolling required site was Google then I’m sure there would be higher percentages down the bottom..
December 17th, 2009 at 8:02 pm by Leon