More Internet users than ever before are using higher screen resolutions. That means larger monitors, more effective sites, with more content on the page. At least that's according to WebSideStory,
Inc., which on Thursday reported that as of August 4, 2003, nearly 58 percent of Web users had a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher, compared to only 34 percent in January of 2000.
Geoff
Johnston, VP of product marketing for StatMarket (www.statmarket.com), a source of data on global Internet users trends that aggregates user trend information from millions of Internet users per day
to thousands of sites worldwide using WebSideStory's HitBox, says that for many years, "developers and content providers have wished they could put more on the page, but were constrained by smaller
screen resolutions. That is beginning to change."
What's interesting is that U.S. Web users lag behind the rest of the world in this area, Johnston says.
As many Web developers know, 800 x 600
has been the dominant screen resolution worldwide for many years. It was finally surpassed for the first time in April of this year by the larger 1024 x 768 resolution.
Global Usage Share Global
Usage Share
Screen Resolution as of August 4, 2003 as of Jan. 4, 2000
1024 x 768 or higher 57.84% 33.97%
800x 600 or lower
42.16% 66.03%