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I actually have no idea what Google Analytics looks at to decide the user agent. Certainly not my server logs ;) It might throw away the declared User-Agent entirely and rely on its own flavor of browser-sniffing, on the theory, why bother with the User-Agent at all if you're going to run your own tests for all the other attributes: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/reporting/core/dimsmets/system -----Original Message----- From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robert Berry Sent: Friday, July 13, 2012 7:37 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Browser Wars To be fair, I think this information isn't likely to be *that* inaccurate. Most people don't count 'the User-Agent header of your HTTP requests' alongside their age or income. MJ Ray <[log in to unmask]> writes: > Genny Engel wrote: >> Interesting, Safari has just pulled into the lead over here. > > You can't know that. With so many browser and proxies mangling the > User-Agent for various reasons (User-Agent Switcher to get a nicer > mobile-style experience on a small screen, or randomUserAgent to stop > the evil empire tracking you through browser fingerprinting, to give > two examples), reading the User-Agent header from your logfiles is a > suggestion or hint of what's reading your site, not a definitive > result. > > What's in the logs is basically reader-submitted. You don't believe > people to all tell the truth when they tell you their age or income, > so please don't believe them about their browsers! > > I predict we will see much more volatility in these results as > more people install the obvious plugins to get a nicer and safer > browsing experience. > > Regards,