Undergraduate Researcher: Mitchum Owen

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Undergraduate Researcher Mitchum Owen Faculty
Advisor Dr. James Gantt Murray State
University Murray, Kentucky
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Background

• Web designers must deal with many variables...
• Browser Version
• Operating System
• Plug-in Availability and Version
• JavaScript Version
• User Settings Cookies, JavaScript, Screen
  Size...

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Background
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Research Questions

• Which end-user configurations are the most
  popular overall?
• Do the most popular configurations vary enough
  between websites to warrant individual site
  testing and accommodation of different
  configurations for each site?

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Choosing a Methodology

• Log Files / Header Information
• Located on the server
• Does not require special software on the viewers
  computers
• Does not include cached pages (cached by computer
  or network)
• Might consider computers on same network as the
  same visitor
• Limited detection ability
• More advanced detection relies on a configuration
  database, which might not be up-to-date
• Non-HTML files (graphics / downloads) might be
  considered as additional hits
• Web Beacon
• Located in the page
• Captures every page load, regardless if cached
• Advanced detection ability plug-in versions,
  CSS, etc...
• Requires that JavaScript and image capabilities
  are installed and enabled
• Can run slowly on viewers computers
• Must be installed on every page to be analyzed
• Might not work if other errors on the page exist

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Choosing a Methodology

• Web Beacon - a small image used to automatically
  send information from a webpage to a server.
• ltimg srcmyImage.jpg /gt
• ltimg srcmyImageProgram.php?var1val1var2val2..
  . /gt
• document.write(ltimg srcmyImageProgram.php?var1
  val1.. /gt)

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Methodology

• PHP Code for myImageProgram.php
• lt?php
• var1 _GETvar1
• var2 _GETvar2
• / ...
• (Database access code goes here)
• .../
• cache_file /serverPath/myImage.jpg"
• header("Content-Type image/jpeg")
• header("Content-Length ".filesize(cache_file))
  
• cache fopen(cache_file,"r")
• fpassthru(cache)
• fclose(cache)
• ?gt

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Variables

• Basic information is collected from every
  visit...
• Browser - Version
• Cookies - Enabled or Not?
• CSS - Enabled or Not?
• DHTML (Dynamic HTML) - Enabled or Not?
• DOM (Document Object Model) - Enabled or Not?
• Operating System
• Screen Size
• Time Stamp (for webmasters to filter results)
• We do NOT track users via cookies.
• It is part one of the variables
• It introduced additional privacy concerns

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Variables Continued

• Each visit also has a 20 chance of
  being selected for advanced detection...

- Real Player - Version - QuickTime - Version -
Screen Size - Scalable Vector Graphics -
Enabled or Not? - Shockwave
Player - Version - Visual Basic - Enabled or
Not? - Windows Media Player - Version -
xmlRequest - Enabled or Not? - Time Stamp

• - ActiveX - Enabled or Not?
• - Adobe Acrobat - Version
• - DirectX - Enabled or Not?
• - Flash - Version
• - Frames - Enabled or Not?
• - Forms - Enabled or Not?
• - Gecko ActiveX - Enabled or Not?
• iFrames - Enabled or Not?
• Java - Enabled or Not?
• JavaScript - Version

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Preliminary Results - Site 1
Browser (Pop.)
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Preliminary Results - Site 1
Operating System (Pop.)
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Preliminary Results - Site 1
Screen Size (Pop.)
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Preliminary Results - Site 1
Cookies (Pop.)
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Preliminary Results - Site 1

• Population Data...
• Browser - Version
• Cookies - Enabled or Not?
• CSS - Enabled or Not?
• DHTML (Dynamic HTML) - Enabled or Not?
• DOM (Document Object Model) - Enabled or Not?
• Operating System
• Screen Size
• Time Stamp (for webmasters to filter results)

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Preliminary Results - Site 1
Sample Data...
- Real Player - Version - QuickTime - Version -
Screen Size - Scalable Vector Graphics -
Enabled or Not? - Shockwave
Player - Version - Visual Basic - Enabled or
Not? - Windows Media Player - Version -
xmlRequest - Enabled or Not? - Time Stamp

• - ActiveX - Enabled or Not?
• - Adobe Acrobat - Version
• - DirectX - Enabled or Not?
• - Flash - Version
• - Frames - Enabled or Not?
• - Forms - Enabled or Not?
• - Gecko ActiveX - Enabled or Not?
• iFrames - Enabled or Not?
• Java - Enabled or Not?
• JavaScript - Version

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Validity - Site 1
1 in 5 (20) chance of being selected This
sites sample is 17.5 of population
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Validity - Site 1
Sample (Screen Size)
Population (Screen Size)
Sample of 708 Population of 4047 yields ...
95
Confidence Level with 3.35 Margin of Error
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Preliminary Results - Site 1
Adobe Acrobat
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Preliminary Results - Site 1
Flash Player
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Preliminary Results - Site 1
QuickTimeVersion
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Preliminary Results - Site 1
Shockwave Player
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Research Questions

• Which end-user configurations are the most
  popular overall?
• Do the most popular configurations vary enough
  between websites to warrant individual site
  testing and accommodation of different
  configurations for each site?

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Published Aggregate Statistics
Source http//marketshare.hitslink.com/report.asp
x?qprid0
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Preliminary Results - Site Comparison
Site 2 Pop. 3302 Club
Site 1 Pop. 4047 Community
Site 3 Pop. 487 University
Aggregate Stats
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You can help...

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Acknowledgements

• Maani PHP/SWF Charts http//www.maani.us/
• Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program at Murray
  State University
• Center for Telecommunications Systems
  Management at Murray State University
• Honors Program at Murray State University
• RaoSoft Statistics Calculator http//www.raosoft.
  com/samplesize.html
• Full Reference List http//www.webofvariables.co
  m/sources.htm