Mobile vs Desktop

Here are some stats for AVC over the past month:

Mobile vs desktop

For those who don't want to do the math, desktop is 69%, phone is 23%, and tablet is 8%.

I was surprised that desktop remains so strong. I think my usage of the web is 40% desktop, 40% phone, 20% tablet. But I guess I am out and about a lot more than many people who are office bound during the day.

These numbers are up slightly this year. I ran the same numbers for the 2013 year to date and desktop was ~75% so it is moving down steadily, but not dramatically.

For those who want to know iOS vs Android, mobile visits are about 75% iOS, 25% Android. Not surprising considering who reads this blog.

#mobile

Comments (Archived):

  1. awaldstein

    Visits include call backs to Disqus comments I’m presuming.For me as Disqus get incrementally better (which it has) I use my phone more and more.

    1. Barry Nolan

      Disqus demands desktop for the best experience. A challenge for me on the phone

      1. jason wright

        ankle biter weakness

      2. awaldstein

        Agree–mobile experience has been a real issue.About a year ago as more and more of my projects became mobile, I just switched and decided to do most everything I do on my phone to a point.And with my blogs, Disqus was one of those things. Maybe its better, maybe I’m better but I just do it.

      3. fredwilson

        It will be better soon

        1. Barry Nolan

          Look forward to that. As has been mentioned above, I use Disqus on three devices (mac, phone, tablet) and as you roam on these devices, often you have to log in again and again.That said, love Disqus.

  2. jason wright

    what is the avc experience like on a mini tablet?people here have written that disqus is not good for mobile, but is that about phone mobile, or all mobile (including tablets)?p.s. desktop computers are quite durable (not so) little beasts. mine is ten years old this month. the monitor too.p.s.s. people are in their homes quite often (as a % of their twenty four hour day), and desktops have the best screen size and a physical keyboard. it’s convenient.

    1. fredwilson

      Its great on a 7″Disqus is reworking the mobile experience and I have used it and it is a lot better

      1. jason wright

        then i will get one.

  3. Ricardo Diz

    The AVC mobile experience is not that good, and since a lot of the content is on the comments’ section (aka Disqus), it’s just easier to access AVC.com through a desktop web browser.

    1. Fernando Gutierrez

      Agree. There are sites that I always visit on my phone, but for AVC I always try desktop so I can enjoy the comments. If I don’t have a desktop then I’ll just read the email.

    2. Cam MacRae

      Bam! That’s it in a nutshell. I use a desktop specifically to visit avc because the mobile experience (read: disqus) is awful.

      1. awaldstein

        Awful I don’t know. Not great for certain.But here’s the rub. I’m out and about every day at meetings. Conversations are best real time. If I have to wait to engage I would pull it out and use something else.

        1. Cam MacRae

          One man’s awful is another man’s not great.Lucky for me real time coincides with 22:30 when I’m at my desk anyway.

          1. awaldstein

            True enough.We can kick Disqus all day long about mobile and hey we are right.I also know that its super easy to be a critic. We’ve all run companies and have had the world tell us what to do, then we do what we must or should,I’m on an anti kvetch campaign. I find that I bore myself if all I do is sit and tell the world how it can be better. More humbling and useful to work with clients and my own projects to actually do something.

          2. Cam MacRae

            No kvetching?! But I’ve only just started… no, no, I kid.Back in the day when people said “cyberspace” without irony I received a highly critical email that signed off with “in cyberspace no one can hear you leave.” Truer then than it is today, and yet I’d rather hear a 1000 people tell me what I’m doing wrong than crickets (unless I’m on the porch with cigar and bucket of scotch, in which case get the hell off my lawn).

          3. awaldstein

            True and well said.I’m a Disqus lover and a big critic of why they are not perfect.I’m simply tired of beating this one. They are listening. I spoke with Daniel when he is in town and they have something in the works.Guess I’m just too busy to pick on the this one again.When clients tell me that they are frustrated with the lack of ROI (Oy!) with their social channels especially, I tell them to simply delete their FB account. They never do!

          4. Cam MacRae

            I’m a big fan of disqus too, but don’t have the luxury of hearing from Daniel.I wish they’d open up the beta because I’d rather use a buggy yet promising beta than a buggy release.

          5. awaldstein

            I ran into him at the avc thingee a few weeks ago.Agree–if I ran the circus I would use this community as a beta group for certain. This group cares.

          6. Cam MacRae

            Sad I missed the soirée, but having just flown back from Ireland I wasn’t motivated to spend another 24 hours in a pressurised aluminium tube.

          7. awaldstein

            Really good one. I don’t like big crowed rooms but I kept bumping into people who knew me online and it made the evening a series of small conversations. Great stuff.

          8. JimHirshfield

            Hahahah…it is. 😛

          9. JimHirshfield

            I see Daniel all the time. It’s a luxurious luxury.

          10. William Mougayar

            Why are you assuming that the release would be buggy? Typing this from Disqus mobile – just to rub it in 😉

          11. JimHirshfield

            Watch out. He might reply from Disqus mobile beta. 😉

          12. William Mougayar

            it seems he is. ya had to test it down under to see it works in the southern hemisphere 🙂

          13. JimHirshfield

            geo-agnostic 😉

          14. William Mougayar

            Intergalactic too? The Gravity cast should have tested it in outer space !!

          15. Cam MacRae

            You misunderstand; the release is buggy, so I’d rather be on the bleeding edge even if it has a few bugs too.

          16. William Mougayar

            I see. ok.

          17. JimHirshfield

            Always getting better; moving your expectations higher; falling more in love; wanting more out of the relationship.<3

          18. awaldstein

            ;)The fact that wifi is everywhere in the city makes a difference.I don’t spend time during the day browsing. I check in or post my posts in the morning, then move on. The rest is all monitoring comments and replying to them.That is what mobile Disqus needs to accomplish.

          19. karen_e

            There are ergonomics to writing that mobile can’t address. Fred writes his initial post in the *comfort* of a home office at 5 am. Virginia Woolf would call this the room of his own. The rest of the day, his comments are Twitter-sized. Those who read on the desktop are doing so because we might compose a thoughtful reply. If you re-read David Allen, you’ll see he does not find any way to relieve us of the need of a certain number of square feet to hold the desk, chair, filing cabinets, and equipment. Since giving up 200 square feet of a downtown apartment to my charming progeny, the loss of a home office has been painful for me. Also, I work in an architectural office so I hear the pressure that our clients are under to take away office space. We support hospitals and healthcare systems as they try gently to pry their expensive doctors out of expensive offices that stay empty most of the day. Across many business sectors, we are all trying to trowel our workers into hotelling solutions. The ergonomics of creative work, which David Allen touches on, cannot all be tackled by a better mobile platform. Keep on truckin’, Jim!

          20. JimHirshfield

            I hear ya.

          21. LE

            (lulitonix suggestion at the end of this long reply)I also know that its super easy to be a critic.Critics are very important for any business and free advice. Non critics take their business elsewhere. I always tell people to go to eat at restaurants that jews patronize in large numbers because jews are pains in the asses that open their mouths and complain at the drop of the hat. If the shit doesn’t come back right from the deli waitress it’s back to the kitchen. Survival of the fittest. Non jews tend to just not come back and then the place goes out of business. Gross generalization of course. But true in my experience. Teachable moments for my stepkids. If the meal is expensive and you don’t like it don’t be bashful send it back and get something else. If the drink isn’t done right send it back.I just bought a new laptop bag last month which was several hundred dollars and the shoulder strap is totally non functional. (The rest of the bag I like). There is no easy way for me to comment on this (mentioning it to the store that sold it will do nothing) and even if the manufacturer surveyed me almost certainly they would do it in a way that was one of those lame surveys where you feel you are wasting your time by offering advice (in a restaurant you get immediate feedback otoh).I’m on an anti kvetch campaign. I find that I bore myself if all I do is sit and tell the world how it can be better.Otoh it’s a great way to exercise your mind with no downside. Similar to the way a teacher learns by teaching.Though of a way for you to get more traction with lulitonix btw the other day. Offer samples of it at those brokers opens and regular open houses in exclusive neighborhoods where you do deliveries. (Kind of like goodie bags at high end events).Update: Predictably down votes. I stand by the comment and observation. Ntim, I’m also jewish and I don’t particularly care about being politically correct or using sterotypes either.

          22. CJ

            We all kick those things that are great or have great potential. It’s not perfect, we use it regardless. That should tell them that we enjoy the product, just wish this aspect was better.If I’m being truthful, I no longer comment on sites that don’t use Disqus so that should say it all.

          23. awaldstein

            I’m with you.Been blogging on their potential for years, have got them into many sites, and have pushed them hard in public.The mobile piece has been a rant on this blog for almost three years. They will do it at whatever their schedule is.What would be great is an open, real-time Q & A with Daniel and this community that loves his product enough to care this much. He is fortunate to have this community on his side.Till then, so be it. I’m fortunate as I”m really busy and other things besides kicking the door are more pressing.

      2. JimHirshfield

        Do you mean it’s awful because everything is smaller? Or is there something that operationally doesn’t work?Obviously, navigating long threads can be a hassle on a handheld device due to limited screen space.

        1. Cam MacRae

          Other parts of the thread — usually far from where your attention is — repeatedly steal focus from the text box. It’s maddening.

          1. JimHirshfield

            Thanks for details.

        2. Richard

          I rarely have issues on mobile. The indentation of long threads should obviously be changed. Who idea was that?

          1. JimHirshfield

            We only indent up to 3 times. Thereafter, not.It will be different on mobile.

      3. RichardF

        Don’t even get me started on the topic….

      4. SubstrateUndertow

        Its not that big a problem as I’m sure most people don’t place much value on the comments :-yes I’m kidding)

        1. Cam MacRae

          🙂

      5. Fernando Gutierrez

        One thing to consider is that for commenting mobile can’t be as good as desktop. Period. It is always going to be easier to comment with a full keyboard and a big screen than with a small virtual one that covers half of the (already small) screen.Maybe we are being too critical with Disqus because we are spoiled by an amazing desktop experience.

        1. Cam MacRae

          I don’t expect miracles.

    3. Andrew Kennedy

      for some reason disqus makes me login every time if i want to leave a comment from mobile web browser. Is a big deterrent.

      1. awaldstein

        Not me but that would be a deal killer for me as well.

        1. LE

          Friction is a deal killer. Likewise it’s a great stall tactic.

      2. William Mougayar

        Maybe something to do with your cookies settings?

        1. Andrew Kennedy

          Do you work for dusqus too

          1. William Mougayar

            No, just a friend and advocate of Disqus. (and big user) and previous developer on their API.

      3. Ricardo Diz

        That happened to me also!

    4. JimHirshfield

      We’re working on mobile specific solutions. [I work at Disqus]

      1. Cam MacRae

        Native or web? Either way it will be a godsend.

        1. JimHirshfield

          HTML5

          1. Cam MacRae

            Beta? Keen as mustard.

          2. JimHirshfield

            Private beta

          3. pointsnfigures

            HTML5 should help. I am torn though. Wonder if programming a dedicated mobile solution makes the team think differently, and think more “mobile”. Mobile v Desktop is totally different perspective.

          4. JimHirshfield

            For sure. A whole different perspective.

          5. Richard

            Why did you choose mobile web approach?

          6. JimHirshfield

            In the paradigm of a distributed commenting platform, rendering the comment thread (based on user’s OS) to be more mobile-friendly is just easier if it’s part of of the embed already resident on the publisher’s page. Also, we’re building this for everyone, not just the power users that would download a Disqus specific app.

          7. Aaron Klein

            I’m a huge fan of Disqus, but honestly, I think this is a HUGE mistake. So far, there is ZERO that is magical about mobile web. And the new mobile web thing is not working. I’m sorry, the truth hurts.I use Chrome on iOS. I’m always signed out. I sign in, the browser tabs don’t work and my entire web page disappears.I tap a link in Tweetbot, it opens a totally different browser with different cookies. I’m signed out again.I tap a link in email. It opens in Safari. Whoops, looks like I’m signed out again.Oh, the stupid editing control lost all of my text again. Or it won’t let me add new characters and I can’t copy out what I’ve already written.Dang, the entire mobile browser just crashed. Maybe Disqus is having issues with Chrome for iOS. Reopen in Safari, write half of the same comment again…Safari crashes.There is NOTHING magical about this.Let me be clear — native mobile apps have won. Mobile web has lost. The battle is OVER, at least for now.Disqus is a HIGHLY successful company with lots of resources. Fricking hire six mobile developers. Build beautiful native mobile apps on Android and iOS that remember my credentials FOREVER and never make me sign in again (like ALL of my other apps).On every web page that hosts a Disqus conversation, put a button that says “Join the Conversation on Mobile.” Tapping it launches the app and pushes me straight into that URL’s comment stream. (And if I don’t have the app — I go to the app store. You underestimate your appeal to normals.)Now I have a beautiful commenting experience that ALWAYS WORKS ALL THE TIME. Magical.I would love Disqus forever. Right now, I’m just frustrated. No hating here…I’m one of your biggest fans.

          8. JimHirshfield

            No need to apologize. Thanks for documenting and sorry to hear of your frustrations. I’ve brought this to the attention of the product manager.

        2. kidmercury

          as disqus marches down the inevitable path of stealing users from the publisher, they’ll eventually go native with the app.

          1. JimHirshfield

            …said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.

      2. kidmercury

        haters gon’ hate. i don’t find the mobile experience to be that bad. the thing is typing on a mobile is nowhere near as good as typing on a laptop/desktop, and since this is a conversational site, that is the issue. but i don’t know how you’re going to solve that unless you seriously get into the hardware game. voice is weird for leaving a comment, maybe someone can make it less weird, i don’t know.but i’m using android and i find the avc experience, disqus included, to be adequate. i do have a galaxy note II which i think is also a big factor. #sizematters

        1. RichardF

          I’m really surprised you say that Kid, I’m android all over. The Disqus experience on all my devices is rubbish to put it very politely and I am definitely no hater

          1. Ricardo Diz

            Agreed on the mobile experience and hater part. I use iOS, but I think this discussion has nothing to do with mobile OS…

          2. JimHirshfield

            Sharing with [email protected] would be greatly appreciated. I’m on Android (Nexus 4 w/native browser) and not experiencing problems.

          3. LE

            An address like “[email protected]” sounds like something that goes to an anonymous hole where you would get a canned response that says: “Thanks!Your views are important to us!Regards – Customer Service Team”.I would suggest you include either an icon somewhere in the comment box where people can notify disqus of problems -or- the email address of what appears to be a “real” person even if if that “real person” is just some made up role name that is read by multiple people. Then one of the multiple people can return the email and thank the person for taking the time to give their thoughts on their own time to improve your product. And ask additional questions.

          4. JimHirshfield

            Thanks. Definitely no hole.Replies come from real people; real names.

        2. JimHirshfield

          Incremental steps. We’re not going straight to brain implants to source your comments.

          1. Anne Libby

            At least not that you’re permitted to tell us…

        3. LE

          “haters gon’ hate.”Hating? How to you compare people making constructive criticism with their personal experience in using a product to “haters gon’ hate”. How is that hate?

        4. CJ

          I have a Nexus 7 and I still think it needs a lot of work. It’s laggy in every browser that I try, it feels like it needs more RAM than a tablet typically allots gracefully.

        5. Timothy Meade

          One way to improve mobile comments may be to support navigating comments with arrow keys (though that wouldn’t help too much on my current phone, it would have been perfect on the last one.)My biggest annoyance with Disqus though is it losing contents of comments I’m entering, it would be helpful to have an autosave, possibly using localStorage if supported by the browser, or posting back to Disqus as I’m editing. Along with this, it would be helpful to return to the comment I’m editing in the place it was originally, such as in reply to the correct message, and scroll to it if there was an active comment when the browser all too frequently reloaded the page.Entering this comment on my Chromebook, though I browse from Chrome on my S4 during the day.

      3. Ricardo Diz

        Glad to hear that! Keep up the good work.

      4. leapy

        Please don’t lose the “X new comments above/below” flags that click to the blue highlights. I find these crucial to keeping up with an active discussion.Creating a post is hell though. It has taken me a good five minutes to write these two paras.

        1. JimHirshfield

          Thanks for the feedback

          1. James Ferguson @kWIQly

            Jim – just wanted to +100 leapy on the great above/belowand say that in terms of the editor…I sometimes get unexpected feedback regards a supposed picture I am actually not trying to upload. It could be a keyboard shortcut i am unaware of or that my typing is like repetitively throwing a bunch of sausages at the keyboard.;)In any case I do find the editing a little horrid (despite loving the underlying functionality)A killer feature would be to get people commenting on my blog and not via linkedIn (where they seem very happy to so annoyingly). This must be bug #1 for your users I guess.I am assuming AVC is an outlier !

          2. JimHirshfield

            Thanks.Not sure I get the LinkedIn reference. Are you blogging and then sharing that link on LinkedIn?…and then people are leaving comments on LinkedIn? If so, then yeah, that’s gonna happen.”Sausages at the keyboard” LOL…now there’s a visual. Thanks.

          3. James Ferguson @kWIQly

            Yes – thats exactly the issue – a large part of my traffic comes via linkedIn (more than google) and the seo and comment community is fragmented because it comes via different groups

          4. sigmaalgebra

            Since you are taking feedback:(1) Often upon posting, the finalpost as rendered has extra blanklines; situation is recent.(2) Doing a paste into a postresults in all of the post so farbeing set to old ‘double spacing’,that is, a blank line inserted betweeneach typed line.Somehow you have messed up yourhandling of end of line.

          5. JimHirshfield

            Thanks. Are you sure those line spacing characteristics are originating in the document you’re copying from? Do you see the same problem if you paste the same thing into Word or email instead of Disqus?

          6. sigmaalgebra

            Let’s see as I type into theHTML multi-line text box:There is one blank line above this line.Similarly for this line,but not for this line; asI described, if paste in a line, say just a URL,such as (with a blank line ahead of it)https://www.youtube.com/wat…Then the full contents of the multi-line textbox all go to double spacing.Upon editing! Amazing! From thisexample, both of the two problems Imentioned are fixed!

          7. JimHirshfield

            That was easier than I thought.

          8. ryannnz

            I have the opposite problem. Since i comment in IE10, it doesn’t recognize any double line breaks. Software is hard.

      5. Henry Glover

        Is there an estimated release date?

        1. JimHirshfield

          TBD

      6. Richard

        Jim, Can you share what some of the technological problems are? Scale up is an issue that we all (hopefully) will be dealing with.

      7. ShanaC

        overdue

      8. Vineeth Kariappa

        increase rev share.

      9. Aaron Lloyd

        Sorry to say this you will have to acquire another company to make it work because disqus by itself sucks

    5. LIAD

      …and that’s the rub. there really aren’t many good mobile web experiences

      1. leigh

        totally agree. and i don’t want to download an app for everything.

        1. William Mougayar

          You can say that again. I just reset my iPhone and lost all these Apps and gained 6GB! I was so happy. Now, I’m adding gradually only the ones I really need and use daily. Otherwise, it’s overkill.

        2. Drew Meyers

          app aggregations…it will happen, just not sure how fast

      2. ShanaC

        why is that

    6. Abdallah Al-Hakim

      That is exactly the problem for me. I can’t reliable write comment while on mobile and need to be on desktop to get involved in the conversations. @JimHirshfield:disqus I hope Disqus is close to a mobile solution because the difficulty of mobile commenting is extremely frustrating at time on avc and other sites!

      1. JimHirshfield

        How much of that frustration is just the form factor versus the way Disqus renders commenting experience?

        1. CJ

          In my opinion, 80/20 Disqus. I’ve tried on both versions of the Nexus 7 and SGS 3 with Swiftkey(kickass keyboard), FF, Chrome, and Dolphin and while the experience varies between browsers it never makes it to anything resembling OK. It feels like a resource issue to me, either not enough or using them inefficiently.

          1. JimHirshfield

            It’s getting better all the time.

          2. RichardF

            exactly malcolm, I have used all of those browsers and experienced the same frustration.

    7. William Mougayar

      I am using a beta of Disqus mobile, and you can do comments without any issues.

      1. ShanaC

        how

        1. William Mougayar

          It behaves well, without issues. (This from mobile)

    8. PhilipSugar

      I don’t know if its Disqus or my phone but the comments don’t really seem to load. I actually have the same problem when using GoGo Internet on the plane, so I have assumed it is a bandwidth issue.I will say one other thing having just got back from NY: Here in the hinterlands my phone’s battery lasts two days. NYC 1/2 day maybe.

      1. JimHirshfield

        Bandwidth is an indirect contributor to Disqus not loading. That’s because Disqus intentionally waits for everything else on the page to load first. It does this so as not to interfere with the article text, video, images, ad units, and everything else that needs to load. And, ostensibly, people don’t view comments until after all the other content on the page has been consumed…so it makes sense.But if your bandwidth is wonky, and some ad units or other content on the page hasn’t loaded, then Disqus will take a long time to load.

        1. Timothy Meade

          It might be nice to allow clicking on the Disqus logo to trigger loading, call it an easter egg or something.

          1. JimHirshfield

            I think we’d want to be more conspicuous about how to launch a native app, if we ever went in that direction.

          2. Timothy Meade

            Right, I was referring to your comment right above mine, a way to force the Disqus code to load even if the rest of the page hasn’t yet, instead of just spinning while waiting for another widget on the page to load.Especially on sites like this, we may have finished reading the original content of the post before all of the surrounding widgets have loaded and are eager to see what the community is saying in response.I’m torn between a delivery platform like HTML5 and mobile apps, I believe that the browser makers have done quite a bit to implement the native functionality in their browsers behind a simple API that can be consumed by any HTML/CSS developer. I also have a hard time considering Dalvik or Objective-C code native in quite the same way as C++ through JNI or combined into an iOS bundle is. I think embedded in a page may very well be the right way to deliver a commenting platform, even on mobile.

          3. JimHirshfield

            Thanks for clarifying and other details.

    9. Julien

      Another thing that’s hard on mobile: follow your feed in a RSS reader 🙂 Copying and Pasting a url on mbile/tablet is nearly impossible. A button (like http://subtome.com would make that much easier!)

      1. Ricardo Diz

        After Google Reader and in the now mobile era, I reduced the number of feeds and now use Flipboard. I would love to be able to collect a few RSS feeds into a Flipboard Magazine!

        1. Julien

          So, Flipboard actually uses RSS Feeds to build the magazines 🙂 You can also type any feed url in the search box to add it as a magazin.

          1. Ricardo Diz

            I meant several different feeds into one Magazine, which I haven’t successfully created.

    10. JamesHRH

      AVC is engaged users. Engaged = typing.Typing = Desktop.

      1. karen_e

        You said it more tersely than me.

    11. Fernando Gutierrez

      I was the first to jump into your wagon about the explanation for desktop being so big, but then I’m remembered the AVC funnel Fred published a few weeks ago and the commenters were a little subset of the traffic, so it would be impossible for us to move the split in a significant way.Even if there were a huge group of leechers that don’t comment but prefer desktop to enjoy other people’s comments (I don’t believe there are so many), there must be something else.

    12. Matt Zagaja

      Agree but worth pointing out that this is partly mitigated by the awesome ability to respond to comments via e-mail if it’s a reply to what you typed.

    13. ShanaC

      we need an avc to go.

      1. Ricardo Diz

        Love it!

    14. jason wright

      what’s the issue with the disqus content of avc on mobile?

      1. Ricardo Diz

        A lot of zoom in / zoom out to read, login, hit links (e.g., reply), write posts, review,… In a nutshell, not quick and simple. I do love disqus on desktops though

    15. CJ

      This is one reason why I hardly comment unless I’m on desktop. Disqus often kills Chrome on my Nexus 7 or I just get frustrated because it gets laggy.

  4. matthewmclean

    Reading AVC on my Android is like cooking in a tiny kitchen. It can be done but it isn’t as much fun.

  5. Elie Seidman

    Mobile on AVC (especially Disqus) is not awesome. A big screen and a real keyboard are still the right tools for certain things; I don’t get it when I see folks typing long docs on glass on an iPad. I’m often at home on laptop or phone and find myself doing something for which a laptop would be far better. Now that I pay attention, I’ve found that I’m switching to laptop far more often than I used to and decreasing mobile use as a percentage of my usage around the house.

    1. LE

      You can never be to rich, to thin, or have to many or to large of a monitor at your disposal.Screen space (with respect to things you have to interact with as opposed to watch like netflix) retards usage and engagement and enjoyment. Period. Size matters. [1][1] Starbucks tables are a certain size/shape in order to not make it pleasant to overlinger. First class cabin seats are larger. Etc.

      1. JimHirshfield

        And you can never have too many o’s in your “to”s…errrr “too”s

        1. LE

          Not my strong suit for sure. But hey I know how to spell entrepreneur and that’s much more difficult to get right.By the way I have a patent pending on a technique when one doesn’t know how to spell a word. Not relevant today with all the auto correct that exists. But still helpful in certain circumstances.The technique is as follows.If you are not sure of the spelling of a word instead of taking your chances (assumes you don’t have time to find the correct spelling etc.) what you do is make a gross error. [1] That way the recipient is likely to think that you simply made a typo not that you don’t know how to spell.[1] Maybe not the best example of the technique but I could have said “ta rich ta thin” or something like that.

  6. LIAD

    – Does desktop %age drop a ton on weekends?- personally haven’t used mobile here in a long time. can’t get disqus to load at all on iOS.

    1. Richard

      I use iOS 7, with few problems. Why is this?

  7. Martin De Saulles

    I’m surprised at the Android/iOS split. I would have thought that a tech-savvy audience would be bigger users of Android devices.

  8. Carl Rahn Griffith

    Very interesting digital demographics.I pretty much solely use my iPhone (from necessity, not choice) which is far from ideal re: Disqus.When I have the spare money I am unsure whether to get Air fixed or buy a Nexus 7; increasingly inclined to opt for the latter…

    1. Timothy Meade

      Consider an ARM Chromebook, same form factor as the Air, much cheaper (249 USD), extremely portable, and mobile-like battery life. (And it works great for Disqus and AVC)

  9. Andrew Kennedy

    ever since i upgraded my mac osx i have been getting the attached in safari browser. i haven’t been able to comment using safari from desktop in a while.

    1. LIAD

      i get that on iOS always. can never load Disqus

      1. Cam MacRae

        Same using chrome on linux. On the rare occasion the thread loads it shows me logged out even if I’m logged in on disqus.com.

      2. Andrew Kennedy

        is bad news bears for disqus

    2. RichardF

      yup +1 on android browsers

    3. ShanaC

      happens in my poor wifi but favorite spot in my apartment too 😀

      1. JimHirshfield

        See this comment I made earlier:http://www.avc.com/a_vc/201…cc @andrew_kennedy:disqus @RichardForster:disqus @liad:disqus

  10. Carl Rahn Griffith

    No stats for Google Glass? 😉

    1. kidmercury

      and where are numbers on the samsung smart watch???!?!!

  11. John Revay

    I mostly read the blog on desktop/chrome, occasionally will scan comments on iPad and Nexus7. I am more likely to engage and comment on the desktop.Rumor has it that disqus may be working on a html5 mobile app.

  12. William Mougayar

    On my site, the stats are pretty similar: 72% desktop, 20% Mobile, Tablet 8%.For platform, Mac 40%, Windows 7 19%, iOS 10%, Android 6%, Linux 5%, iPad 3%. And Chrome is 60%.

    1. Ana Milicevic

      Would be interesting to compare engagement levels (e.g. comments, shares, etc) across the different platforms. My guess would be that desktop rules there too, for the time-being.

      1. William Mougayar

        yes. that’s probably a good guess.

  13. baba12

    As much as mobile is growing and desktop is supposedly declining we still have a lousy network when comes to mobile.People tend to gloss over the fundamental facts. It is fine to use mobile to lookup a calendar or showtimes etc, but truly when it comes to reading and being able to comment etc the user experience sucks and more importantly the bandwidth issues continue to plague customer experience. We have abdicated our ability to resist and force wireless carriers to improve services. It is six of half a dozen of the other when it comes to data services on a mobile platform. Also Disqus etc don’t make it easy enough to type this on an iphone or android phone ( not their fault), it is what it is.If you want to increase mobile visits I think Fred will have to put up a Twerking video of himself.

  14. Mac

    I may be having trouble keeping up with the times.I try to maximize the strengths of both. I recognize that each also has its limitations. While I’m at my desk, having two monitors running multiple browsers simultaneously, enables me to monitor blogs, news, email, conduct research, etc. I can’t imagine giving that up for a much smaller handheld device.Nor can I imagine not having the convenience of mobile. As @JimHirshfield:disqus pointed out, mobile has some limitations; with long threads being one of the issues.But, all are work arounds.Help me A VC Community!

    1. LE

      Same. Three monitors in front of me and others elsewhere in the office.To me mobile is something I look at when standing in line waiting for coffee or if I wake up and can’t get back to sleep. Or at the dinner table or in a restaurant. I don’t even answer emails by mobile.I do whatever gives me the most productivity. And typing on a small screen doesn’t give me productivity. I can bang out things faster by waiting until I’ve got the proper ergonomics and supporting documents at hand.Maybe all of this is different for people that aren’t good touch typists or typically don’t write detailed replies or comments or care to add any supporting information to their comments. In that case a nominal keyboard wouldn’t have much impact just like if someone texts me and all I need to do is reply “y”, “np” or “7:30″then texting is fine.

      1. Mac

        Thanks, LE. I think you’re right. “Productivity” is the reason for me. Mobile is very convenient but I still have my doubts that it will replace monitors entirely anytime soon. I’m not aware of any tech/Internet companies-that are scaling-that operate from mobile devices only.Since I’m currently moving through a pre-formative phase, I may want to get your input on several domain issues over the next couple of months if you’re available.

  15. kidmercury

    as usual with analytics the math is probably deceiving.i bet the mobile users are largely the same as the desktop users. “they find you on the web, take the loyal users mobile” model.

    1. ShanaC

      i was thinking that. But who knows

      1. Drew Meyers

        I tend to agree on this too..

  16. JLM

    .At the end of the day, AVC.com is all about the comments and the community.I am one of those people who gets up early, checks everything via desktop and may check back again later via tablet.The numbers are therefore a bit skewed inasmuch as my primary interface is desktop — engage in that conversation — but my follow up may be slightly tablet. Tablet is a far distant second, far distant.The numbers however just show a check in both boxes.The Disqus experience on tablet is clearly inferior to the desktop experience though I have gotten to the point I don’t even bother to comment if the site does not use Disqus.The notion that everything has already flown to mobile is a bit premature.JLM.

    1. Anthony Serina

      “I am one of those people who gets up early, checks everything via desktop and may check back again later via tablet.”I do the exact same thing everyday

    2. leigh

      In our office we are seeing more and more people using tablet as the mobile platform. So think the term mobile is also misleading 🙂

      1. Ana Milicevic

        Yep. I started thinking of it as what type of network is being used. Office or home wifi? That’s one type of use. Connected via carrier network? That’s another. In other words, it’s not really the device that determines whether something is mobile but the mode of usage.

        1. leigh

          agreed 🙂

    3. JimHirshfield

      “I have gotten to the point I don’t even bother to comment if the site does not use Disqus.” hugs.Curious what device you were on when left the above comment.

      1. JLM

        .Desktop.JLM.

      2. karen_e

        Totally true. Though I think at least WordPress got rid of those tesselation avatars or whatever they were.

        1. JimHirshfield

          “tesselation” – what’s that?

  17. Peter Van Dijck

    When I was a publisher (up to a few months ago, 100M+ pageviews/mo), mobile had gone up to about 35%, tablet to about 15%, desktop about 50% and dropping. You’re underperforming Fred 😉

    1. JimHirshfield

      What are you working on now?

      1. Peter Van Dijck

        Product and UX consulting – http://craftinc.co/ Get in touch, I love to talk product!

        1. JimHirshfield

          Will do.

          1. Peter Van Dijck

            For what it’s worth, and despite the comments here, I always thought Disqus works really well on mobile.

          2. JimHirshfield

            +1000 thanks.

        2. ShanaC

          Can I send someone your way to arbitrate in a discussion I am having about portfolio pieces?

  18. Guest

    Could we also see the numbers for platforms? (Mac, Windows, iOS, Android etc)

    1. ShanaC

      in theory, yes, in practice, better wait.

  19. Dave W Baldwin

    Since Your posts are coming later in the morning you will see your mobile traffic probably rise over the next three months

  20. Henry

    I bet the ratio is reversed for the consumption of the posts via email. (Feedblitz)

  21. Jan Schultink

    You post in the morning, US time, most of your readers are probably sitting in an office at that time. Post in the evening and the stats will be dramatically different I guess.EDIT: maybe you can run the stats by time of day?

  22. Tom Labus

    There is a good WP8 app for DISQUS when on the road but my first look and comments are via desktop. A comfort thing probably

    1. JimHirshfield

      Right. That was a special (pet?) project of one of our team members.

  23. Ryan

    But we wanted so much more juice from you today!!

  24. Ana Milicevic

    I access from all three groups (desktop, phones and tablet) but I write comments only on desktop — the Disqus experience is not ideal on mobile/tablet devices. I saw @JimHirshfield:disqus mentioned below that they’re working on HTML5 – that’s exciting.Although I wouldn’t call my Air a desktop exactly… 😉

  25. matthughes

    I read AVC on my mobile all the time.The great majority of my comments come via desktop.As others have noted, Disqus via mobile is still a bit cumbersome.

  26. msuster

    It’s funny but since you popularized the term “mobile first” I have spend the last couple of years saying, “I agree but that doesn’t mean ‘mobile only'” Somehow people have forgotten that even though mobile is ever present and especially amongst teens it isn’t the only computing system.At Maker Studios we do 4.4 billion views / month. 40% mobile (so I remind them we need to be aware of how people are watching on lower bandwidth and smaller screens) and 55% international (so I remind them the importance of the global market).But.That is still 2,600,000,000 views every month on the web.And it is still 1,980,000,000 views domestic.While crafting strategies for the ever-obvious global, mobile world lest we forget that there is still a tethered, domestic world.And since I’m at it. Despite rumors to the contrary, email is still very much alive.I wrote “web second” here if anybody’s interested: http://www.bothsidesoftheta

    1. William Mougayar

      And there’s the factor of “mind share” vs. “market share”. I’m willing to bet that mobile mindshare is higher is than its marketshare.

    2. Ana Milicevic

      I agree with you that it shouldn’t be ‘mobile only’ but as the Great One said “you have to skate to where the puck is going to be”.

    3. JamesHRH

      The Innovator’s Distortion:- my entire life is the future; the existing way is the past & therefore irrelevantThe Customer’s Reality:- 80% of the time, the current way will be 80% of the solution, 80 months from nowFred is right that mobile is first, now. Its the space where the biggest nuts have yet to be cracked. But mobile nuts are smaller than desktop nuts.

  27. Chris Phenner

    I am out-of-pocket and at meetings most days, yet I ‘save’ AVC.com visits for those of the Desktop Variety. Part of it I think is the Elbows-Down nature of thinking and writing in response to AVC posts.But mostly it is because Disqus Janks the mobile commenting experience.I just pulled up this post on my iPhone to put a finer point on what I mean when I say ‘Disqus Janks’ above. Three immediate observations:1. It’s an extra click to load the Comments dialogue.2. When it loads and you tap to enter the Comment window, it expands horizontally beyond the screen. It ‘works’ but the Comment window is not adaptive.3. If you perform the above in a non-logged-in state (which it really should not permit), you then have to go scrunching all over the screen to find the right social plug-in with which to authenticate.Until I documented the above, I had kinda blocked how bad it was :)With respect to Jim H :)So Jim: ‘If you’re not technical, get technical!’Admonished Fred in yesterday’s post :)Happy to beta test,Chris

    1. JimHirshfield

      Hahahah.I have a degree in engineering. First wrote code in 1979.In any event, no disrespect taken. Catch you on email soon.

  28. allon bloch

    It’s funny that all that the comments are focused on the issues around comments. I assume most people who read AVC don’t comment. I would think the real reason is that AVC is something you read at work and hence a PC is available and easier to use. For comparison purposes on my ecommerce site 40% are mobile + tablet (out of 4 million monthly users mysupermarket.com and mysupermarket.couk) and it’s a mainstream user base not a techie/early adopter. They just use us a lot out of work hours.

    1. JimHirshfield

      Upwards of 50% of visitors to a site view the comments. They don’t all comment, as you noted. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t read them.

      1. LE

        Would be interesting to see what the long tail of that is. How many people comment at least 1 time per 1 month or 3 months.For example if a certain percentage of people typically don’t comment but occasionally they do comment they might feel restricted if they can’t comment (because they are on mobile). In the same way that someone buys an SUV because it might snow 1 or 2 times per year. Edge case.The concept is really “I can if I want to or need to”. Similar to the difference between driving to work in your own car (and being able to leave when you want) and being dropped off and knowing you have to wait to be picked up and you are “stuck”. (Maybe this isn’t the same for people who are employees though who know they have to stay at work vs. owners/entrepreneurs or salespeople who can do what they want when they want to.)It’s hard for me to put into words this concept but I guess my hypothesis is that being able to do something even if you practically never do that thing is an important factor.

      2. allon bloch

        Jim my point is that people don’t access the site from a PC because of the comments, it’s because they are at work and the PC is in front of them and it beats a slower mobile experience. if AVC was something that people consumed while standing in a line or commuting they’d do so on a mobile device.

        1. JimHirshfield

          I get that. Thanks.It would be interesting to see the data on time of day of visits. Maybe I’m an edge case, but I typically consume this blog and others on my commute into NYC.

          1. Timothy Meade

            I assume you have numbers of people who click the Get More Comments links vs. view the site?

          2. JimHirshfield

            I’m not sure I understand what you mean by “view the site”. But, yeah, we measure everything.

  29. andyidsinga

    I’m on a desktop!(don’t you ever forget) 😉

  30. Tracey Jackson

    As both a commenter and a moderator of two sites that use Disqus I never do anything from my mobile. I wait until I’m front of a computer and try and whitelist as many people as possible.The threads are harder to follow from a phone. In terms of a tablet, I don’t know that working people use them to the degree people thought they might. I use my phone and my computers, my iPad sits until I feel guilty about it and take it out for an hour.

  31. gorbachev

    I don’t think that’s surprising at all. I would think AVC.com is a perfect lunch break reading site.

  32. Bernard Desarnauts

    Fred, do you have the same breakdown for New vs Returning users? I would guesstimate that your distribution for “new” users will be much more mobile – not just because your mobile experience is sub-optimal but rather that many of us returning users know that to fully experience your blog, we need to make time for the community (comments reading etc. Another way to say this is that your blog is not a “snacking” content type engagement mode but rather a deeper community mode.

    1. ShanaC

      we’d need to do special filters/view settings. It might be possible…but meh

  33. Sean Hull

    The 64 million dollar question, does Google count laptops as “desktop”? I think they do and it speaks volumes about these metrics.Just yesterday a friend couldn’t get wifi working under windows. I asked her about her computer. She was using a real “desktop” a tower with monitor. I explained the machine probably doesn’t have a wifi interface. She’d have to buy one.In my book if you’re using wifi, you’re mobile. GA needs to catchup.

    1. LE

      A good question. I don’t know what google does [1] but to me a laptop is not mobile regardless of whether it is connected by wifi, mifi, lte, gogo internet or satellite.The reason is a laptop, assuming it has a full size keyboard, is essentially the same as a desktop. It could be used (and many people do) use it just like a desktop. The fact that they are not at “their” desk doesn’t really matter. [2]I’m sitting at a desk right now with a MacPro “tower” but I also have a mb air11, a mbair 13, and a mb pro sitting around me.Why would it matter though (as far as mobile) if I was sitting at starbucks with my mbair13 rather than using it in my office.Or if I was on an airplane using gogo internet?To me mobile is using a tablet or a smartphone which has a less than desirable keyboard and smaller screen space.In my book if you’re using wifiWhy would that be? In my office I have ethernet and wifi in my home I have wifi only. Has no effect on what device is being used.[1] The easy answer is it is determined by whatever the browser sends (which of course can be altered by the user).[2] I think it’s a really bad idea to cart your entire world around on your laptop when most people might not be a) encrypting or b) backing up. Chance of laptop getting stolen or having hardware problems increases greatly if you are out and about and moving it here and there.

      1. Sean Hull

        Thx LE.

  34. Crods

    E-mail could be a confounding factor here. Do these numbers account for readers that consume a post through email (or other mobile-friendly reading tools? Probably not)? Fred’s posts are often just the right length for getting through in email without going to the site.

  35. howardlindzon

    in finance for us it seems about 90 percent desktop so we are still the laggard industry and that tells me where the biggest opportunity still exists #talkmybook

  36. Steven Kane

    those distinctions are so… 2010.heck, i don’t use a computer or cell phone anymore. i employ mechanical turk people to read things out loud to me and furiously type data entry while i kick back in my jacuzzi and dictate emails and comments and tweets, all the while sipping piping hot lattes from sightglass coffee and smoking the finest medicinal marijuana (for my chronic back pain of course, wink wink.)i can afford to do this because of the terrific income i make using airbnb to sublet rooms in my house (it was tough explaining to my young kids why they had to move out and make ends meet on their own but hell, i’m a “tiger dad”) and contracting taskrabbit people to drive my car for pennies while uber pays me big bucks for their time.darn got to go — we sold out of the handmade tsochkes i sell on etsy, and i have to go yell at my taskrabbit team to do more faster!:D

  37. Geoff

    It would be interesting to know of any site where Android users outnumber iOS – Your stats are similar to mine on all the sites I’m webmaster for.

  38. Vineeth Kariappa

    7k/ day? (source?) according to cloudflare, what is your traffic/ month?

  39. sigmaalgebra

    For a lot of people, mobile is really important.And for a lot of people, the full power of a highend desktop is overkill and, in addition, aheadache for system management andsystem security.It’s past time for Microsoft to take systemmanagement, system security, system,application, and data backup and resore,and documentation seriously, reallyseriously. Did I mention seriously?In particular what appears to be oldMicrosoft practice of ship the softwareand slowly get the bugs out of it, asmany users encounter serious problemsand have to rebuild a lot or everythingoften from an empty boot partition, hasto just end as in stop and don’t do itanymore.We’ve known how to build nicely securecomputer systems back to Multics in1970 and CP67/CMS and 360/67 in1967 — there’s no, none, zip, zilch, zero,excuse for malicious software now.Then a lot of Microsoft’s software justsucks, and Outlook is a great example.It captures the simple POP3 streamsand then mangles them. Bummer.A lot of people still need desktop computers,but people who can get by with a mobiledevice can welcome the better productquality.Microsoft, wake up and clean up your act.

    1. LE

      Microsoft practice of ship the softwareand slowly get the bugs out of itThey kinda invented that practice. Actually all that happened around 1981 when the IBM PC came out.Although I don’t know for sure I’m guessing you are much older than I am. But even I remember my father telling me to stop playing with something because I might “break it”. Back when things were expensive and not throwaway. And repair shops that fixed things. And warranties that weren’t bumper to bumper. Back then if you had electric windows on your car and your kid broke the windows the warranty didn’t necessarily cover that.Bottom line is when the IBM PC came out there was a change in attitude because of the price drop which essentially put the burden on the purchaser to keep things working. I’m no historian but also there was a shift to self serve. Same deal shift the burden to the buyer in order to shave things off the price and sell more product.

    2. Timothy Meade

      I know I’ve said this before, but I can’t wait for Google to get serious with a Chromebox for enterprise and start using their Google Apps channel to their full advantage. Seriously, a couple of complementary ARM Chromebooks for companies with 50+ users would be a start. Put it in the sales force’s hands, get them using Hangouts instead of WebEx, a Chromecast version for projectors, and eventually a fully integrated HDMI dongle version of the Chromebox with centralized user management.

      1. sigmaalgebra

        You lost me: In the interest of gettingmy startup going, I’ve focused, and forbetter or worse decided to build on theMicrosoft ‘platform’ — Windows, WindowsServer, IIS, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, SQLServer, and Visual Basic .NET. So what’s been going on in Linux, Google,and mobile lower level software I canonly guess based on knowledge ofcomputing more generally.But, from 40,000 feet, for whateverreason, Google seems to be havingboth fun and success, and maybe also some business success,’tweaking’ Microsoft’s nose.The only thing at all ‘advanced’ in mystartup is the crucial, core appliedmath; the computing is just dirtsimple. With all the new acronyms for what are usually new versions of basically the same old computingconcepts, I’m glad that the crucial’tech’ of my startup is some appliedmath with prerequisites, while insome places are advanced, thatchange very slowly with the decades!It’s like the bookstore owners havediscovered: The computer booksgo out of date too fast even thoughthe concepts are nearly always oldand/or simple. The math books staycurrent much longer!

        1. Timothy Meade

          Well I was replying mostly to this part:And for a lot of people, the full power of a highend desktop is overkill and, in addition, aheadache for system management andsystem security.I use a Chromebook for most of my personal computing, including development, and have learned to appreciate the simplicity of a system that is really a powerful web browser (Chrome), and X server, and Linux underneath.I think that Larry Ellison was right, and Sun and Microsoft both chased the vision of Network Computing, but the hardware and software wasn’t ready for it. As we move back to a centralized, web-driven software ecosystem a browser is going to be more and more of a sufficient endpoint for the majority of people within a company.Application software they need to do their daily work will be delivered as web applications, with cross-compiled Javascript or something like LLVM (such as PNaCL but hopefully with a better API) powering the interactive components.I believe Microsoft could do something similar, but they have to get done reinventing themselves first and figure out what they want to be as a company.

  40. Nate Jones

    I often read your post on mobile and then go through the comments section for the post on my laptop organized from oldest.

  41. Daniel So

    it’s probably cuz most people read your site while at work 🙂

  42. Steve Lerner

    I read the blog in the email that arrives each day. Usually I read it on my iPad. Sometimes on my Macbook. And rarely on my Android phone. Kind of skews the results if you look at it from this perspective – but are the number of people reading via email significant? Could a check box somehow be added to the email to get a count of people who read via email and their primary device? Only when I want to read or leave comments do I hit the actual site from the laptop or iPad. Sorry if this duplicates other comments on this subject.

  43. JimHirshfield

    “thumb comments” <– like.Edit: I like the term. Don’t like typing with fat fingers if I don’t have to.

  44. JimHirshfield

    Grab it before it’s gone. Next big thing in social.

  45. LE

    Agree. I would think that there is a good analogy to playing a musical instrument that you could offer that is similar to having to type on a small device instead of a full size keyboard.

  46. Dave W Baldwin

    Voice comment now if we could just do something about my eyesight.

  47. jason wright

    so apple devices are slow.i wonder if android is faster?avc is a drug of choice so i may as well get the right supplier.

  48. jason wright

    is this on safari/ android (S2) via cellular or wifi?

  49. awaldstein

    perfect