I once wrote a bit of javascript code for our pages to grab the client width and height and record it to Google Analytics using their Event Tracker. I wish I had taken that this far because I did that months ago.

I was amazed at the different oddball sizes people kept their browser windows at. Our stats show that 1024x768 is the most common screen resolution but the client stats show an entirely different picture.

What I got out of our experiment is that most people visiting our site seem to keep their browsers at a size that will require them to scroll (vertical and horizontal!) almost all the time regardless of the website. Therefore, as this Google Browser Size suggests, the only guarantee is the upper left corner. But at the same time if your website follows the popular 960 width format then at least 90% of the visitors will see the entire width and the first 500 pixels of the vertical.

I think that should meet most people's needs.

I find the tool interesting and informative. Maybe I could use it to explain why certain things are done in design and why some people see certain things in their window while others do not. I'm speaking of people who insist on having two or three extra rows of toolbars and wonder why they can't see that first headline "above the fold" while I state that I can.

This is a neat tool. I may be nit-picking but they could have cleaned up the graphical illustration a bit. It looks as though someone has threw a bucket of paint over a screenshot.

It works fine in general but many sites now a day detect if they are being loaded within frames and they will break out of it and load themselves on the top location. You may be better off using google's .png image and overlay it via Greasemonkey for example

thanks for your sharing. I gotta try the tool.

short wedding dress

@Bill Borrows: Yes, but they're Google. Edgy and irreverent is their thing man!

Thanks - going to us this.