Chrome Is Not The Number One Browser On The Web

Chrome Browser Usage Artificially Boosted -- PC World

Tech blogs were abuzz yesterday over the news that Google Chrome had topped Internet Explorer in global browser market share. But the source for this story was StatCounter, which Microsoft has accused of using a somewhat flawed methodology. The other major traffic measurement site, Net Applications, reports IE as having a comfortable 54 percent of browser usage this month, with Firefox in second place with 20.20 percent and Chrome in third with 18.85 percent.

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My Comment: Now I know why Microsoft was quiet on yesterday's news that Chrome had become the number one browser on the web .... they knew that it was not true.

Google Chrome World's Most popular Web Browser

Statcounter's latest data shows that Google's Chrome is now the most popular browser in the world.

Google Chrome Beats Internet Explorer To Become World's Most Popular Web Browser -- The Telegraph

The latest figures reveal that Google Chrome has now overtaken Internet Explorer to become the most widely used web browser in the world.

Google Chrome briefly became the world's most popular web browser for one weekend in March, but according to figures from Statcounter it has now overtaken Microsoft's Internet Explorer for the foreseeable future.

Chrome has beaten a trend that indicated it was going to surge past IE later this summer. The March figures were dismissed as inaccurate by Microsoft, but even so there is a longer-term trend of users choosing Chrome when they can decide for themselves, while business IT departments favour IE.

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My Comment: I am sure that this is not going over well in Microsoft.

Google's Chrome Poised To Become World's Most Popular Web Browser

Over the past year, Internet Explorer fell from 46 per cent of the worldwide market to 38.5 per cent. In the same period, Chrome rose from 15.68 per cent to 27.27 per cent, overtaking rival Firefox in the process

Google's Chrome Poised To Become World's Most Popular Web Browser This Year, Overtaking Internet Explorer -- Daily Mail

* Internet Explorer falls to 38.5 per cent in 2011
* Chrome soars from 15.68 per cent to 27.27 per cent
* Will overtake IE in 2012 if current trend continues

Google's fast, simple Chrome browser will move ahead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer by the end of this year if current trends continue, according to research from research firm StatCounter.

Over the past year, Internet Explorer fell from 46 per cent of the worldwide market to 38.5 per cent.

In the same period, Google Chrome rose from 15.68 per cent to 27.27 per cent, overtaking rival Firefox in the process.

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Yesterday's Internet Explorer Story Was Bogus

Internet Explorer Story Was Bogus -- BBC

A story which suggested that users of Internet Explorer have a lower IQ than people who chose other browsers appears to have been an elaborate hoax.

A number of media organisations, including the BBC, reported on the research, put out by Canadian firm ApTiquant.

It later emerged that the company's website was only recently set up and staff images were copied from a legitimate business in Paris.

It is unclear who was behind the stunt.

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My Comment: It fooled me.

Are Internet Explorer Users Stupid?

Internet Explorer Users Are Stupid And Have An Average IQ Of Just 80, Aptitude Study Claims -- Daily Mail

Survey claims average IQ of browser's users is just 80

They have long had to grapple with a catalogue of bugs and viruses.
But now users of Internet Explorer have another reason to feel humiliated - they are more stupid too.

A study has found that those with Internet Explorer 6 installed on their computer typically have an IQ barely higher than 80 - which by some rankings makes them almost retarded.

This compares to those who used Firefox or Google’s Chrome who came in at around 110.

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My Comment: I prefer Firefox.

Can Mozilla Be Bigger Than Facebook?

From CNET:

Mozilla has made a name for itself by taking on Microsoft Internet Explorer in the browser market, claiming as much as 30 percent of the global market with its open-source Firefox browser. Mozilla's second act, however, promises to be much more difficult, with increased competition from Microsoft but also from open-source competitors like Google Chrome.

What should Mozilla do next?

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IE8 Is Now The World's Top Browser, Says NetApps, As XP Falls

NetApps' chart for browser trends to January 2010

From The Guardian:

IE8 has just taken the "most used" spot from IE6, which has been hit by the decline in the use of Windows XP, on Net Applications' market share figures for January 2010. Meanwhile, Windows 7 use has just hit 10%.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 has finally become the world's most-used browser, according to Net Applications' figures based on monitoring website usage. IE8 has taken over from IE6, which has been hit by the decline in the use of Windows XP.

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Google Phases Out Support For IE6

From BBC News:

Google has begun to phase out support for Internet Explorer 6, the browser identified as the weak link in a cyber attack on the search engine.

The firm said from 1 March some of its services, such as Google Docs, would not work "properly" with the browser.

It recommended individuals and firms upgrade "as soon as possible".

Google threatened to withdraw from the Chinese market following the "sophisticated and targeted" attacks, which it said originated in China.

Hackers used a flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser to target the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

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Browser Usage Over The Past 7 Years

The following is an awesome graphic of browser usage over the last 7 years. The link is here.

Mozilla Leader Worries About Internet Limits

From Yahoo News/AP:

MUNICH, Germany (AP) -- The leader of the Mozilla Project, whose Firefox Web browser now has 350 million users, said Sunday that she is concerned that legal restrictions could limit Internet expansion.

Mitchell Baker said she worried about "the increase in laws that make it difficult to run an open network," especially rules about content.

"You suddenly become liable for anything that gets downloaded, whether it's legal or not," she said. "If you said to a municipality, if you build a road, you have to guarantee nothing illegal happens on it -- that's what's happening on the Internet now. So that's the kind of regulatory disruption that's going to have some long-term consequences."

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Windows 7 Versus Apple: The Great Computer Software Battle

Battling for your business: Should you go for Apple software for your computer or wait for Google?

From The Daily Mail:

There's no escaping it: Windows Vista was a disaster. Launched in 2007, Microsoft's follow-up to the massively successful Windows XP software, which powers the vast majority of the world's computers, met with lukewarm reviews and terrible customer satisfaction ratings.

It was simply too demanding of the computers it ran on – and the people who used it. Which is why Microsoft is going to great lengths to prove its new operating system, Windows 7, isn't just better than Vista – it's also simpler.

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I Switched From Firefox To Internet Explorer─And Lived To Tell!

From Newsweek:

I am a loyal Firefox user. I love the tabs, the extensions, the customization. It’s fast and free and, because it’s an open-source project organized by a nonprofit in Silicon Valley, it gives me a warm, fuzzy, volunteering-at-the-soup-kitchen kind of feeling. I love watching its market share grow, from 15 percent in 2007 to 23 percent today. Each uptick in the chart is like a poke in the red, gleaming, robotic eye of our technological overlord, Microsoft, and its crusty workhorse, Internet Explorer.

But recently I was issued a challenge by this blog: forsake Firefox for a week and entrust my digital life to Internet Explorer 8. I expected a cataclysm of Katrina-like proportions. Frozen screens. Garbled Web pages. Cascading popup boxes. Molasses-like speed. With great trepidation I accepted, and tremblingly clicked online.

But you know what? It was ... fine.

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Opera Browser Bids For America

From The BBC:

The founder of Opera has said despite its 100m worldwide users, they have a big job ahead conquering America.

In the US, the latest figures by Net Applications showed Opera is 5th in the market with a 2% share behind Microsoft, Apple, Google and Firefox.

But Opera claimed in other parts of the globe it is the most popular browser of choice with growth last year of 67%.

"The reality is that in the U.S. we have some work to do," Opera boss Jon von Tetzchner told BBC News.

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Universal Translator For Web Browsers

From New Scientist:

EVER wondered what the Arabic or Chinese press are saying about the issues of the day? Finding out just got a lot easier, at least for those using the Firefox web browser.

A new plug-in identifies the language used on a web page and automatically provides a translation, leaving the layout of the page unchanged.

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Opera 10 To Emerge Tuesday

From CNET:

Opera Software will release version 10 of its browser Tuesday, a new version of software that has loyal fans but not as much adoption as several rivals.

The Norwegian company says Opera 10 has better performance, a Turbo mode for slow Internet connections, support for a variety of Web standards such as Web fonts, and improvements to the Opera Mail feature. The company issued two Opera 10 release candidates for the free software in the last week, and spokeswoman Falguni Bhuta announced Monday the final version will arrive September 1.

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What a "Facebook Browser" Means For the Web

A screenshot from RockMelt.com

From Technology Review:

RockMelt could be the realization of the company's efforts to create a more social Web.

Rumors surfaced yesterday of a new "Facebook browser" called RockMelt, with a star-studded cast of backers and employees that includes Netscape founder Marc Andreessen and Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt of Firefox fame.

There are no clear reports yet of what the Facebook browser would be like, but it's unlikely to be a simple Facebook client and I doubt that such smart people would simply copy an existing "social" Web browsers such as Flock.

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Netscape Founder Backs New Browser

Photo: Marc Andreessen, Co-founder and General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz, in July. Phil McCarten/Reuters

From The New York Times:

SAN FRANCISCO — It has been 15 years since Marc Andreessen developed the Netscape Internet browser that introduced millions of people to the Internet.

After its early success, Netscape was roundly defeated by Microsoft in the so-called browser wars of the 1990s that dominated the Web’s first chapter.

Mr. Andreessen appears to want a rematch. Now a prominent Silicon Valley financier, Mr. Andreessen is backing a start-up called RockMelt, staffed with some of his close associates, that is building a new Internet browser, according to people with knowledge of his investment.

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You Deleted Your Cookies? Think Again

From Epicenter:

More than half of the internet’s top websites use a little known capability of Adobe’s Flash plugin to track users and store information about them, but only four of them mention the so-called Flash Cookies in their privacy policies, UC Berkeley researchers reported Monday.

Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not.

What’s even sneakier?

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Firefox Surpasses 1 Billion Downloads

From The L.A. Times:

The free, open-source browser gets high marks for speed, efficiency, adaptability and user-friendliness. It is an achievement for a browser backed not by a corporation but a small nonprofit group.

The popular Firefox Web browser, developed by a grass-roots group, reached a major milestone Friday -- its billionth download.

The download counter rolled over the 1-billion mark early Friday, marking a feat for a browser that, unlike Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Apple's Safari, is run by a nonprofit organization, Mozilla, with fewer than 250 employees.

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Update: Firefox Hits 1 Billion Downloads -- So What's Next? -- PC World

Q&A: Mitchell Baker On The Future Of Firefox

Browsing The Future -- Newsweek

Mozilla's Firefox gave Microsoft a run for its money. What's next?

At least 18 percent of you already know what Firefox is, because you're using it to read this interview. (Or so says the statistics engine behind Newsweek.com, which tracks things like that.) For the unfamiliar, Firefox is a free Web browser that is built by coders around the world whose open-source work is organized by the Mozilla Corp. and its nonprofit parent, the Mozilla Foundation. Introduced in 2004 as an alternative to Microsoft's ubiquitous, but buggy, Internet Explorer, Firefox has been a force for innovation in the browser category, with improvements such as tabbed browsing and plug-ins that work on any operating system. Commissions from search engines appear to keep Mozilla awash in revenue for now ($75 million in 2007; the foundation has not released 2008 data), although the vast majority of that comes from a company, Google, that now has its own competing browser, Chrome. Mozilla's plans for 2009 include a new version of Firefox, which will focus on user-interface polish; an overhaul of Thunderbird, its e-mail client; and taking Firefox mobile. Mitchell Baker, the Mozilla Foundation's chairwoman, spoke to NEWSWEEK's Nick Summers and Barrett Sheridan about the challenges of making a browser for mobile phones, adapting to a socially networked universe and what she really thinks of Chrome and Internet Explorer. Excerpts:

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