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With few exceptions, Microsoft's share of the browser market has been steadily declining since at least November 2009, which is how far back Net Marketshare lets us look. Back then, Microsoft's Internet Explorer was the dominant browser on desktops with a 64.46 percent share. And today? It's still dominant with a 52.63 percent share of the market, but the gap is quickly narrowing.
At this point, it seems likely IE will eventually give up the lead, but to which browser? By the numbers, Mozilla's Firefox is the closest threat with a 22.51 percent share at the end of October, which is up slightly from 22.48 percent in September, but down from 25.05 percent in November 2009.
Google Chrome is where the smart money is at, at least if forced to pick an eventual winner today. Chrome has seen a greater than four-fold increase in usage since November 2009 when it held a 3.98 percent share, and with the exception of June 2010 to July 2010, has grown its desktop browser market share every single month. Chrome now accounts for 17.62 percent of all desktop browsers, an increase of 1.42 percentage points from one month prior.
Which browser(s) are you using these days?
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Athlonite
November 04, 2011 at 1:28am
Opera v11.52 and Opera Next v12 and I must say the difference between the two is like nite and day
peace keeper browser benchmark
opera 11.52 = 2841
opera next 12 = 2228 (even though o12 supports more stuff slightly slower but seems faster web browsing)
thinsoldier
November 02, 2011 at 2:18pm
What's the most popular browser in English speaking countries?
tbonky
November 02, 2011 at 6:23am
I really like the portable apps version! IE bugs me with their lack of adherence to Web design standards.
nauc
November 01, 2011 at 10:45pm
I've been using Chrome since it came out, but I still check IE, FF, Opera and Safari every once in a while to see if they're any better. They're not.
terracide
November 01, 2011 at 8:51pm
I do enterprise technical support for a living and I LOATHE Internet Explorer with a passion. Using webex tools, and other console tools that I use on the job, IE has proven over and over again to be a bloated and unstable beast.. java based apps work far better under firefox in my opinion/experience. I used Chrome for a while after it came out and stopped using it because of how unstable it was as well, maybe I will give it a try again. All of the browsers have had their ups and downs, but right now I think Firefox is the one that got it right.
btdog
November 01, 2011 at 7:45pm
Firefox since it was in beta (BEFORE 1.0). Always enjoyed it and no reason to change.
IMO, Chrome is too minimalistic for me. Had to restore my computer and I haven't put it back on.
Jeffredo
November 01, 2011 at 6:44pm
Using Opera 11.5 at the moment and its not really by choice. I was using Firefox, but recently Nvidia's drivers and FF are not playing nice. Constant TDRs, probably due to Firefox's support for hardware acceleration. Opera is fine, although it feels slower than any of the other browsers in page loading. I aslo tried IE9 a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised. Its much improved and quite fast. Its my backup (and Firefox got uninstalled).
warptek2010
November 01, 2011 at 6:29pm
Which browser you use has more to do with the people that make the browser than you. I agree, this is just a non issue and never fully understood the concept behind these wars. If the browser is free then why a war? Is it about keeping people firmly entrenched in a brand? Brand loyalty isn't what it used to be unless of course you're an Apple initiate.
Baer
November 01, 2011 at 6:03pm
I have used them all over the years but over the last few months I have just migrated back to I E, They all work, well most of them. I did not really care that much for Chrome but I could use it if that was my only choice, I still really like Firefox. The only one I really dislike is Safari, does anyone really use it?
Browser wars..... Meh!
Wily_One
November 01, 2011 at 4:25pm
I've never understood this "market share" mania in regards to browsers. IE is FREE. Firefox is FREE. Chrome is FREE. (I think Opera may still have a pay version.)
So other than bragging rights, who cares whether IE is #1 or not? Is Steve Ballmer losing sleep over this?
Paul_Lilly
November 01, 2011 at 9:31pm
If he's not, he should be. While the browsers are free, there's a lot of money at stake. For one, search engines pay big money to be featured as the default search in any given browser. Mozilla, for example, generated $123.2 million in revenue for 2010, and of that money, $121.1 million came from royalty payments (PDF). The bulk of those royalty payments are from search engine integration, and are directly attributable to Firefox's market share.
What's also at stake is control over Web standards, and by extension, the software written around these standards. Internet Explorer isn't the number one browser because it's the best out there, it's because so much software was written with IE in mind. There are a number of corporations that either can't afford or can't justify jumping ship to a new platform, and as long as IE stays on top, programmers will continue to write code with IE in mind.
Think about the role the Internet plays in today's day-to-day computing and it's easy to see why Microsoft, Mozilla, Google, and others are so interested in these so-called browser wars.
d3v
November 02, 2011 at 8:34pm
There is another way to monetize browsers and that's by tracking user habits and selling that data to advertisers. It's a huge way to make money because advertisers want to know how you spend your time online and what you are interested in. This allows advertisers to better target potential customers thereby increasing their return on advertising spending.
Wily_One
November 03, 2011 at 12:09am
Yeah that's me. :p
Interesting numbers though; thanks for the link to the financials. Definitely looks like a big deal for a company like Mozilla, which pretty much has no other revenue source.
For Microsoft, it's a different story. $120 Million is a drop in the bucket. So again I ask: is Steve Ballmer losing sleep over it? I think not.
Insula Gilliganis
November 01, 2011 at 4:12pm
Honestly, does this really matter anymore? There are plenty of choices out there but most do pretty much the same thing.. get you to the web page you want to visit. It just seems it is mostly about personal preference now, which browser fits your needs the best. I personally use SRWare Iron.. http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron_download.php.. all the yummy goodness of Chrome without the Google spyware and privacy tracking! The Iron adblocker can be found at http://www.srware.net/downloads/adblock.ini. Only thing I wish Iron had that Chrome has is automatic updating. But sometimes I need a certain extension that Firefox has. And I have an old media computer that runs Windows 2000 so I use Opera on that as it is the only modern browser that has flash working on Win2000 so I can watch Hulu.
Corfy
November 01, 2011 at 2:07pm
I've been using Firefox since I think 0.7. Before that, I was a Netscape user back to 2.0. I use Chrome for some tasks (mainly if I need to be logged in to two different accounts at the same time), but I still prefer Firefox. At least, on the desktop. On my Android phone, I prefer Opera Mobile. I've tried Android's browser, Firefox, and Dolphin, but I just feel more comfortable with Opera Mobile, even though I don't use Opera on the desktop.
schwit
November 01, 2011 at 1:56pm
Chrome has sandboxing, but its adblocking extension is limited. Firefox has noscript and adblock, which makes the screen much cleaner from webspam and script based malware never runs.
praetor_alpha
November 01, 2011 at 3:23pm
This. And HTTPS Everywhere.
I'd rather not waste CPU cycles on something that distracts me from reading a website's content. And at least when I was on Comcast, the ads were not paying for my capped internet service.
narbytrout
November 01, 2011 at 1:15pm
I recently switched to Google Chrome as my default browser. I was a Firefox since it's first final release of 1.0.
Firefox has add-ons (extensions) that you can add for a more customizable experience than IE... and by choice you can make browsing the web more interactive in certain ways.
But recently Firefox has been pushing out updates that are way too "buggy" for me. It probably has to do with the new update timtable they are working with... pushing out new features as soon as they are operational... which from my experience, I found out that "operational" does not mean "useful" or "capable".
Out of my frustration, I decided to give Chrome a ride. The quickness and simplicity (even with many recognizable add-ons similar to Firefox) is an experience that is very functional, easily navigated, and practical.
The almost automatic integration with my Andriod device and obviously Google accounts is great. Now, I feel stupid for not making the switch sooner.
Better late than never, I guess.
Hamburger
November 01, 2011 at 11:58am
Rockin' Google Chrome and won't ever go back to IE9. I used Firefox 3.x a long time ago but ditched it due to flash issues, memory leaks, etc.
