Google's Chrome browser failed to increase its market share last month for just the second time in two years, while Microsoft's Internet Explorer added more than a percentage point, according to data by NetMarketShare. That's not the start to 2012 Google was hoping for, though there are still reasons to be optimistic about Chrome's future.
Cake, toasts and cheers; Microsoft’s been having a hell of a party up in Redmond. Why, you ask? Is Windows 8 shipping early? Did Xbox sales spike even higher? Did somebody actually buy a Windows Phone? None of the above. Today, the Internet Explorer team is celebrating a near-death experience as the US browser share of IE6 finally dipped under one percent. That's right, the non-standards-compliant beast is finally rasping out its dying breath.
Mozilla Firefox is still the world’s second most popular desktop browser ahead of Google Chrome, as per Net Applications. But as far as Mozilla is concerned, that’s probably the only positive to have come out of the analytics firm’s latest monthly browser usage data.
There are more people surfing the Web with various builds of Internet Explorer at this moment than there are for any other browser, which has been the case ever since Microsoft buried Netscape Navigator a long time ago. But if you want to talk about the world's most popular single browser build, that title now belongs to Google's Chrome 15, according StatCounter, a website analytics company.
Starting next month, Microsoft will begin automatically upgrading some Windows users to the latest version of Internet Explorer available for their PCs, the Redmond software juggernaut announced in a blog post today. These silent updates are deemed an "important step in helping to move the Web forward," though consider this a trial run.
Browser vendors are constantly on the lookout for things to brag about. While just about any type of bragging rights are welcome, vendors are mostly found crowing about either speed, security or HTML5 compliance. This time it’s Google’s turn to break into a victory lap, for Chrome has just been crowned the most secure browser in a study conducted by Accuvant Labs.
At the rate things were going, it was only a matter of time before Google's Chrome browser skipped ahead of Mozilla Firefox, and according to at least one Web analytics company, it's finally happened. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's paid attention to the browser market. Chrome has been gaining ground ever since it was released, while Firefox long appeared to plateau, and even fall back a step a time or two.
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.
Earlier in the week Microsoft unveiled a new online security test to help educate users on the dangers of surfing with outdated browsers. The concept is noble, but they also succeeded in stirring up the Mozilla folks, and with just cause. The site Connect with MaximumPC
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