Microsoft's browser sees notable decline in usage

Microsoft Corp.'s Internet browser lost a notable number of users during the last half of 2008, according to recently published data, a trend that underscores the growing competition in a market long dominated by the software giant.

According to data from research firm Net Applications, Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser registered a 68 percent market share in December, compared to a nearly 74 percent share as recently as May.

While the decrease is relatively slight, it is nonetheless significant for a technology that has enjoyed an extended period of dominance. Microsoft first zeroed in on browser technology in the 1990s as a means to fend off and ultimately crush upstart rival Netscape Communications Corp.

More recently, Microsoft has seen a three-pronged assault on its market dominance. That's due to the increasing use of Apple Inc.'s Mac computers using the company's Safari browser, the growing popularity of the open-source Firefox browser offered by the Mozilla Foundation and Google Inc.'s release earlier this year of its own browser, called Chrome.

Firefox captured a 21 percent market share in December, compared to 18 percent in May, according to Net Applications, while Apple's Safari captured a nearly 8 percent share in December, compared to a 6 percent share in May.

Google's Chrome, meanwhile, grew from a 0.7 percent share in October to just over 1 percent in December, according to the data.

Google released Chrome in September, touting it as a faster and more secure way to access the Web. Browsers are strategically important pieces of technology, which can be used by companies such as Google and Microsoft to foster the use of their own respective Internet services and applications.

The nonprofit Mozilla Foundation had released the latest version of Firefox in June and the browser was downloaded more than 8 million times on its first day of availability.

The Mozilla Foundation was spun off by AOL in 2003 to further develop the code for the Netscape browser as Firefox. As an open-source project, the Firefox browser is able to use input from a vast array of engineers not directly employed by Mozilla.

Net Applications cautioned that the high amount of residential use of the Web during the holidays in December may have accounted for increased usage of Firefox, Safari, Chrome and other non-Microsoft browsers. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is generally the preferred Web-browsing tool for office use.

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trippingsock

4.3 / 5 (3) Jan 04, 2009

Why no one even mentiond absolutely superb Opera? Maybe because it's not open source thus not cool/trendy.

LuckyBrandon

5 / 5 (3) Jan 04, 2009

open source isnt trendy trippingsock. it allows for you to truly customize your browser to your liking, providing you have some coding experience. you could build an encyclopedia and thesaurus tool bar right into your default browser, for example.

IEs true decline in my eyes, is its severe lack of performance ever since IE7 came out. I loved the look, but windows 95 cruised the internet faster over a 56k or slower modem, in all seriousness.
Most companies are, as the article says, using IE, however, in my experience in the IT field (which is long and broing...I mean, exciting), that IE version is the last one that runs decently...IE6.

My two cents...

Bob_Kob

not rated yet Jan 04, 2009

What did it for me was that for some reason Internet Explorer crashed every time anything was pasted into the bar. Went to chrome and never turned back!

x646d63

Or because Opera has a .7% market share. Chrome was mentioned because Google is notable itself, and because its share is growing.

Arikin

5 / 5 (1) Jan 05, 2009

Ironic that the Netscape Mozilla comes back to haunt Microsoft IE as Firefox :-) Remember all the court cases on Microsoft's business practices?

JerryPark

The article mentions continued business use of IE at the same time that personal use is continuing to grow firefox downloads but does not mention any of the causes of continued business use.

Part of the continued business use of IE is the requirement by many government entities that the business access their services by IE only -- in much the same way the Microsoft requires IE to access Windows updates.

I have never understood why state and federal government agencies promote IE nor why such promotion is legal.

Assaad33

5 / 5 (2) Jan 05, 2009

I hate IE
For God's sake, can you tell me why 68% use it ?

not rated yet Jan 05, 2009

Part of the continued business use of IE is the requirement by many government entities that the business access their services by IE only -- in much the same way the Microsoft requires IE to access Windows updates.

I have never understood why state and federal government agencies promote IE nor why such promotion is legal.

Developing intranet applications (internal web-based business software) is much cheaper when you can dictate what browser accesses it. It's also simpler and more powerful because you can design your software specific to the browser.

Many of the web-based internal software projects I worked on in the late 90s and early 00s were "IE only" to save money.

Even today to build a multi-browser capable website it's more difficult and expensive (unless you just write html 3.5 without css, but then that will be a very boring experience for the user.)

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