ie8 fix

Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

StatCounter: Chrome overtakes Firefox globally

By | December 1, 2011, 5:05am PST

Summary: Chrome has managed to overtake Firefox as the world’s second most used browser, beating predictions with a month to spare.

As predicted, while Chrome could have overtaken Firefox by 2012, Google managed it with a month to spare.

According to web analytics firm StatCounter, Chrome took 25.69 percent of the worldwide market, up from 4.66 percent in November 2009, compared to Firefox’s share of 25.23 percent.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer remains the most used browser. But the battle of the titans begins once again: Microsoft versus Google in the browser marketshare space.


(Source: StatCounter)

The United States paints a slightly different picture, however.

Internet Explorer continues to retain a hefty share of the marketshare at just over 50 percent, slight up year on year. While Firefox retains second place with a share down from 27 percent to 20 percent, Chrome saw a dramatic rise from just shy of 11 percent to 17.3 percent.

Little change for Safari, as it holds onto its 10.7 percent share of the U.S. market.

The European markets show a reluctance to carry on using Firefox, with Chrome at the forefront of many Mozilla defectors. While Internet Explorer leads the market still with a near 43 percent of the UK market, Chrome holds second place at 24.8 percent, while Firefox drops down to 20.5 percent.

As per an antitrust settlement with the European Union, Microsoft began issuing a Windows Update fix to give users in the UK, Belgium and France a free choice of browser. European markets were hit hard with the ‘browser ballot’, where users of Windows were forced by European legislators to give users the choice of browser.

Internet Explorer 6, once the most popular web browser in the world, still retains a 1.3 user share in the U.S. With it being bundled as part of Windows XP, the world’s most popular operating system to date, this marriage gave Microsoft the lead in the browser share space.

But October’s marketshare statistics from rival firm NetMarketShare shows that Internet Explorer is barely above the 50 percent mark.

Sister site CNET reports that Net Applications shows Chrome is still within “striking distance” of overtaking Firefox, with March 2012 set as the mark should the rate continue.

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Topics

Zack Whittaker, a criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, Canterbury, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

Disclosure

Zack Whittaker

I worked briefly with Microsoft UK in 2006 but no longer have any connection with the company. Regardless, I remain impartial and unbiased in my views.

I don't hold any stock or shares, investments or industrial secrets in any company, but have signed confidentiality agreements with a number of UK and U.S. organisations, whose names I am not at liberty to disclose.

I was involved with Kent Union, the University of Kent's student union, undertaking voluntary, non-salaried, elected positions between early 2009 and mid-2010.

No other company, body, government department, non-governmental organisation or third sector organisation employs me or pays me a salary in any capacity whatsoever.

As a freelance journalist, whenever expenses are given and taken by a company that is not CBS Interactive, these will be disclosed in each relevant post to ensure transparency.

I currently work with a UK law enforcement unit, but this is an entirely separate position which bears no connection to other work.

(Updated: 23rd October 2011)

Biography

Zack Whittaker

Zack Whittaker, criminologist who studied at the University of Kent, UK, is a journalist, writer and broadcaster.

After studying criminology at university, though still in his early-20's, he has already had a series unconventional work and voluntary positions. He has worked with researchers studying neurological illnesses like Tourette's syndrome (which he suffers from), has given lectures on the nature of disabilities in the public community, and occasionally ends up speaking on television and radio discussing the events of the day.

He first had academic work published at the age of 22, then still an undergraduate, and has been cited by a wide range of publications: from CNN, the Huffington Post, AllThingsDigital, The Atlantic Wire and CBS News.

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What does it all really mean?
IslandBoy_77 7th Dec
I pondered that as I thought about all this hoopla over browsers. I found myself smiling wryly, as I thought back to the days of Windows 3.1 on my good old 386: days when using the net was expensive, slow, clumsy and difficult. Days when I could have cared less about the internet - its was just a curiosity, and an expensive one at that (I was paying $45 a month for dial-up that gave me 33k on a good day!)

And here we are, almost 15 years later, and everyone is falling over themselves to proclaim the 'net (specifically, Cloud computing in its various guises) as the be all and end all of computing, and browsers are now THE thing - even more than the OS they run on, it often seems. I note how territorial many of us have become over our browsers - while the rest of the world (more of them than "us" who care) just uses whatever their computer came setup with, or whatever gets foisted on them when they install that shiny new program that their son / daughter / grandkids / friend over the back fence recommended to them. What I DO note with interest is the name of the browser that is often "foisted" on the unwashed masses - why, its our friend Chrome! I don't ever recall a time when Firefox, IE or Opera was automatically ticked as an "extra" as part of installing some totally unrelated software (although as we all know, Safari has been playing that game for a long time), yet everyone seems happy enough that Chrome plays this game.

Call me suspicious (and I most certainly am), but there's something about the way that Google has sneaked in Chrome installs by hook or by crook over the last 2 years that is just, well, sneaky. The bulk of my clients are home users, and good number of whom struggle to know the difference between the left and right mouse buttons - even after "using" a computer for several years! Invariably, when I next see them for a regular maintenance run or problem fix, they have Chrome on their computer. How did it get there? They have no idea. It probably came with an update to a utility (all the Piriform stuff has it, as does Avast) that they just clicked "ok" to and whose install they "nexted" their way through. I always ask if I can uninstall Chrome when I see it on client's computers. True, its currently ranked as the fastest of the browsers, and rumour has it that it is "safe" to use. But do I trust a company the size of Google, who makes it their business to watch everything "we" do in order to make their money? No, I don't. And the way they are getting their browser to become the default is far too sneaky - dishonest - for my liking.

Its true that Microsoft is "also evil", and so is Apple. They are all part of the globalist plan to enslave us and spy on us, so one poison is as bad as another. At the same time, why take 3 lots of poison if you can keep the dosage down to one? If I'm going to be spied on, I'd rather that the other 2 evil empires (Google, Apple) have to work to get their info, rather than be handed it on a silver platter. But then, maybe that happens anyway - away from the spotlight and under the counter where no one can see? It will all come out in the wash one day - but in the meantime the "big 3" fleece us for billions and keep big brother's eye firmly upon our every digital move... sad
Firefox was betrayed by Google/Chrome...

With IE9/IE10 ( safest and fastest), Windows users (not including XP users) do not need any third party brower. People who are aware of the Google's evil intentions, will hardly use Chrome. They already started shoving in ads in chrome.
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@owlnet Everything about your statement is absurd. True, IE9/10 are the safest and fastest versions of IE to date... but they're still significantly behind other browsers.

And accusing Google of being a big scary company without stating that Microsoft does the exact same stuff is incredibly biased of you.

People should use whatever web browser they're comfortable with. But people should also take the time to understand their web browsers, especially their limitations and vulnerabilities. Jumping on a bandwagon or being a giant clueless fanboy is a terrible way to approach software selection.
@owlnet

Sorry, have not seen any ads using Chrome. Only ads seen are the ads listed on the web sites.
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So use Chromium
daboochmeister 1st Dec
@owlnet - look at the code and build it yourself if you don't believe that there's no ads, no background data tracking being provided to Google.

You may say that's an unfair answer, because the average user won't do that ... but the average user isn't concerned about the issues you're raising either.

Frankly, I use both, Chromium and Chrome - and I've never seen ads in Chrome, nor have i seen any illicit connections being established to Google servers (or ANY servers not referenced in the HTML returned from the site).

"Evil intentions" ... that's droll, in the context of suggesting people trust MS instead.
With IE9/IE10 ( safest and fastest), Windows users (not including XP users) do not need any third party brower.

Who are you to say what people need or don't need? The days of using Microsoft IE exclusively as a browser are gone. You cannot turn back the clock, fanbui.
@owlnet

Alll i have to say to that is, LMFAO!
@owlnet LMAO grin Your fanboism is really showing.
@MrElectrifyer Everybody's fanboism is showing.
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RE: StatCounter: Chrome overtakes Firefox globally
LinuxUser&XPGamerGraphic Updated - 1st Dec
@owlnet
Yes, with IE9/IE10 or even IE6/IE7/IE8, IE is the first, the safest and the most used browser to *download another browser.*
My web destinations for using IE:
> www.mozilla.com
> www.google.com/chrome
After that, haven't seen IE and I don't miss it.
@owlnet
You are so right. What a tragedy for the world! There are hundreds of millions of people using Google spyware for a browser. Most don't even realise it. And most of the nerds that write these blogs pretend it is not a danger.

Whether it is Chrome, Android, Gmail, or any other app or service, Google lures people in with "free" temptations, and then makes $billions from the knowledge they steal.
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Firefox is still the best choice
x I'm tc Updated - 1st Dec
And that honestly has little to do with quality. IE is one big, evil corporation's move to control your Internet experience, and Chrome is another, less big but even more evil, corporation's similar play.

FireFox is a not-for-profit charitable organization's move to foster a free, open, standards-based Internet for all. It is the only major browser that you can actually feel good about using. Thus, I'll stick with FireFox as long as they keep improving it.
@jdakula I use chrome because I like it best. Starts faster, feels faster, sandboxed, simple and clean user interface. I don't use stuff because of a cause I choose the stuff that works best for me. Chrome just fits. I tried FF with my family and they didn't like it. They preferred IE but when I tried Chrome on them they had no problem, no complaints. Now if FF or IE ends up doing a better job later on, I'll switch.
@DevGuy_z
That's your choice. I personally find that FF is a lot faster starting up, and when there are only a small number of tabs open it runs faster, too. As far as security is concerned, I've never gotten a virus or Trojan in the 20 years I've been using PCs, so that's not really a concern of mine. I am pretty sure antivirus software is actually some kind of scam.

However, I try to consider the ethical implications of my actions. Sometimes, like when I use a credit card, I am aware that my decisions are hurting others, but the benefit to me is simply too great to give it up. With the browser, FireFox has always served me well and is "plenty good." So I will stick with it.
@jdakula

I'm still using firefox. The stability issues have almost made we switch over to Chrome, but I really prefer the Firefox interface. I wish it was as fast as Chrome but I'm glad that they are still able to compete with the big boys.
@Dodgson1832
It is interesting that people cite stability issues with FireFox as a reason to use alternative browsers. I have had Chrome crash on me a few times in just the very little amount of time I have spent using it. I have had only one FireFox crash that I can remember since 4.0 was released.
@jdakula Isn't Firefox a spin off of the Seamonkey project?

Build identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 SeaMonkey/2.0.14
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Not Exactly
Greenknight_z 2nd Dec
@paulfx1 - Firefox and the Thunderbird email client were spun off from the Mozilla Suite, because most users don't need or want all the apps that were bundled in the Suite. Later, when Mozilla decided to stop developing the Suite, an independent group The SeaMonkey Project was created to keep the (former) Mozilla Suite going.
@jdakula

+1
@jdakula
I agree. Just about any browser is good enough for anyone these days, so I don't see why I would ditch a browser from an organization that focuses its efforts on the users and use one from a corporation that only wants to make profits.

If people just don't care, then one day we may get back to the point where there's no alternative to a browser made by a big corporation that couldn't care less about free and open standards.
@luke_sg You make it sound as though making a profit is a bad thing. Keep in mind that *someone* has to make a little money in all this or the "free and open web" will cease to exist.
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This is what healthy competition looks like
Rabid Howler Monkey 1st Dec
Three good, very popular browsers: Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. And some good, less popular browsers: Safari, Opera, Chromium and Iron.
@Rabid Howler Monkey Don't forget Maxthon. No, I'd never heard of it either. My teenage nephew found it and refuses to use anything else. On first blush, it's actually not too bad.
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For all of you paranoid geeks - here is Chromium (Google Chrome w/out Google):
Windows: http://build.chromium.org/f/chromium/snapshots/Win_Webkit_Latest/5361/mini_installer.exe

Ubuntu: http://packages.ubuntu.com/lucid/chromium-browser
(Should be in your repository: sudo apt-get install chromium-browser
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Not that chrome is a bad browser but I still find many people get this installed and set as default and have no idea how it happened. It seems some applications have this added on along with things like the Google Toolbar that are set as Opt In by default and when it installs itself it is autoset as the default browser. Many people don't notice or care but some ask questions like "Why does my internet look different". I used to see the same thing with Safari taking over as default when Apple had it automatically checked as part of their Apple Software Update. They changed that a while ago and now it is unchecked by default and put into an optional section.

Why this and other Applications are allowed to keep these little programs that are attached as default Opt In is beyond me. I guess they think that many people wouldn't use things like the Google Toolbar, Ask Toolbar, Chrome, or any of the others if they didn't basically force it in with another program. I have no problem with a browser coming with the Operating System as internet usage is a primary task of computing these days but it should still be a choice if someone wants to switch or add something extra to their computer aside from the software they are trying to install. The little check box on these "extras" should be unchecked for the many users that simply and blindly hit the next button when installing.
@bobiroc Youtube
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@bobiroc yes this is right, there's always an Install Chrome on some programs I install. Usually the free stuff.
@TheFilipinoFlash

And it is always pre-checked to be installed and most people simply click through and install and Chrome takes over as their browser. This is why Chrome is climbing in usage so much. Yet this is legal and no one seems to care. It got so bad at my place of work that I had to find a way to disable it from even being installed. App blocking FTW.
It was obvious this would happen with the train wreck that is Firefox development.
What amazes me is how IE/Firefox/Safari fail to follow the simplest of formula's for a web browsing experience:

- Be Standards compliant
- Don't leak memory
- Don't be bloatware
- Don't be tightly coupled with the OS
- Don't make things annoying for your developers
- Don't abuse malloc()/l2free()
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@zbloq

Chrome uses more memory than IE or Firefox.
@Michael Alan Goff Not here on Ubuntu Precise for me, flash items also make my CPU crawl in Firefox. I use the daily build of chromium (not Chrome) via PPA, It uses more RAM due to the sandboxing the processes but its not much more for me (about 10Mb), I'd rather use my RAM which I have lots of rather than it chewing my CPU for no readily apparent reason
@Michael Alan Goff Firefox does tend to leak more tho
@zbloq
I'm a Windows guy and I will tell you that, by a long mile, Chrome is a lot more resource intensive that the latest versions of FireFox -- maybe 2-1 for memory use.
@Michael Alan Goff very true
@zbloq
The best part of the news is that now are the standards compliant browsers dominating the web, why not even a microsoftie would develop IE-only webpages. And imagine surfing without plugins and instead use HTML5??? GREAT! happy
@Mikael_z Oddly, Opera seems ahead of the rest in terms of HTML5 compliance. But hardly anyone notices. None are 100% but IE still lags behind the rest.
@zbloq
Interesting formula
IE is becoming more and more standards compliant witn IE9.
IE9 doesnt leak memory on my win7 machine.
If i dont have it installed and for a while there i didnt it doesnt install itself automatically like chrome did once.
You can uninstall IE9 from win7

Now lets take a look at chrome:
no idea about its standards compliance.
uses more memory then IE9 does on my win7 machine.
has installed itself when i ran an update, i must not of been paying attention but still it was added on so yea to bloatware.
hmm ever hear of chromeOS?
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"Train wreck"?
ScorpioBlue Updated - 1st Dec
It was obvious this would happen with the train wreck that is Firefox development.

Until another browser blocks sh!tty corporate ads as well as Firefox does, I'll be sticking with it for the indefinite future.
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@ScorpioBlue Their "open development" model hasnt really helped them much.

Chrome has smoked them in usability. (and IE too)
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What does that have to do with what I just said?
ScorpioBlue Updated - 1st Dec
@oatdaddy
What does that have to do with what I said?

Do you really think that statement of yours is going to get me to switch to spyware Chrome?

lol...
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What happened to Opera?
otaddy 1st Dec
Weren't they the ones who used their political connections in the EU to bring about the ballot screen on Windows?
I bought my wife a laptop from Best Buy and the 1st thing I did was remove all crapware. This included Chrome, which had a shortcut on the desktop called "Internet Browser". Whoever installed the crapware didn't even have enough of a spine to call it "Chrome Browser" or anything indicating it was Chrome.

I also filled in Chrome's "Why did you uninstall Chrome" survey at the end and told Google I was uncrapifying the laptop and didn't want any spyware on it.

The laptop now works flawlessly with IE9.
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I have to stick with IE and Firefox. No way will I use chrome willingly, not with the spyware and now the adware. IE lets me on the corporate network, Firefox gives me extensions.
I'm still a loyal Firefox user. Chrome is a good browser for sure, but still hasn't been able to convince me to move on.
a huge discrepancy between w3schools data and statcounter data. According to w3schools IE is 3rd (27%) after Firefox (38%) and Chrome (32%). Where is the catch?
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European markets were hit hard?
pwatson Updated - 1st Dec
"European markets were hit hard with the browser ballot, where users of Windows were forced by European legislators to give users the choice of browser."

In what way were users "hit hard?" When markets are "hit hard" it typically implies that share prices declined.

In what way were users forced to give users a choice?
@pwatson Like users were too stupid to know they had a choice in browsers.

It does warm my heart to see that Opera--the ones who pushed hard for this--have become irrelevant. Given a choice, EU users picked IE and Chrome and Firefox.

The EU is falling apart financially and they worry about browser ballots... Well, it's no better in the US.
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I have a computer running WIN7, Vista and XP; but the only internet browser I use on all 3 WIN OS platforms is Chrome as I like the fact Google is willing to make their most current browser compatible with even XP.
I switched from Firefox to Chrome months ago. While there are several things about Chrome that drive me nuts (the worst is printing related), the speed is what keeps me on it. Firefox just didn't keep up in the speed department. When 95% of what you do is simply clicking the mouse, all other features come in a distant second-place.
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Some comments here suggest that their writers are very young or have a short memory. FF was much faster than IE and can still be pretty fast if it is clean of all add-ons.

My teenaged son persuaded me to migrate from IE to FF a while ago and I would not go back as my main browser. I have tried Chrome and find it not particularly 'attractive'. It does seem a bit faster but then in FF I have quite a few add-ons and tabs open at any one time. There are a number of useful (as opposed to frivolous) add-ons in FF which I would be loathe to give up. And my understanding is that Mozilla are working on improving the speed.

I am sure Chrome will slow down when it is loaded with more features and add-ons.

Plus, how many business websites are optimised for Chrome? Many are still not optimised for FF...
I saw so much FUD in the comments I did some research and see for myself what this tracking was that posters claim is going on. It appears that Chrome on start up sends a randomly generated token included in the installer to Google so they can monitor how many installations of their browser there are. Big whoop de do!

They're counting you! The shame of it all. To be counted. Oh the horrors! Like Microsoft isn't counting every last one of its users. Be for real! You're all counted before Windows ships out the door.

Now I cannot say I am immune just because I run Linux. I've opted into popcon intentionally. You can see me here:

http://popcon.debian.org/

Well, really you can't, but you can pretend to think that you can. I am there somewhere. I don't think all data gathering is evil. That is just crazy talk.
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What does it all really mean?
IslandBoy_77 7th Dec
I pondered that as I thought about all this hoopla over browsers. I found myself smiling wryly, as I thought back to the days of Windows 3.1 on my good old 386: days when using the net was expensive, slow, clumsy and difficult. Days when I could have cared less about the internet - its was just a curiosity, and an expensive one at that (I was paying $45 a month for dial-up that gave me 33k on a good day!)

And here we are, almost 15 years later, and everyone is falling over themselves to proclaim the 'net (specifically, Cloud computing in its various guises) as the be all and end all of computing, and browsers are now THE thing - even more than the OS they run on, it often seems. I note how territorial many of us have become over our browsers - while the rest of the world (more of them than "us" who care) just uses whatever their computer came setup with, or whatever gets foisted on them when they install that shiny new program that their son / daughter / grandkids / friend over the back fence recommended to them. What I DO note with interest is the name of the browser that is often "foisted" on the unwashed masses - why, its our friend Chrome! I don't ever recall a time when Firefox, IE or Opera was automatically ticked as an "extra" as part of installing some totally unrelated software (although as we all know, Safari has been playing that game for a long time), yet everyone seems happy enough that Chrome plays this game.

Call me suspicious (and I most certainly am), but there's something about the way that Google has sneaked in Chrome installs by hook or by crook over the last 2 years that is just, well, sneaky. The bulk of my clients are home users, and good number of whom struggle to know the difference between the left and right mouse buttons - even after "using" a computer for several years! Invariably, when I next see them for a regular maintenance run or problem fix, they have Chrome on their computer. How did it get there? They have no idea. It probably came with an update to a utility (all the Piriform stuff has it, as does Avast) that they just clicked "ok" to and whose install they "nexted" their way through. I always ask if I can uninstall Chrome when I see it on client's computers. True, its currently ranked as the fastest of the browsers, and rumour has it that it is "safe" to use. But do I trust a company the size of Google, who makes it their business to watch everything "we" do in order to make their money? No, I don't. And the way they are getting their browser to become the default is far too sneaky - dishonest - for my liking.

Its true that Microsoft is "also evil", and so is Apple. They are all part of the globalist plan to enslave us and spy on us, so one poison is as bad as another. At the same time, why take 3 lots of poison if you can keep the dosage down to one? If I'm going to be spied on, I'd rather that the other 2 evil empires (Google, Apple) have to work to get their info, rather than be handed it on a silver platter. But then, maybe that happens anyway - away from the spotlight and under the counter where no one can see? It will all come out in the wash one day - but in the meantime the "big 3" fleece us for billions and keep big brother's eye firmly upon our every digital move... sad

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