Chrome is (obviously) the top browser, but you won't believe what's (a distant) second
What browser do you use? For me, it's Chrome. A few years ago, I tried a week with Safari, but it didn't work out.
Then, last month on the advice of ZDNET's Jack Wallen, I gave the Arc browser a run for its money. I loved its Spaces feature, but it doesn't support bookmarklets. I rely on a very special custom bookmarklet to save a lot of work when writing articles. What kind of browser doesn't support bookmarklets?
Also: Firefox vs Opera: Which web browser is best for you?
I even dabbled in Edge when the Bing AI features were locked into Edge. I tried chatting with Bing one day, but unlike ChatGPT and Bard, it just wasn't willing to engage. In any case, my use of Edge now is pretty much limited to when I use my Asus laptop to control my CNC. Otherwise, Edge stays on the ledge.
So, it's Chrome. My biggest change with Chrome has been the use of Tab Groups, so now I can have an excessive number of tabs open, but at least they're organized and mostly hidden.
As it turns out, I'm far from the only user of Chrome. As the following chart from Statista shows, Chrome's market share has been hovering above 60% for the past few years.
What's particularly noticeable is how far down Microsoft's browsers are in terms of market share. To be fair, it all started to go downhill for Microsoft back in 1997 when U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled Microsoft could no longer bundle IE 4.0 with Windows.
Despite Microsoft finally and permanently end-of-lifing the decrepit IE back in 2022, and its many investments in Edge, including AI functionality, Microsoft's browser offerings never gained traction. Edge has gained share, but in four years, it's still at just 5% of the overall market.
Also: Maybe Bing isn't trying to compete with Google after all
There are, of course, some mitigating factors here. Statista's market share analysis covers all platforms, including phones. iPhones ship with a rather capable version of Safari and even Android phones that come with a vendor proprietary browser also usually come with Chrome. Of course, Edge comes with Windows Phones…oh, wait…yeah. That happened. There are no Windows phones.
The magnitude of all this is very interesting, especially when you think about it in relative size of market. Chrome owns 60% of the market. Safari owns one-third of that amount. And Microsoft is one-quarter of that.
So there you have it. Chrome is the undisputed champion. Safari (largely due to the iPhone) is #2. And Edge, Firefox (ooh, remember Firefox?), IE, and all the rest battle it out for the bottom 5%.
What browser do you use, and why? Let us know in the comments below.
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