I love it when something I love gains momentum. Granted, it’s sad to see a top dog slow down and get weak in the knees as he starts to feel the hot breath of younger, faster dogs charging up behind him. Microsoft Internet Explorer is still the majority browser but that majority is declining rapidly.
According to a February 2010 Browser and Operating System Market Share Study from Janco Associates, IE claims a share of the browser market just shy of 65%. That marks a sixteen-percent loss from the year 2007 when IE lauded over 80% of all browser usage. In fact, Microsoft’s browser software reach dropped more than six percent in just the last year.
| "Ultimately, the leveling of the browser playing field translates to more work for you as an adult webmaster. The days of creating pages that work in IE and fuck the rest are over." |
Want to guess which young upstart browser can now lay claim to almost 6% of the browsers market? If you guessed Google Chrome you would be right. However, the Janco study warns Google not to get too cocky as they have noted that the open source software’s growth has leveled off and may have hit a wall as far as expansion is concerned.
The real champ in the browser wars is my personal favorite, Mozilla/Firefox. The two combined can now boast owning the hearts of 20% of Internet users. And while Mozilla/Firefox’s growth is slowing a bit, the stunning revelation is that the popularity of Windows 7 isn’t helping MS win the browser war. WIN 7 has experienced an encouraging period of adoption (12%) since its was released and IE comes bundled with it. Nevertheless, in spite of this, IE saturation continues to descend and for the moment it looks like the trend will continue. Apparently, users have gotten used to the concept of alternate browsers and are no longer afraid to jump out of the Microsoft box.
One should also note that Safari and Opera, although small in reach, maintain a steady growth at 1.39% and 0.41% respectively.
What does this mean for you, the adult webmaster? Well, for one, if you’re still ignoring the needs of your surfers using Firefox, you’re nothing but a fool. These aren’t W3C geek numbers. This is twenty percent of all Internet users - not to mention the six-percent coming to your pages via Chrome. Janco might be predicting a standstill for Google’s entry in the browser wars, but I’m not. That Google home page is at least as ubiquitous as the Windows Operating System and I think we’re going to see a lot more people adopting Chrome in the next couple of years.
But what does it all really, really mean? Why should you care whether or not your surfers are surfing your page with IE or Firefox or Chrome or even Opera?
Sadly, it means that your surfers are the casualties of the browser wars. Each program renders webpages differently. Actually, Firefox/Mozilla, Chrome, Safari and Opera render pages only slightly differently. The real problem is with Microsoft and its insistence on ignoring W3C standards and rendering pages the way it wants to render them. It’s only recently that IE relented when it came to displaying popular formats and languages (like .png images and XML) that way these things are supposed to be displayed. It must have been painful for MS to concede the fact that IE 6 makes blogs look like shit.
Ultimately, the leveling of the browser playing field translates to more work for you as an adult webmaster. The days of creating pages that work in IE and fuck the rest are over. Now you have to bite the bullet and insure that your sites read correctly in IE, Mozilla/Firefox and at least for now, Google Chrome. For good measure, throw in Safari and Opera as well.
Yes, IE is still top dog but the dog is getting weak and feeble and he won’t be top for much longer. I may be wrong but I see a future where IE dips below 50% reach. It may not be next year or the year after that but the day is coming.
I championed Mozilla/Firefox back when nobody took me seriously and I’m doing my best not to be too proud of that fact. Just the same, to ignore other browsers is folly. Don’t be a fool. Build for all browsers and be the real top dog!