Microsoft once dominated the world of internet browsing, but yesterday their market share dropped to below 60% for the first time.
Internet Explorer became king of the browsers back in 1996 when Microsoft began bundling IE 2 with Windows 95, cutting off Netscape’s route to a viable market. Ironically, Internet Explorer began life beating out a technically superior product, and now it is ending it’s life being beaten out by a number of technically superior products.
Firefox, the free browser from the Mozilla Foundation, has developed a reputation for being faster, more secure and more recently, more feature-packed than it’s cumbersome rival. Techies recommend Firefox as part of a security regime to stave off online threats.
Google’s Chrome is a relative newcomer to the browser war, but who better to improve the browsing experience than Google?
One hindrance to IE has been web developers railing against Microsoft’s stubborn reluctance to comply with web standards respected by almost every other browser. Ask any web designer about building sites for Internet Explorer 6, you’ll get an unpleasant earful.
With Firefox at around 24.5% of the market, Chrome at 6.7% and Apple’s Safari at 4.7%, it’s clear that people are finally choosing a better experience.
Source: BBC
