After more than 25 years on the market, Microsoft is finally saying goodbye to Internet Explorer for good. In June 2022, the browser will officially be shut down in favor of the well-received, Chromium-based Microsoft Edge.
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You wouldn’t think the shifting installed bases of different Android versions would make for the most enthralling of videos, but there’s something oddly fascinating about this timelapse video created by animator Victor Bohush (via TNW).
His greatest hits also include similar videos for desktop browser shares (watch Chrome kill Internet Explorer) and Windows versions.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIvZ6mD5wjE]
Over the past couple of years, Chrome has gained and fallen in terms of browser marketshare. Google’s browser briefly eclipsed Internet Explorer as the most popular browser in the world, but Microsoft quickly regained that crown. Now, Adobe has issued a report claiming that Chrome, on both mobile and the desktop, has finally eclipsed Internet Explorer as the world’s most popular browser.
Another instalment in Microsoft’s “Scroogled” smear campaign attempting to point out the downsides of using Google services. While Microsoft has released many ads attacking Gmail, search and other Google products as part of the 7 figures it plans to drop on the campaign, this one was apparently supposed to be an internal video for employees anyway.
Whether it was a controlled leak or not, the ad, which takes cues from one of Google’s own Chrome ads, has happened to make its way online right in the middle of Google I/O and it doesn’t appear that a take down notice is getting issued.
Google has responded to the ads several times calling Microsoft’s approach ‘misleading and intellectually dishonest.’
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Two Google senior vice presidents appeared on stage at the AllThingsD D10 Conference yesterday to discuss all things YouTube and Chrome with co-host Walt Mossberg.
Mossberg asked Google’s ad wizard Susan Wojcicki why the search engine does not find and filter copyrighted material. The topic came in leiu of Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel’s assertions from Wednesday, while at the conference, when he claimed YouTube filtered child pornography, but allowed pirated media content.
“The problem is identifying which copyright belongs to who… is very complicated,” said Wojcicki, while mentioning that filtering copyrighted content is not technical, but rather a complicated business issue. “At the end of the day, in order to know what to do with that content, we need to hear from the copyright owner.”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4DbgiOCTQts]
This is what desperation looks like. Also this:
[tweet https://twitter.com/jr_raphael/status/181907358618882049]
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http://vimeo.com/37918278
Software giant Microsoft took to video sharing service Vimeo to disseminate its new commercial promoting the Internet Explorer 9 browser. Tentatively named “A More Beautiful Web,” it features a soundtrack by Alex Clare and fast-paced (albeit a tad amateur-looking) MTV style editing. Both treats are not usually associated with neither the Microsoft brand nor the company’s dull television advertising.
While watchable, it does not hold a candle to Google’s memorable Chrome advertising. The 60-second video highlights the browser’s headlining features, such as hardware-assisted canvas rendering, high-definition video playback, rich web apps like Chillingo’s “Cut the Rope” game, and more.
Two important observations here:
1. The commercial was a Vimeo exclusive at post time— despite Microsoft’s official presence on YouTube, including the Internet Explorer team’s channel. It is interesting that Microsoft chose to tap a rival video sharing service and not leverage the world’s most popular destination for online video to get the word out. An anti-Google move, cynics might say.
2. Per data from StatCounter (see the chart below), the Windows maker’s possible motivation to bypass YouTube likely includes Internet Explorer’s continuous downward spiral. It has been a trend, not a temporary hiccup. Last summer, Google’s Chrome claimed one-fifth of the worldwide market for browsers and is now No. 2 in some key markets that traditionally favor Microsoft’s product.
Microsoft appeared late to the party and has lost momentum in browser innovation that now almost exclusively belongs to Google and —in small part— to Apple and its Safari browser. If it were not for big businesses’ reluctance to upgrade to a more modern browser, Internet Explorer would already be severely beaten in browser wars.
The writing has been on the wall for quite some time, indeed.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDPJ-o1leAw]
Just a few years ago, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer owned the browser market with three quarters share and the only real alternative was Mozilla’s Open Source Firefox. However, in 2008, Google noticed Apple’s WebKit Browser engine and built their own Chrome browser. In late 2009, Chrome started to break out of the “other” category in StatCounter’s figures and started its rise to what will likely to be the world’s most used desktop browser in 2012.
A few months ago, Chrome passed Firefox and if you look at the slope of the graph over time, it looks like Chrome’s rise is still accelerating. Even if it only grows at its 2011 rate and IE continues to fall at its 2011 rate, Chrome will pass Internet Explorer in late Summer 2012 according to Statcounter’s numbers. Below, I have extrapolated IE and Chrome’s 2011 numbers over the first half of 2012…
Chrome and Android, the two crucial weapons in Google’s assault on mobile and desktop, are showing no signs of stopping. We already reported today that Android passed iOS globally. When it comes to browsing the web, Google’s Chrome zoomed past the 25 percent mark for the first time this weekend, ConceivablyTech observed. More precisely, Chrome grabbed 25.02 percent share this past Sunday, per StatCounter Global Stats data.
The software has been growing rapidly, registering global market share of 18.29 percent in April, 19.36 percent in May 2011, 20.65 percent in June and 22.14 percent in July. Apple’s Safari grew marginally, adding just 0.02 percentage points to its 5.17 percent share in July. The latest StatCounter data, which may not be representative of the entire market, really spells trouble for Mozilla’s Firefox. Mozilla’s browser used to be the preferred alternative to Microsoft’s market-dominating Internet Explorer not that long time ago. How times change…
Firefox’s share is declining five times faster than Internet Explorer’s, indicating that Chrome is slowly but steadily chipping away at Firefox’s market position, which is now within spitting distance. Firefox scored a 27.49 share for the month of August versus 41.89 percent for Internet Explorer. The fact that only 14.5 percent of web users, or 54 percent of Firefox users, have upgraded to Firefox 6 is another indicative of shifting tides as Google gains significant ground in the web browsing space.
Google also benefits from the silent updating mechanism, a computer process that sits in the background to automatically keep your Chrome installation up to date, without any intervention on your part. Did the latest StatsCounter numbers surprise you? The writing has been on the wall for some time.
If you are a mainstream Chrome user like I imagine most of you are, the first stable version of Chrome 13 is now available for auto upgrade. Why upgrade?
Google Instant Pages prefetches links so that page load times increse dramatically. Linux and Windows users will now also get a print preview (Linux before Mac?! oh ChromeOS :P)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jn93FDx9oI]
To manually upgrade, go to about Chrome and hit the upgrade button (below):
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The Guardian is reporting Chrome has overtaken Firefox as the #2 browser in the UK. Chrome now has 22% of the market and Internet Explorer, which is currently first, holds 45%. In fourth, Safari has 9% of the market. (via web metrics firm Statcounter) Chrome’s success is due in part to TV advertising. Chrome is Google’s first product advertised in the UK.
Also today, Net Applications is saying Safari now has 8% market share worldwide. (via MacDailyNews) Check out the graph below:
A big milestone today as Google’s Chrome hits a cool 20 percent web usage share according to StatCounter numbers for the month of June (via TNW) based on aggregate data collected from their network of three million websites.
For the first time ever, Chrome passed the 20 percent mark globally, accounting for 20.65 share of all web browsing the world over. Compare that to just 2.8 percent in the year-ago period. Google’s browser is now chasing Firefox which fell from 30 percent in June 2010 to 28 percent in June 2011. All versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer have also fallen to 44 percent globally, down from 59 percent in June 2010.
In the United States Chrome’s rise was less rapid, hitting 16 percent in June while Microsoft’s and Mozilla’s browsers scored 46.5 percent and 24.7 percent, respectively. What’s especially interesting is Chrome’s share in South America where it grabbed 29.72 percent of the market, beating Firefox (24 percent) to the browser punch (Microsoft’s browser had 44.1 percent share). An indication of things to come globally?
