Web browser makers line up battleships

Microsoft has seen its grip on the global browser market share loosened by nearly 12 per cent since March, according to one web monitoring firm. Statcounter spun out the latest results over the weekend. It found that Microsoft’s combined market share of Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 had slipped, even as the software giant’s …

[Piers]

MS being disingenous...

Microsoft tried to push IE8 into one of my IE testing setups today. The Installer message reads...

"Internet Explorer 8 is the latest version of the familiar Web browser that you are most comfortable using. Internet Explorer 8 helps you get everything that you want from the Web faster, easier, and more privately and securely than ever."

>the latest version of the familiar Web browser that you are most comfortable using...

Um, no. Making a bit of an assumption there - are they trying to get Firefox users to click INSTALL by accident? Are they desperate?

[Anonymous Coward]

broken in IE7

IE7 won't display the map!

[James 47]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

29.97% of a 'market' worth £0.

Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: MS being disingenuous...

I'm more annoyed by the fact that I've had the IE8 upgrade prompt two or three times despite most definitely choosing "No, and never show me this update again" the first time. That's just rude.

[Ron Loftin]

@Piers

The answer to your first question is an unqualified, unambiguous, "YES !!!", for sure.

The answer to your second question is an emphatic, "HELL, YES !!!", no matter how the spinmeisters try to sugarcoat it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why no mention of Opera?

It's got double the marketshare of Chrome and Safari...

[Anonymous Coward]

@Piers

"Internet Explorer 8 is the latest version of the familiar Web browser that you are most comfortable using."

Isn't that just an outright lie?

[Jamie 19]

I have tried IE8

I have a test setup at work where I have installed IE8 for testing with our web interface.

After installing I have decided there is not a pray in hell of putting it on any machine at home as it is constantly coming up requesting that I complete a form everytime I start IE.

[Dazed and Confused]

@Piers

> Are they desperate?

Yes

[Adam Salisbury]

11.07 per cent

Of which 11.06 is probably the Windows userbase who had IE8 foisted upon them as a "Critical" update when the OS last auto-updated.

[Anonymous Coward]

ie6 still has over 16% Why Bill, why! *sniff*

ie6 *still* clings onto life with significant market share, making a web devs life miserable worldwide.

This is because:

a. ie7 has a crap UI

b. ie8 has a crap UI

It's also because:

Windows Vista is a crap OS

and because:

99% of company IT bosses are scared crapless about upgrading, because 99% of company Intranets are cr@p and will only work in ie6.

BAH!

[TeeCee]

@Jamie 19

<--- You need this.

Like most newly installed pieces of software which have a variety of configuration options, IE8 offers to lead you through a few on first use (including some rather un-Microsofty options like making Google the default for search, maps 'n webmail).

If you'd bothered to scroll down you'd have found the "sod off and don't annoy me with this shit again" button so you could either stay in happy MS-luser land or wade through the config yourself.

If you're going to diss MS, try to pick something they're actually guilty of to criticise, it's not like there isn't enough of a choice here.

[Anonymous Coward]

IE !

It's a sack of manure and nobody in their right mind should use it.

[James Le Cuirot]

Multiple IEs

I still have IE7 as the main installed version because if you upgrade to IE8, stand-alone versions of IE6 and IE7 break horribly. You can still use IE8 by installing that as stand-alone.

[Cameron Colley]

@ James 47

Perhaps "Market" isn't quite the right word -- but unless you don't actually browse the web, or browse in text only, then these figures will likely affect you somewhere along the line. If you use IE you may find less Silverlight and built for IE versions of websites -- and if you use Opera, Chrome, Firefox or and other browser you should find your browser is better supported.

Personally, I think any decrease in the use of an MS product, and the corresponding lowering in the number of people who just expect all things MS is a good thing for everyone.

[Anonymous Coward]

Read title wrong

I thought this was an article on playing te tradtional battleships game on different browsers.

Instead it just an excuse for the tired old my-browser-is-better-than-yours arguments to appear in the comments section.

FWIW - i maintain a small business system. IE7 works without issues, is easily updated on patch Tuesday, has never let anything evil into our building, and users never ask me how to do things on it. By these standards it is fine. Should I feel the need to go to IE8, I don't doubt that (once setup is completed) the same will be the case

[Martin Lyne]

RE: #c_530910 (Zzz)

Who cares? How about people that have to write software to cater for as close to 100% of that market as possible?

If I saw IE's share go to 0% I would be a very happy man.

[Anonymous Coward]

"loosened by nearly 12 per cent since March"?

Either I need to resit my maths exams or something is wrong here:

According to the graph....

In March

IE8 - 1.72%, IE6 - 21.75%, IE7 39.01%

Total 62.48%

In July

IE8 - 11.05%, IE6 - 20.45%, IE7 28.15%

Total 59.65%

[David David David David (formerly David 22)]

@ Anonymous Coward 12:50 GMT

Who gives a shit about Opera?

[Anonymous Coward]

IE8

works well for me on Windows 7 64-bit.

Shame I can't use the 64-bit browser as Flash is still 32-bit.

Why the fuss?

[Jeremy 2]

IE6 still on 23%

Arghhhhhhh!!!!

Somebody please tell me I don't have to code for it any more... please?

<sits whimpering in the corner>

[E 2]

LOLZ

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8&qptimeframe=M&qpsp=125&qpmr=100&qpdt=1&qpct=0&qpcustomc=*1 is the site you get from the Net Applications link in the Reg story. Ask it for browsers, browser percentages, operating systems, the answer:

"This report's data is currently under review. It will become available as soon as possible. "

It is a very good looking page, much better than when people used an animated GIF of a guy digging a hole with a spade.

[Cameron Colley]

RE: Shame I can't use the 64-bit browser as Flash is still 32-bit.

Is it? Then I must be imagining the fact I've had a native 64bit version of Flash 10 running happily inside Firefox on Kubuntu for the last few months. ;~)

[Benny]

Slightly OT

but there is a bloke who comes into my local, you know the sort - knows everything, anyway he spent hours trying to convince me that experts (he knows they are experts because the FT said so) had proven that IE8 was much faster than any other browser available.

I tried to reason with him, but then he came out with how Bing is ruining Google and half of googles searches are Bings....I walked away after that....

[Bob Gateaux]

IE8 is the best one

Always this same talk of Firfox against the Internet Explorer. Why must people try to always put the Microsoft one down when we know it comes for free and works best on the web sites? Also as I say before the Firfox Javs will always be its large downfall as it is most slow and also uses all my memory up in one go.

For me and my friends it is a no brain to choose IE8 as the best one.

P.S. also to please take some salt on the statistic that they say about users of the browser - due to some details in confusion with something we call the "users agent" most people are not sure which browser the customer chooses - many IE browsers flavour appear as though they are the Firfox through IE sending Mozilla to be sure that site will still serve it. This dates back to time when Sun tries to hoodwink the web from Microsoft with Java applets.

[James O'Shea]

MSIE 8

I have IE8 installed on some of my WinBoxes. Around here, it's used only if whoever is using that box absolutely positively has to go to a site which uses ActiveX, usually Microsoft's own sites. For all other sites we use FireFox or Safari, except for the one guy who uses Chrome and the other who uses Opera. (Well, the relative small group which insists on web-surfing using their phones use Opera; for long, complex, reasons we're stuck with Windows Mobile, and one reason why most of our users refuse to surf from their phones is that no-one could pay them enough to use IE on a phone.)

If we must go on a site which uses ActiveX, we take precautions about what that site really is downloading and we bail as fast as we can... and shut down IE immediately when we bail. And the number of sites we use which have ActiveX is falling; we scream at the webmasters in question about their lack of support for non-IE browsers, and if they don't change quickly we find what we need elsewhere. (Except for Microsoft, of course. We're stuck with them... right up until I can persuade the powers-that-be to scrap every single Windows install around here and replace 'em all with OS X and Ubuntu. Soon enough it'll be bye-bye, Mickeysoft. Bye-bye, ActiveX. Bye-bye, Silverlight. Bye-bye, never to be sufficiently cursed Exchange Server.)

[sleepy]

@Benny

Here you go, it's even on pro-MS cnet:

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/0,39029471,49301219,00.htm

(Safari 4 benchmarked at 42 times faster than IE7, 6 times faster than IE8; IE 7 and 8 slower than any other browser tested).

[gribbler]

Talk about getting all worked up...

I work in web development and I have to admit to a reasonable hatred of IE6 as it is a nightmare to code for.

Having said that, IE8 is pretty damned good, so is Chrome and FF (whilst being rather slow) is also good. There is really not a lot to choose between these browsers anymore, from an end-user perspective it just comes down to personal choice (apart from Safari, which any right-thinking person knows is horrible).

So get over it.

[leeeeeb]

RE: IE6 still on 23%

It's bad, but not that bad. Look closer into the stats and you'll find two things.

First, in North America and Europe the figure is closer to 12%, the worldwide figures is skewed by Asia where IE6 is above 30%.

Second, take a look down at the day resolution graphs. IE6 usage drops another quarter at the weekend in those territories, which indicates that many people are tied to it at work due to the usual legacy intranet problem.

Hopefully after Win7 IE6 will finally start to die completely.

[Gabor Laszlo]

Statcounter?

That whole domain has been blacklisted in my squid config for ages, and I suspect I'm not the only one snubbing them. So their numbers might be a tad off.

[Pirate Dave]

Browser that you are most comfortable using?

So Microsoft has taken over development of Lynx then? I never have any virus problems when I'm browsing the intertubes with Lynx. In fact, it never crosses my mind. Oh sure, IE and FF and the rest do the fancy pictures and annoying Flash, but really, if I'm not browsing for porn, why do I need pictures?

[Howard Hanek]

Beancounters

Statistics bombard us. I was wondering if, in the Land of Beancounters whether or not they raise beans anymore? They probably passed laws against it on the basis that more beans just 'confused' people. Sort of like G-8 countries don't manufacture anything but defense weapons and video games.http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/troll_32.png

[Dex]

Stilll....

....Trying to pull an Apple and push it out with EVERY windows update, labelling it as "Important" along with shittylight......i mean Silverlight

FF FTW

[Eddie 3]

IE

I stopped developing/fixing/supporting IE6 ages ago. If a client wants their website to work with IE6, it's an extra £5k+ - nobody has gone for it yet. :-).

I use as many transparent png's as possible (without the IE6 fix code).

For my backend CMS I've blocked IE completely - I use AJAX alot for inline editing/drag&drop and coding is a joy not having to bother with MS product at all. After the initial shock of my client's being weaned off IE, they all seem happy running FF or Safari, especially with some AdBlocking running.

[Anonymous Coward]

@AC 12:50 GMT

Opera doesn't have double the market share, safari 3's downward shift neatly coinsides with safari 4's upwards shift, total safari market share was pretty static (and about the same as opera)

[Jason Paul Kazarian]

IE6 Popular Because of Cracking?

I wonder how many "cracked" versions of XP floating around the world, which are generally never updated, are inflating the IE6 market share.

Posted from Genuine XP Pro SP3 running SeaMonkey. Does that give me an advantage? ;-}

[Anonymous Coward]

@jason

Most people running cracked versions of XP will have upgraded to the latest IE. There is no reason you wouldn't, i've always used a cracked version of XP and never had any problems downloading updates, every time Microsoft releases a new version of WGA, another crack comes out.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ gribbler

Sane, rational people like you are not welcome on this site. Demented fanbois and poison dwarfs are all over the sodding place like a contagious disease. Leave them to fester in their own juice.