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We`ve been keeping an eye on which browsers are being used by people visiting our site. For the first time, this week, Firefox (FF) has pulled ahead by a clear margin. It`s been interesting, watching the growing number of FF visitors, but not particularly useful data, so I thought I`d open up a topic.

Obviously, Internet Explorer (IE) isn`t going to go away anytime soon. We also see a regular presence of Safari (Mac) and Chrome (from Google), although the numbers for the latter two are so small as to be insignificant. Still, they`re consistent.

It seems that whenever you get a site nicely put together in FF, then test it in IE, inevitably Microsoft gums up the works. They seem to be grudgingly coming around to the belief that they`re not the only people in the computer business, but only grudgingly.

One simple example would be transparent .PNG files, relative to IE 6.x and 7.x. There are many other examples.

Where do you folks see Microsoft as a company, IE, and Firefox in the coming years? Will we still be using browsers similar to what we have today? How much do you count Firefox into your ecommerce development and display efforts?

Given limited development funds, would you be willing to reduce the sophistication of your site if it meant better compatibility between IE and FF? How much is the combination of that compatibility and "cool" worth?

Think about the extra effort, time and labor a designer/developer has to apply in order to "fix" the problems that show up in IE after a site`s been developed. Would you rather foot the bill, or reduce your expectations in order to have a site that works the same across all browsers?

In some ways, the same question applies in terms of accounting for dial-up users. At what point does the benefit of classy functionality and broadband outweigh the continually diminishing audience of dial-up users? Only in this particular topic, it`s not about dial-up, it`s about incompatibilities.

Microsoft has announced layoffs for the first time in my memory. Vista failed utterly, and Windows 7 appears to be mostly a major repair job. They`ve agreed that XP is still so prevalent that they`ll need to support it for a bit longer. They`re focused so much on superficialities, I wonder if they`ve lost touch with reality.

Do you think IE will recover a dominant position in market share?

I think that the majority of internet users, which people don`t really get in touch with, because they`re not community oriented.. at least not online, use Windows, and the basic browser that goes along with it, even not upgraded. I hear that a lot of users still use IE6, so even if updating it to 7 costs no money and you get those pesky reminders to upgrade, most still don`t
I don`t think it`s going to go away. not in the near future, not unless an operating system will manage to `break` the market and be as widely spread as windows.
I doubt anyone who isn`t using Windows uses IExplorer. and I think most people use IExplorer because it`s the first one they encounter

BTW, I`ve heard that Chrome, Safari and FireFox all have problems with different languages (Asian and Middle Eastern) which IExplorer manages to somehow fix, though I don`t know this for a fact

Jmes



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I think they both suck.  I`m using Google Chrome Beta right now, which

Roland - How did you tint the quote?

Craig - IE will always be the dominant browser as long as Windows is the dominant O/S.  The colossal stumble of Vista may give another O/S an opportunity to gain more territory from MS.  From what I read, Win7 is little improvement.  Sort of like an describing an obese person trimming down to just fat as success.  (Unless you are the obese person who lost the weight).

Keep an eye on Google and Sun.



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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

Something that seems common is for people new to web design to make a site in IE, and never think twice in looking at it in anything else. When they do they`re usually shocked .... "What happened to my site"?

IE will always have a foothold, whether it`s a good/compliant browser or not, simply because it`s standard in Windows. New PC users will naturally start out on it, and those that aren`t online a lot may see no point in changing anything, or understand the differences in them. But people are always becoming more net savvy, and I think FF and the others will continue to grow.

And as in business, competition should make you get better, or get out.



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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

I remember when modems came out, everyone got totally interested in "online." I remember bulletin-board systems (BBS), CompuServe, and when ALL email and customer support just assumed you`d access CompuServe.

I also remember when Netscape was the only real browser that could render HTML, and how AOL stepped in and took control of the market with a simple user interface.

In each of those experiences people accepted that Microsoft was the underlying OS, and didn`t pay much attention. As long as whatever other "thing" worked with the PC, they ignored the operating system.

Today, with Microsoft suddenly being challenged to whatever degree, both with Mac OS and Linux, people are having to make conscious decisions about that "under the hood" stuff they didn`t care about.

At the same time, fewer people care about computers, as the PC has become a commodity item. The hobbyists continue, and I believe they`re the ones choosing FF or Chrome simply because it`s "not Windows." (like a PNG file means "Ping`s Not Gif.")

But hobbyists are only a small portion of the market. The bigger problem is the enterprise and costs of large-scale installations. Those are controlled by a small number of knowledgeable network and system administrators.

Lucent Technologies used to run Macs. The network people made a case to switch to Windows. It took a long time, but they did switch over. Now, I suspect many companies are contemplating perhaps a switch back to Mac. Dunno.

Taken together, I wonder if we`re about to see "the next big thing" in operating systems. Maybe the next 5 years will depend strongly on whether or not IE comes into compatibility with world standards?

Remember when we switched over to unleaded gas? Then think about the attempt to switch over to the metric system. I wonder why the gas succeeded but the metric system didn`t?