Top Bananas | Tag Archives: browser

What it is: Mozilla has revamped their Firefox browser in an attempt to compete against Google’s Chrome browser.

At one time, Netscape Navigator was the dominant browser. Then Microsoft started giving away Internet Explorer for free and since Windows was the largest platform, Internet Explorer quickly dominated the browser market. Mozilla took Netscape Navigator and revised it under the name of Firefox. While Microsoft tried to create a proprietary browsing experience with Internet Explorer, Mozilla tried to create an open platform that was also free.

People started rebelling against Internet Explorer because it was slow and it tried to rely too much on proprietary technology like ActiveX. Microsoft also got complacent and let Internet Explorer languish with few improvements but plenty of security flaws that Microsoft took their time to fix. That’s when people started looking for alternatives and Firefox became the main option.

Firefox became so popular that Internet Explorer’s share of the browser market kept steadily declining while Firefox’s share kept steadily increasing. Then something happened. Mozilla got complacent and wasted time pursuing Firefox OS, a mobile operating system to compete against Android and iOS, which made as much sense as trying to compete against Windows, Linux, and macOS. Not surprisingly, Firefox OS never captured any significant market share but did waste time and money for Mozilla as well as taking their focus off Firefox.

While Firefox languished, Google released their Chrome browser that was optimized to work with Gmail and other Google websites. Since Chrome was also free and faster than Firefox, many people simply shifted to Chrome and abandoned Firefox. With shrinking market share, Mozilla is finally fighting back with a new version of Firefox that’s supposedly faster, smaller, and more secure. The big question is are they too late?

Chrome dominates the browser market because it’s still fast, secure, and reliable. The main reason people switched to Firefox away from Internet Explorer was because Internet Explorer was slow, insecure, and incompatible. That’s not the case with Google Chrome.

For Firefox to attract attention requires Chrome to stumble. Failing that, Firefox needs to be so massively superior to Chrome that ordinary computer users will willing switch, just as ordinary computer users eagerly abandoned Internet Explorer. Then again, even if Firefox offers massive improvements over Chrome, Google can just modify Chrome to be nearly as good. As long as the performance gap between Chrome and Firefox isn’t dramatically different, most people will just stay with Chrome.

Firefox is a good browser and their latest version could be the best browser. The problem is that being the best won’t convince people to switch if they current technology is still good enough. Firefox has an uphill battle ahead of them and their success hinges partly on Google to screw up like Microsoft did with Internet Explorer. Will that happen? Probably not, which means Firefox will likely be stuck as an also-ran in the browser market for the near future.

What it is: A web browser is the main program for accessing the Internet and Google Chrome has taken the lead in the browser market.

A long time ago, you actually had to buy a web browser for your computer. That fueled the growth of the first popular web browser known as Netscape Navigator. Then Microsoft undercut Netscape Navigator by offering Internet Explorer for free. It’s hard to compete with a free program, so it’s no surprise that Internet Explorer, bundled with Microsoft Windows, soon became the most popular web browser in the world.

Unfortunately, Microsoft tried to hijack the Internet by creating unique features that only Internet Explorer could use such as ActiveX controls. The goal was to redefine the Internet according to Microsoft’s standards so only Microsoft technology would work on the Internet.

Naturally the rest of the world rebelled at the thought of a Microsoft-controlled Internet, so they started working on open standards as a way to fight back. Once Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dominated the browser market, Microsoft simply sat back and did nothing for the next few years. That’s when Firefox, an open source web browser, started gaining in popularity based mostly on its tighter security features that Internet Explorer lacked. Microsoft didn’t lose the web browser market to Firefox so much as they ignored the web browser market until it was too late.

Firefox quickly became the most popular web browser and displaced Internet Explorer. To fight back, Microsoft tried to update Internet Explorer but even they admitted defeat and decided to create a brand new browser instead called Microsoft Edge. Since Internet Explorer had gotten such a bad reputation over the years for being buggy and insecure (thanks to Microsoft letting in languish for years), Microsoft decided it was easier to start all over again.

Meanwhile, the programmers at Firefox got distracted with too many projects ranging from their Thunderbird email client to creating a new mobile operating system called Firefox OS, which never seriously challenged iOS or Android and seems destined for obscurity. While Firefox’s programmers wasted time on other projects, they ignored their Firefox browser to the point where it was no longer the most secure and no longer the fastest and easiest browser to use any more.

That’s when Google’s Chrome browser started to grow in popularity. With Chrome bundled on Android devices, that simply helped cement Chrome’s popularity as the world’s most popular browser. Even though Apple offers Safari on iOS and OS X, there simply aren’t enough iOS or OS X computers out there to rival the number of Android devices. That makes Google Chrome the most popular browser in the world and Safari a distant second.

Meanwhile Internet Explorer’s popularity is still great enough for third place but it has no future and will gradually decline. As Internet Explorer’s popularity declines, Microsoft Edge’s popularity will be unlikely to compensate, which means Microsoft seems to have lost the browser market for good. Considering they once dominated it with Internet Explorer, then lost its leadership to Firefox and later to Chrome, this marks a serious lack of competence and long-term vision by Microsoft.

While Google Chrome may be the most popular browser, keep watching. New browsers appear all the time and if Google fails to keep Chrome updated, then expect a new rival to take over. Until that moment comes (if ever), expect Google Chrome to be the most popular browser for the next few years to the point where Safari will be second and everyone else will be a distant third.

If you’re a web developer, make sure your web sites work on Google Chrome and Safari. By doing that, you’ll address most of the mobile market and a large portion of the PC market as well.

Browsers may not seem like a big deal, but considering they act as a gateway to the Internet, they’re far more crucial than you might think.