Monday, July 26, 2010

Browser Share

Anyone actually interested in browser market share reports? I can only assume that I'm weird, 'cause I am, well, sorta. I've long since adopted Google Chrome as my primary browser - and push everyone I know to do the same. Firefox is a great second, but 90% of the people I know don't know enough about technology to benefit from the extensions that really make Firefox useful. For the vast majority of my browsing experience, Chrome is by far my preferred choice.

Why?

Primarily speed. Chrome is fast on every computer I own. Plus, I love the fact that my bookmarks are synced across all of my computers without me having to do a darn thing. I'm sure I could figure out an extension in Firefox to do the same, but why bother when its built into Chrome? Don't read me wrong, I love Firefox, and for browsing questionable sites, there's no other browser I'd recommend - provided you're using NoScript. But for my daily browsing of the interweb haunts I frequent, Chrome works great, keeps me organized and doesn't require any effort on my part.

Oh, did I forget one?

Well, maybe two. Safari and Internet Explorer are both capable browsers, but just not for me. IE always feels like I'm slogging through a bayou - especially when I'm just coming down off a Chrome tear. In all honesty, I don't use Safari much - Apple's ridiculous update download sizes have peeved me off - and I don't see any payoff for spending that much time messing with it.
Oh, browser market share - that's how I got started on this whole mini-tirade. (I'm easily distracted by shiny objects....) Here's some interesting stats if you want to see who's gaining, who's losing and why you bet on the underdog: