Browser Wars Heating Up
Clearly Google’s recent entrance into the browser wars demonstrates the importance of the browser to the future of application development and the interactive media industry. But just who is going to be most impacted by Google’s recent Chrome browser launch?
If you look at the August 2008 market share data as reported by Net Applications (http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=0), Microsoft enjoys 72% market share with Internet Explorer, followed by Mozilla’s Firefox open source browser with 20%, and finally Apple’s Safari browser at 6%. I believe that Microsoft will continue to maintain the majority of the browser market over the next couple years, and that Google threatens Mozilla more than any other browser player.
Why? Chrome was built for speed, especially with complex web pages loaded up with JavaScript and other advanced web technologies. Although speed is nice for the average web surfer, it is only a must- have for the more enterprise users that spend lots of time running complex web applications. Up until now, Firefox was the only viable browser solution for these enterprise users.
Chrome may change that, especially given’s Google’s brand. After the initial buzz wore off, Google market share reportedly dropped, presumably because early users quickly uninstalled after testing Chrome. Time will tell, but if Google does start getting some traction, Microsoft will surely respond with a strong counter attack.
Visit the W3i blog next week for Part Two: “Google Chrome to Support Browser Add-Ons.”
Rob Weber, Vice President of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i Holdings, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over eight, profitable years evolving W3i (owner of Freeze.com) in the Integrated Interactive Media industry.
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