Select a region
New statistics have revealed that Google Chrome is on the verge of overtaking Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the most used web browser in the world.
If so it would bring to an end a period of complete dominance Microsoft has so far enjoyed in the digital age, where their Internet Explorer browser has been the go-to way of exploring the internet for 20 years.
Chrome is Google’s own-made web browser, that launched in 2008 and works across not just Windows, but also Apple’s Mac line-up of desktop and laptops, as well as smartphones and tablets running iOS, Android and Windows.
At a time when few alternatives were available to Internet Explorer on Windows, Chrome offered a simplistic approach to navigating the internet, including the merging of the address bar and search bar that was a key selling point at the time, and would soon become common practice across different browsers.
Having for years been the default option on millions of computers – particularly in offices around the world – IE has long since been outstripped by its rivals. Apple’s Safari, as well as Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and Opera are all seen as faster, more usable browsers – and given that they’re available across many platforms, these days users now have far more choice than in the past.
Microsoft is also slowly phasing out Internet Explorer, confirming that it would stop supporting versions earlier than IE 11 from January this year. This forced many users to either update to a newer version of Explorer or make the jump to Windows 10, where it has been replaced by the new browser, Edge.
In both these cases, many chose to go elsewhere.
Long term, it would appear that Microsoft would like to get everyone onto Windows 10 and that would mean saying goodbye to Explorer. Deals have been struck with governments and other big businesses to keep supporting older versions for some years to come, so IE isn’t going to disappear completely any time soon, but the software’s best days are most definitely long gone.
If the figures continue to move as they are, Chrome is likely to take top spot by this summer, though it could be sooner if Chrome uptake speeds up.
Chrome’s appeal has always been how universal it is across devices, and soon that will tell in the market share numbers.
