Internet Explorer 8 Most Common Browser, Trailed By Firefox, Chrome

While web sophisticates might sneer at it, Internet Explorer is the most commonly used browser in the world, according to Royal Pingdom.

In fact, the race isn't even that close. While Internet Explorer (all versions combined) takes 44 percent of share, Firefox follows with 28 percent, followed by Chrome at 20 percent, with Safari, Opera and others at the bottom. In terms of specific versions, Internet Explorer 8 is the most used, claiming a 28-percent share, compared to Firefox 4.0's 16 percent.

Still, Internet Explorer's lead is a fraction of what it once was. In 2004, before Firefox, IE had close to 95 percent of the market. As competing browsers like Firefox and Chrome has arisen, IE's star has sunk.

Safari, the default browser for Apple products, captured only 5 percent of overall share, but Royal Pingdom notes that Safari for iPad has already shot up to take 0.68 percent of the web, all in just over a year.

Google's Chrome, which is a little under three years old, has shown remarkable growth since its introduction. It currently trails Firefox, and research showns that as Chrome has grown, Firefox has shrunk.

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Comments

[Whistlejackett]

10:34 AM on 06/22/2011

Zuker spends a lot of time trying to trick people into their usage of Facebook. His credibility as a contemporary business man has revealed to the general public, a kind of Facecrook. Internet Explorer is a perfect match for Facebook, in that Microsoft, also uses trickery to manipulate people, by using the "automatic update" option.

What Microsoft is actually doing, is searching computers to find out if you are downloading material that is copyrighted, without permission. This fits like a glove for Facebook, and I would guess that they are both in collusion to control masses of people, I therefore accuse Facebook and Microsoft, at least in this situation, of theft, manipulation and colluding to make a profit. Facebook and Microsoft are two very dangerous corporations that have successfully, so far, managed to use fear tactics in their operations. I have no doubt that government is also involved.

[Siddharth Sid]

02:38 PM on 06/21/2011

Now Firefox is first at being the fastest browser. Here are the benchmarks of Firefox 5 vs Chrome. Firefox 5 does feel a whole lot lighter and blazing fast. It runs on my really really old desktop without a hassle. Unlike Chrome which almost killed my desktop.

Follow the Fastest Browser on FB:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fastest-Browser/177360802319901

Follow Firefox here on FB:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Firefox-4/101547596592952

[May Lee]

03:32 AM on 06/21/2011

i use avant browser .Avant is my old friend and I have been using it for serveral years since the first version of it maybe in 2003?I don't remember clearly.But it always open webpages fast and use less memory compared with other browsers.It's so important for my old computer

[PhillyKing]

11:50 AM on 06/20/2011

Most people that use IE either dont know better, cause they just use what came with their PC, or are forced to at work... others either work for M$, or dont feel the need to install another browser.

[CHMB]

10:49 AM on 06/20/2011

We can only use IE at work, and it is garbage. If only the upgraded to Chrome or something that isn't IE! When I used to go to some websites, I would get a message that read, you are using a very old, broken version of Internet Explorer. Even thinking about it makes me laugh.

[kein-name]

04:03 AM on 06/20/2011

According to Google Analytics, Firefox leads IE by a nose among people who visit my site: 41.87% vs. 40.83%. Chrome is down at 6.46% and Opera less than 2%. For the very little that it's worth, I'd question the research methods quoted in the article. None of this would matter one bit, except that along with the rise of Firefox came the rise of add-ons such as Adblock Plus and the decline of advertising income that followed. This might make it nicer to browse the Web without the annoyance of ads, but it also takes a lot of the incentive out of creating sites.

[spytheweb]

01:53 AM on 06/20/2011

Who care's what browser people use when we have one of the slowest broadband internet systems in the world. If i lived in Korea or Japan and had a crappy browser but running @100 MBPS i would take that over what i have now. Even tonight when watching Youtube, the videos stop and start about 10 times, and this is broadband?

Pretty soon Korea is going to 1GBPS and i'am still be doing 3MBPS. I could add another 50.00 to my bill and jump all the way to a sizzling 15MBPS.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5238/5811756091_2fa3b9612c.jpg

[zoemax]

09:30 PM on 06/19/2011

any MOSAIC users still out there?

[Tuzi]

12:52 AM on 06/20/2011

No, I'm still back in the days of Gopherspace... :-) http://quux.org:70/

[Raw Ron]

09:18 PM on 06/19/2011

People use IE because they don't know any better. Most people don't even know what a browser is let alone other options.
Firefox by far is the best browser, chrome is horrible at handling java script and IE just has way little i the way of useful ad on's and functionality like automatic spell check.
Firefox is open source so its quick to react to user demands. IE,Chrome and Safari are closed source and were created with interaction with the OS platform as the driving motorization behind the functionality.

I don't know a single programmer,administrator that uses anything but Firefox unless they are forced to by a application.

[A terrible sadness]

06:00 PM on 06/19/2011

I am shocked. Shocked, I say, to find out that the browser that comes pre-installed, and can't be removed, is the most commonly used. Thank you, Captain Obvious, for that timely, and insightful news item.

And in other news, the sky is blue.

[CGI]

05:51 PM on 06/19/2011

Users of Internet Explorer 6,7 and 8 : please be aware that your experience of the web is, at best, a degraded translation of the actual internet.

[CKMJr]

05:23 PM on 06/19/2011

well, if firefox/opera/chrome were installed on every machine, like IE is, i imagine the numbers would be much different

[Jinz]

04:54 PM on 06/19/2011

Having been using Netscape Navigator during late 90's until their eventual closure, I have been using Firefox since then. However, I got to admit, I have also started to use Chrome in these past few days.

[skyshoes]

06:16 AM on 06/20/2011

Firefox user. My son just showed me some the Chrome "rollover image" item... Shazaaaaam wow! No linking using slow connections (Google..eh?) just enlarge and view thumbnails... Leap forward I think. Anything new from IE... (zzzzzzzz). I agree with the packaged-with-Windows explanation.

[Mondayboy]

04:47 PM on 06/19/2011

I love OPERA. I think it is the best out there. It is intuitive and makes the web experience fun.

[1BadBob]

06:03 PM on 06/19/2011

I also use Opera. It is better then the others. If you have been in Europe it is most used and a nicer browser the the others

[PoliticalRockChick]

03:43 PM on 06/19/2011

For personal use or in the Business world? Obviously PCs is monopolized in the business world so most of them use IE. For people at home I think they use Firefox.