Google, Microsoft and the Web

The World Wide Web is an ever-changing environment. It has grown on its own from nothing to what it is today, and it isn't going to stop. It is the birthplace of many huge companies of today such as Google and Yahoo!, services such as Flickr and Facebook, and it is forever being innovated in by web designers and developers.

Despite the huge number of Web users, however, a huge proportion of them have no idea what a browser is. The browser wars, and the state of each browser, is an ever present interest for web designers.

Internet Explorer still holds the bulk of the market share, with 61% of the market today. Behind IE is Firefox, with about 30%. The rest make up the remaining 9%. It seems to me that the reason people use Internet Explorer over any other browser is because "it's there" on all Windows-based computers. For many, "it's the Internet". Firefox's plug-in architecture and ability to actually display websites correctly makes it the first choice for anyone fleeing the drama-queen that is IE. Not only that, but it is also bundled in with Linux-based operating system Ubuntu, and likely some others, too.

An underlying overall pattern here, is that browsers that are "just there" will undoubtedly "just get used", or "just get used instead". It skips the reasonably tech-savvy step of having to go out and download a new web browser. After all, you need to be browsing the web to download a web browser in the first place. I can't imagine many people will care to research into the differences enough to make the change.

Web browsers bundled with operating systems get a boost. Microsoft have recently given their proposed solution to an anti-trust case by considering bundling Firefox and Google Chrome in with Windows alongside Internet Explorer. Since Opera started the anti-trust case in the first place, it's certainly a kick in the teeth to them and other web browser creators.

With Google Chrome OS in development, which will undoubtedly take advantage of the Chrome browser functionality, the whole scenario starts getting very interesting.

The web browser share seems to be very much influenced by the decisions of operating system developers. With Microsoft cherry-picking browsers to include with Windows (no Safari or Opera, then?) and Google trying to make the browser the operating system itself, the future of the web browser is more interesting to watch than ever before.

Still, anything that reduces Internet Explorer usage is a good thing, right?