Why Browser Dominance Matters

[Guest]

You could easily dismiss web browsers as playful software and prestigious products that are used as placebos for a company's success. But you'd be mistaken.

Why Browser Dominance Matters : Read more

 

[bustapr]

IE9 wont save microsoft, especially since most people have locked in their heads that IE is a bad browser. Im still not happy with it since it still crashes when opening a tab. Chrome is probably the most stable, and is headed in the right direction. FF is also going on well.

microsoft has been stupid with their moves against the remaining XP users, and their strategies suck.

 

[Bolbi]

Microsoft, on the other hand, is giving confusing signals and I am not sure if Microsoft is developing a major strike in the background or if it is sitting on its laurels of IE9 - which would mean that IE10 won't be here before March 2013.

Nope. Microsoft released the first IE10 Platform Preview today. Unfortunately for some, the preview only runs on Windows 7. Looks like they're speeding up the development cycle just like Mozilla, however.

 

[JamesSneed]

If the slowest of the major web browsers is still acceptable performance wise then its about everything other than performance. I firmly believe now that IE8 has been replaced by IE9 we are now at a point where features and compatibility matter more than performance.

 

[beta tester]

The unanswered question is: Why does Microsoft continue to develop a web browser from the ground up?

Why didn't Microsoft do what Google did. Take WebKit as a base, put a Microsoft interface on top, call it Internet Explorer 10, and save tens of billions of dollars in development?

But, unfortunately, Microsoft is resting on its laurels, as it always does. Mobile is where the action is, and mobile browser usage will exceed desktop browser usage. Mobile is everything. Yet Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 still runs the old IE7 mobile browser, which, like the story said, is useless as a cloud interface.

 

[internetlad]

I use netscape

 

[flachet]

FF because it has cool add-ons and such.

 

[Stryter]

[citation][nom]internetlad[/nom]I use netscape[/citation]

I thoroughly enjoyed this comment. It gave me a fantastic chuckle.
+1

 

[santeana]

"The effect are dramatically increased page load times on sites such as Gmail, Google Docs or even Adsense."

This didn't make any sense to me at all lol. Why announce increased load times as a "feature" of something? lol
So I went and read the original article and it should say "increased page load performance". lol

 

[Manos]

The ironic fact that you forced me once again to use Firefox to post a comment on your site is rather pathetic. My visits at TH is limited cause I keep forgetting after LONG posts that when I press the SUBMIT MY COMMENT button the website of yours doesnt work with IE9. Its amazing that only TH has issues with the browser of my daily choise...

For a website targeted mostly torwards hardcore PC users one would expect no such issues. And a basic one thats been there for months and months now. Noone at TH cares enough to fix this shit? Seriously...

 

[enforcer22]

[citation][nom]bustapr[/nom]IE9 wont save microsoft, especially since most people have locked in their heads that IE is a bad browser. Im still not happy with it since it still crashes when opening a tab. Chrome is probably the most stable, and is headed in the right direction. FF is also going on well. microsoft has been stupid with their moves against the remaining XP users, and their strategies suck.[/citation]


Weird i use IE9 since beta and i haven't ever seen this crash. btw xp is dead its not ms's fault they still use a piece of software thats well beyond its years. and should have been shutdown long ago. But then again i never saw any of the issues others did with vista or 7 which i use both of. Same crap different OS i remember when XP came out and people tried to make 98 live forever to. Likely the same people that try and keep XP alive now.

 

[rohitbaran]

It is essentially a way to reduce the latency that is built into HTTP and slow down the page loading time. It batches server requests and allows a server to act without having to wait for a client request. The effect are dramatically increased page load times on sites such as Gmail, Google Docs or even Adsense.

I don't get it. How does slowing of web page loads is actually a feature? Please somebody enlighten me.

 

[rohitbaran]

Any clue about Mozilla's plans?

 

[arges86]

used firefox since v .4
a great browser, tons of customizing.
No reason to use anything else (although i do have Chrome and Opera)

 

[agnickolov]

So is Google really the new Microsoft? Proprietary HTTP sounds an awful lot like proprietary ActiveX... Expect EU to sue Google over this in a few years (if they take the browser lead that is).

 

[natmaster]

Microsoft is not sitting around. Maybe if you guys at toms would pay attention to what is going on in browsers you'd have better insights than your recent articles.

The first IE 10 platform preview is already available: http/blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2011/04/12/native-html5-first-ie10-platform-preview-available-for-download.aspx

Also, Mozilla just merged mozilla-central with aurora (to you ignorant tomshardware staff: that means Firefox 5 is now in stabilization phase).

 

[Guest]

Mozilla's motivation absolutely is not revenue. Mozilla is a global non-profit whose mission is to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the web. We are the "honest brokers" in this to make the Web better, not to lock people into our stack of Web applications or any other revenue model.

 

[Zingam]

[citation][nom]Stryter[/nom]I thoroughly enjoyed this comment. It gave me a fantastic chuckle. +1[/citation]

I use lynx

 

[Zingam]

[citation][nom]agnickolov[/nom]So is Google really the new Microsoft? Proprietary HTTP sounds an awful lot like proprietary ActiveX... Expect EU to sue Google over this in a few years (if they take the browser lead that is).[/citation]


Incomparable! MS has always developed incompatible and proprietary extensions just to switch other competitors out. In comparison Google has pushed lots of technologies as open source and new standards.
For now google isn't behaving like an evil company. They support multiple platforms unlike MS who only push Windows.

 

[Zingam]

[citation][nom]AsaDotzler[/nom]Mozilla's motivation absolutely is not revenue. Mozilla is a global non-profit whose mission is to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the web. We are the "honest brokers" in this to make the Web better, not to lock people into our stack of Web applications or any other revenue model.[/citation]

How do they finance the development? It must be extremely expensive. Back then in just a couple of years Netscape's value jumped from 0 to over 2 billion.