2016 Sees Internet Explorer Usage Collapse, Chrome Surge

Megalith

Megalith

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Considering that Internet Explorer is now barely relevant, would you have believed that it was still the most popular browser at this same time last year? Unfortunately, its successor is struggling to continue whatever legacy IE had in the past.

…Edge is going to continue to pick up features and become a more rounded option, while Firefox is going to round out its multiprocess implementation to give it much needed parity. Still, it's hard to see how either browser is going to make inroads into Chrome's share. Chrome currently offers the best mix of features, security, and reliability. Combined with Google's continued promotional power—visit Google.com in other browsers and you'll still be asked if you want to try Chrome—it's a challenge for the others to win new users. And the continued migration to Windows 10 is only going to speed Internet Explorer's decline.
 
Megalith said:
Considering that Internet Explorer is now barely relevant, would you have believed that it was still the most popular browser at this same time last year? Unfortunately, its successor is struggling to continue whatever legacy IE had in the past.

…Edge is going to continue to pick up features and become a more rounded option, while Firefox is going to round out its multiprocess implementation to give it much needed parity. Still, it's hard to see how either browser is going to make inroads into Chrome's share. Chrome currently offers the best mix of features, security, and reliability. Combined with Google's continued promotional power—visit Google.com in other browsers and you'll still be asked if you want to try Chrome—it's a challenge for the others to win new users. And the continued migration to Windows 10 is only going to speed Internet Explorer's decline.
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Edge's biggest problem is that it only (sort of) works on one version of one operating system. Internet Explorer wasn't hamstrung in that way and worked on multiple Windows versions. That's just for starters.

Maybe eventually they'll fix the chronic freezing/crashing when opening new tabs, the absurd need to go into the windows store for its very limited plug-ins, and generally begin to bring it up to feature parity with Chrome and FF, but it's got a long, long way to go.

If you look at marketshare stats, Edge's anemic share has actually continued to decline since Windows 10 has been out. That's not good. It remains little more than a glorified downloader for Chrome.
 
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I would totally use Chrome if it had a really nice bookmark system in place but it doesn't. And no, there are no addons that allow this. I look all the time. There are a few but they are poorly designed, don't work and not supported.

Firefox is king when it comes to bookmarks.

I saw someone explain really nicely in the past as to why Chrome doesn't have this feature. Google wants you to actually do searches so they can generate income. Bookmarks bypasses this.

Explorer and Bing are just absolutely horrible to use. Try doing a Bing search. The result is often more than not the last thing you're looking for. It's that bad. In fact, some of the results defy common sense.
 
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DPI said:
If you look at marketshare stats, Edge's anemic share has actually continued to decline since Windows 10 has been out. That's not good. It remains little more than a glorified downloader for Chrome.
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Edge had a great year for porn however:

upload_2017-1-7_16-1-51.png


http://www.pornhub.com/insights/2016-year-in-review
 
pxc said:
Edge is just a symptom of MS's bigger problems: a delusion that Windows is an in-demand tablet/mobile OS.
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Hmm, actually on tablets, 2 in 1s and even larger devices, there does seem to be demand for touch on Windows x86. We'll see numbers for Q4 coming soon enough and well see how those look.
 
heatlesssun said:
Hmm, actually on tablets, 2 in 1s and even larger devices, there does seem to be demand for touch on Windows x86. We'll see numbers for Q4 coming soon enough and well see how those look.
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A good portion of those devices are not being used with touch. I've yet to meet anyone with a Surface Pro who uses it as a tablet. They just use it as a smaller laptop. Touch could be removed and it would not change anything for a large portion of the users. And outside of the Surface Pro, I don't know of any other device that isn't extremely niche that is actually selling well.
 
heatlesssun said:
Hmm, actually on tablets, 2 in 1s and even larger devices, there does seem to be demand for touch on Windows x86.
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There is also demand for floppy disks and green screen TTL monitors, but that ignores its relative importance in the whole market for storage and screens. :p

The biggest use of Windows tablets and 2 in 1s is not as "tablets" with the crappy touch UI and apps from MS's failure of a Windows app store. People are using those as a PC, with a touchpad or mouse and keyboard running traditional PC software. MS is trying to wag the dog to shift Windows into the larger mobile market by way of being an irritating flea.
 
SixFootDuo said:
I would totally use Chrome if it had a really nice bookmark system in place but it doesn't. And no, there are no addons that allow this. I look all the time. There are a few but they are poorly designed, don't work and not supported.

Firefox is king when it comes to bookmarks.

I saw someone explain really nicely in the past as to why Chrome doesn't have this feature. Google wants you to actually do searches so they can generate income. Bookmarks bypasses this.

Explorer and Bing are just absolutely horrible to use. Try doing a Bing search. The result is often more than not the last thing you're looking for. It's that bad. In fact, some of the results defy common sense.
Click to expand...


Maybe i am simple, but how does Chrome's bookmark system not work? I like a site, i bookrmark it, or put it in my bookmark bar..
 
I have to say, I use both Firefox and Chrome and I have no problem bookmarking under Chrome.

What version of Chrome are you running? Is it the latest?
 
pxc said:
The biggest use of Windows tablets and 2 in 1s is not as "tablets" with the crappy touch UI and apps from MS's failure of a Windows app store. People are using those as a PC, with a touchpad or mouse and keyboard running traditional PC software. MS is trying to wag the dog to shift Windows into the larger mobile market by way of being an irritating flea.
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Widows 2 in 1 devices are far from new, they always had a following but cost, battery life, performance, etc. had always plagued them. Sure, the Surface is expensive but there are many other lesser priced options. I think there's simply a natural draw to something that can be used in different kinds of ways. Yes, the Windows Store is pretty bad compared to The App Store and Google play, but there's enough their in combination with desktop capabilities that do make Windows tablets useful.
 
Flogger23m said:
A good portion of those devices are not being used with touch. I've yet to meet anyone with a Surface Pro who uses it as a tablet. They just use it as a smaller laptop. Touch could be removed and it would not change anything for a large portion of the users. And outside of the Surface Pro, I don't know of any other device that isn't extremely niche that is actually selling well.
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Remember the point of the device is used to used different ways under different conditions. You might very well see most everyone using a Surface in a sitting position as you described. They might however ditch the keyboard on the coach or reading or watching a move in bed.
 
DPI said:
Edge's biggest problem is that it only (sort of) works on one version of one operating system. Internet Explorer wasn't hamstrung in that way and worked on multiple Windows versions. That's just for starters.

Maybe eventually they'll fix the chronic freezing/crashing when opening new tabs, the absurd need to go into the windows store for its very limited plug-ins, and generally begin to bring it up to feature parity with Chrome and FF, but it's got a long, long way to go.

If you look at marketshare stats, Edge's anemic share has actually continued to decline since Windows 10 has been out. That's not good. It remains little more than a glorified downloader for Chrome.
Click to expand...

It didn't help that Edge was not ready to go with the OS. The basic features (like extensions) that many look for in a modern browser were not ready. Naturally, people who put Windows10 on their systems (or have Microsoft do it for them) turn to the browser's they already know.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Maybe i am simple, but how does Chrome's bookmark system not work? I like a site, i bookrmark it, or put it in my bookmark bar..
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I am speaking to the layout and ease of use. You absolutely can bookmark within Chrome but no where near the degree / style you can with Firefox. I should have been more clear.
 
DPI said:
If you look at marketshare stats, Edge's anemic share has actually continued to decline since Windows 10 has been out. That's not good. It remains little more than a glorified downloader for Chrome.
Click to expand...

Ha ha, how ironic. I helped my dad setup his new PC and he asked, "what's that edge thing?". I told him "it's the program that's only used to download firefox".
 
DPI said:
Citation needed. Anything.
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Is the proud ownership of MS stock not good enough for you? :p

I actually looked up the last IDC numbers and the biggest seller for Windows tablet by far is the convertible Lenovo Yoga series. The most popular accessory for Surface tablets is the type cover. People are basically buying these convertible Windows tablets for non-touch screen uses. They are generally the lightest models affordable models, so that's not surprising.

As a separate issue, cheap Windows 10 tablets are not even popular in sales charts. That's surprising for a healthy ecosystem with mass appeal (which W10 tablets are clearly not). But that's MS's strategy as it thinks it can simply pivot to Apple. lol, no.
 
SixFootDuo said:
I am speaking to the layout and ease of use. You absolutely can bookmark within Chrome but no where near the degree / style you can with Firefox. I should have been more clear.
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I've got a feeling you're using an out of date version of Chrome.

The older versions had the usual star at the far RHS of the address bar that you clicked and a favourite was simply added, then you had to go into favourites and manually place that favourite where you wanted it. With the latest version of Chrome you click the same star but it gives you far more options in relation to where you want that favourite stored.
 
BulletDust said:
I've got a feeling you're using an out of date version of Chrome.

The older versions had the usual star at the far RHS of the address bar that you clicked and a favourite was simply added, then you had to go into favourites and manually place that favourite where you wanted it. With the latest version of Chrome you click the same star but it gives you far more options in relation to where you want that favourite stored.
Click to expand...
I think he's talking about how in Firefox you can tag bookmarks with one-word tags with commas separating each individual tag. Then if you go to the address bar and type in a tag it will find any bookmarks with that tag.
 
trparky said:
I think he's talking about how in Firefox you can tag bookmarks with one-word tags with commas separating each individual tag. Then if you go to the address bar and type in a tag it will find any bookmarks with that tag.
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Ah, ok. :)
 
pxc said:
Is the proud ownership of MS stock not good enough for you? :p
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Wish I had bought some in the last few years, but in my job since we handle a ton of financial data for half the companies in America, we have to go through a ton of preclearance to buy and sell individual stocks. And there have been people I knew who were caught not doing it by the system, so index funds for me.

pxc said:
I actually looked up the last IDC numbers and the biggest seller for Windows tablet by far is the convertible Lenovo Yoga series. The most popular accessory for Surface tablets is the type cover. People are basically buying these convertible Windows tablets for non-touch screen uses. They are generally the lightest models affordable models, so that's not surprising.
Click to expand...

I'm not surprised by the Yoga numbers you mention, I've seen a lot of those and a few family members have them. As for the Type Cover being the most popular Surface accessory, well it is a cover for the screen, so that's probably as much of reason for it's popularity as anything. I'm sure that most of the time, especially in sitting positions, you would see a Surface device used with the Type Cover. But I do think a big reason for why this device has done well is because of the conversion. I wouldn't have bought it if were only a ultrabook. There's plenty of those for less.

pxc said:
As a separate issue, cheap Windows 10 tablets are not even popular in sales charts. That's surprising for a healthy ecosystem with mass appeal (which W10 tablets are clearly not). But that's MS's strategy as it thinks it can simply pivot to Apple. lol, no.
Click to expand...

The smaller the screen, the slower the device, the less useful Windows becomes on a tablet. The larger screen and performant devices, that's something unique to Windows tablets and while obviously much smaller volume, the volume of $1000+ Android tablets is probably smaller than $100 Windows ones.
 
I think it is a pain that Chrome doesn't have a search window alongside the address window when you are in a site (at the top), something Firefox has.
 
I don't see anyone mentioning what I consider to be the most important factor--ad blocking. I think IE's decline was accelerated when Chrome's ad blocker apps and extensions became available. There are now some web pages that have so many ads they barely load and function under IE because there's no ad blocker.
 
dwd999 said:
I don't see anyone mentioning what I consider to be the most important factor--ad blocking. I think IE's decline was accelerated when Chrome's ad blocker apps and extensions became available. There are now some web pages that have so many ads they barely load and function under IE because there's no ad blocker.
Click to expand...

That was a huge issue with Edge and lack of extensions. And that really still is an issue with Edge. It's simple enough to port extensions from Chrome but few seem to be interested and well, market share is why.
 
Rustynuts said:
I only use IE because I have to at work.
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We have an app at work that requires IE for some functions, otherwise I'd dump IE. Tired of the constant hangs, crashes and other slowdowns.
I've now started including Chrome in my builds as IE is mostly unusable.
 
I can't go to AVS without an ad blocker, it is so bad that their forums take up most of my performance and up crashing whatever browser I'm using.
 
McDork said:
I think it is a pain that Chrome doesn't have a search window alongside the address window when you are in a site (at the top), something Firefox has.
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Are you aware that you can search directly from the address bar?
 
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^Jesus.. Exhibit A of everything wrong with 10. That strategy is not working, MS. Focus more effort on building better software, instead of tricks and propaganda to try to make people use your half baked software.

Treating people like idiots just turns people off, and loses any last remaining goodwill from the pre-Metro era, until one day there will be none.
 
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My biggest complaint about edge is that it doesn't show up in the volume mixer so you can't control sound levels if you have multiple windows open.
 
SixFootDuo said:
I would totally use Chrome if it had a really nice bookmark system in place but it doesn't. And no, there are no addons that allow this. I look all the time. There are a few but they are poorly designed, don't work and not supported.

Firefox is king when it comes to bookmarks.

I saw someone explain really nicely in the past as to why Chrome doesn't have this feature. Google wants you to actually do searches so they can generate income. Bookmarks bypasses this.

Explorer and Bing are just absolutely horrible to use. Try doing a Bing search. The result is often more than not the last thing you're looking for. It's that bad. In fact, some of the results defy common sense.
Click to expand...

Why would you need a plug-in for a feature already included ?

Perhaps I'm taking crazy pills here but I'm lookin up on my chrome and see all my bookmarks. The bookmark manager opens no issues and is an easy to use layout that looks like a standard file manager... with folders and sub folders ect.
To top it all off it all syncs... and if I decide to boot into stupid Windows for a game and open chrome there all my book marks are exactly the same as they are when I'm on my everyday linux desktop, and changes are always auto synced. I can log in at my GFs place and see all ̶o̶u̶r̶ ok ok my porn links. Gone are the days of doing silly things like importing book marks all the time and spending 20 min setting up my book marks when I buy a new laptop, or install a new distro or something.

I have nothing against fire fox ... I am just really trying to understand how its book mark system is better. :)

EDIT: one other thing to add about chromes sync which destroyes anything firefox can do for you if you run multiple systems / OSs. It remembers your typed site history. I hit H into the super bar on any of my chrome running machines/OSs and hardocp.com pops up... so I hit H enter. It works the same way for 8 or 9 other sites I use often. hit the first letter or two and chrome auto completes and that all syncs. If you never leave your one desktop and only ever run one OS I guess its no big thing... but if you move around a lot... work out of an office, or you dual boot. Its enough to sell you on Chrome forever more. One great thing about it... I use a bootable USB drive on customers computers often, and If I synced a bookmark the night before guess what when I boot my Linux USB on their machines those new bookmarks are right there. Makes life so much easier.
 
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DPI said:
^Jesus.. Exhibit A of everything wrong with 10. That strategy is not working, morons at MS. Focus more effort on building better software, instead of tricks and propaganda to try to make people use your half baked software.

Treating people like idiots just turns people off, and loses any last remaining goodwill from the pre-Metro era, until one day there will be none.
Click to expand...

You say that like MS has any good will left.

From what I have seen the only people still working hard to defend MS must have personal time and money invested in Microsoft training/cert programs or something. :)
 
It is funny how people seem to be concerned about privacy, yet they're installing spyware (chrome) on their computers. It asks you to log in with your google credentials right after the install (and most people do), so you are tracked all the time... Firefox with adblock plus and grease/tamper monkey addons is the best experience in my book.
 
scan13 said:
It is funny how people seem to be concerned about privacy, yet they're installing spyware (chrome) on their computers. It asks you to log in with your google credentials right after the install (and most people do), so you are tracked all the time... Firefox with adblock plus and grease/tamper monkey addons is the best experience in my book.
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I totally get what you're saying, however in my opinion the OS should run unobtrusively in the background and should not pass personal data onto the manufacturer or allow for any form of forced advertising.

Google and Apple got away with it in the early days as we were Ill prepared and didn't see it coming and therefore couldn't do anything about it until it was upon us. This time we know better and should all give Microsoft the bird.
 
scan13 said:
It is funny how people seem to be concerned about privacy, yet they're installing spyware (chrome) on their computers. It asks you to log in with your google credentials right after the install (and most people do), so you are tracked all the time... Firefox with adblock plus and grease/tamper monkey addons is the best experience in my book.
Click to expand...
They do it regardless if you log in or not
 
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