By Conrad Quilty-Harper
Internet Explorer now accounts for less than 50 percent of worldwide web browser usage, a fall from its peak of 88 percent in 2003, Firefox is stalling and Chrome is on the rise. What can we expect from the next web browser war?
The emergence of Google Chome in mid-2008 has hit Internet Explorer hard. A fall below the psychologically important barrier of 50 percent market share makes the latest version, Internet Explorer 9, all the more important for the company.
The rise of Chrome is also affecting Mozilla Firefox, the second most popular desktop web browser, which has stayed at 30 percent market share since May last year.
Web browsers are big business. Mozilla has revealed that in 2008 it pulled in $79 million of revenue from ads served up when you use the Google, Yahoo or eBay search box or download Google's toolbar.
Google's investment in Chrome is certainly motivated by this revenue stream. Why should it pay out for the referrals when it can serve them up for free within Chrome?
Mozilla's long-term advertising deal with Google ends in 2011. No surprise then that Mozilla is reaching out to other ad partners: Microsoft announced last week that the new version of Firefox 4 will include an option for searching via Bing.
Mobile web development is an underappreciated area, but one which will become more and more important over the next decade.
The share of traffic from mobile browsers has grown from 0.6 percent at the start of 2009, to 3.5 percent today. That number is nearly 5 percent in the US and UK.
The increasing popularity of web browsing on a mobile makes developing for these devices even more important.
John Resig works for Mozilla and is the creator of the jQuery javascript library, which makes life easier for web developers.
Speaking at the Future of Web Apps conference in London earlier this week, he highlighted a common phenomenon when it comes to building websites.
"Developers tend to be blinded by what we see around us. We own iPhones and Android devices and we assume that's what people use", he said.
"The reality is that internationally, things like Blackberrys and Opera are really really popular, and we can't ignore them".
At the moment, Opera Mini is the most popular mobile web browser by far, accounting for more than 25 percent of web traffic from mobile browsers according to statstics from StatCounter. Trailing far behind are Blackberry, iPhone and Nokia browsers respectively, each on around 17 per cent.
"I don't think developers are looking at the larger picture, and a good way to do that, if nothing else, is making sure the website works for their boss. Blackberry is popular in a corporate environment. Even just assuming that, I think that gives a good context for understanding global mobile development".
