Browser wars - choose your weapon

No-one who accesses the Worldwide Web from a computer or mobile device does so without the aid of a browser - more properly, a 'web browser' - and most users probably take their choice of browser for granted.

Chances are you are reading this using Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE or just IE), currently the most popular browser for PC users. Most popular by dint of being pre-installed with the Windows operating system since 1995 or thereabouts.

But it wasn't always so. In the early days of the Web, Netscape Navigator was the browser of choice for many a surfer. It served as my introduction to browsing, but slowly and surely, Microsoft's browser has come to hold sway. At its height, IE had something like 90% of the market. And what this graph doesn't tell you is the sheer number of users that use IE, which runs to several millions.

But IE's popularity has also been its greatest weakness: it's been the target of virus writers throughout the years. The 'attraction' to virus writers is two-fold:

1. the vast number of PCs in use around the world; and
2. the in-built functionality in IE, which meant it interacted with many other Windows programs: it's 'user-friendliness'.
   

One might add that Microsoft's reluctance or inability to 'patch' (or fix) vulnerabilities in IE was a third factor: IE was an easy target.

Despite this, IE usage remains at around 70% for PC users (notice I keep referring to 'PC users' - Linux & Mac users, always breeds apart, have had their 'own' browsers, such as Firefox or Safari). It has seen off Netscape, but the 'browser wars' are far from over - in fact, they are entering a new round.

Internet Explorer has credible and serious competition and there is also the hint of a turning of the tide. Firefox is now the second most popular browser in use, bolstered by its popularity amongst Linux and Mac users and a growing realisation of what an Open Source development community can achieve. Firefox comes installed on Linux machines (whilst Mac users have their own browser, Safari). It's been a long haul for Firefox, however: 10 years to get this point and in that time, it has become a real alternative to IE. Its latest version, Firefox 3, was subject to possibly the biggest launch a browser has ever had, back in June 2008.

Still, it has only 20% share of the 'market'. But, crucially, it has shown itself to be faster than IE, just as secure (just because it is Open Source does not mean that security is not taken as seriously) and - with the hundreds of extensions available for users to play with - more versatile.

Being Open Source means that its 'engine', the software at the heart of the browser, is available to any developers who would like to build upon it. Currently, its software or variants thereof are used in Google's Chrome, Mozilla's SeaMonkey, Flock and more. Some of these are 'specialist' browsers, aimed at users with specific needs, but Google's Chrome is seen as a potential threat to IE. Google, I think, is proving to be Microsoft's nemesis, quietly developing applications which one day may rival Microsoft's and taking the lead in a number of areas in which Microsoft is having to compete, e.g. 'cloud computing'.

And the challenge to IE's dominance seems to continue steadily and surely, but ever so quietly. Yesterday saw the release of Lunascape 5, the world's first 'triple-engined' web browser. Apparently, this means is that it has the choice of three different software cores (one of which, admittedly, is the one that powers IE), but the fact you have a choice is innovative in itself. Furthermore, it seems to have a staggering number of features which users can configure themselves from toolbars to proxy settings.

It also claims to be the world's fastest browser under test conditions. Now, that may or may not be the case, but the striking thing about the test results is the fact that IE is by far the slowest, whichever way you look at it. That's another nail in the coffin for Microsoft's browser.

Personally, I have ditched IE; even the name, 'Internet Explorer' is misleading. I flirted briefly with IE8, but found it horrendous to use. For me anything else will do, although my preference is for Firefox. But, increasingly, like some others I know, I will actually use more than one browser to accomplish different things.

I don't know if these developments spell doom for IE, but in a strange case of serendipity, shortly after a friend had sent me the link for Lunascape, I found a link for browsehappy, an anti-IE site if ever there was one...and I suspect there are many. Hosted by Wordpress and registered by Matt Mullenweg, Wordpress' founder and a member of the Web Standards Group, this site has been going since 2004 and seems to be an attempt to undermine IE's near hegemony in browser software. Not dissimilar to Microsoft's I'm a PC compaign running at the moment, the site is advocating the use of browsers other than IE with user stories and a message that IE is unsafe. It recommends Firefox, Mozilla (SeaMonkey, Camino, etc.), Opera or Safari.

Now, even though I agree broadly with its sentiments and its conclusions, I think the site should be more transparent and balanced. In the interests of fairness, I'd like to see that list expanded to include other browsers. User stories make it real and people can relate to that- but there needs to be more information to allow people to make comparisons and draw their own conclusions. At the moment, it reads just like another 'we hate Micro$oft' site, with extraordinary bias. Other browsers are not flawless, but can be a real alternative; so long as people have the facts, they can make up their own minds. Whichever way you look at it, it's about choice and choice is good.