The web-browser market has experienced a lot lately. Nearly a decade ago, the two dominant players of the time were Netscape Navigator (the reigning champ) and MS Internet Explorer (the contender). You might have witnessed the “Browser War” between Netscape and Internet Explorer (IE), which eventually won by IE.

Designer’s point of view

Personally, as a web designer, I have to constantly review these changes to cater to my target audience’s needs and visiting exper ience by designing websites that will “look and feel” similar when viewed using different browsers. Some call this “cross-browser / multi-browser compatibility”. You have to make sure that the site you designed will not break in that particular browser. One of the resource that you might want to go is the browser statistics, like: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

IE is losing grounds

From the statistics, you can see that Firefox is gaining market share consistently year by year. With the addition of Google Chrome in late 2008, the browser market share is once again a fiery battleground. IE has been losing its market share chunk-by-chunk to the competitors.

Why?

Perhaps, primarily because the competitors offer “innovative” additions to the browsing experience. Tabbed browsing made famous by Opera, even way back in the times of IE 5. Usable and customizable add-on / plug-ins for Firefox that extends the browser functionality to greater extends. Next comes “Google Chrome” with Google’s ambition to reinvent the web browsing experience.

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Tags: browser, browser war, chrome, cross-browser, firefox, internet explorer, iphone, mobile, netscape, opera, safari, symbian, web