I’ve seen several articles recently proclaiming loudly that Google’s Chrome browser has taken over the number three spot from Safari (e.g., Google Chrome is Now the No. 3 Browser | Search Engine Journal).

One would think this were a huge accomplishment from all the excitement. But in reality, beating out Safari, the Apple browser, is a small accomplishment, given that it has never had more than 5% market share, especially since this follows the recent release of the Apple version of Google Chrome.

Here is the way the statistics stack up currently, according to Net Applications’ web browser usage data for December:

After all the furious negative publicity over the past 5 years, Internet Explorer still has two-thirds of the market, although that is a slip from 80-90% before Firefox was introduced. Meanwhile, Firefox has risen to approximately one quarter of the market.

So what this all boils down to is that Google Chrome now has about a thundering third of the one-eighth market share left over after Internet Explorer and Firefox have taken their cuts.

That wouldn’t seem to me to be a reason for breaking out the champagne just yet.

Discussion continues at  http://forum.psychlinks.ca/computers-technology-and-the-internet/21364-browser-wars.html.

….

Addendum
 Now, from Computerworld via PC World comes this:

Windows Loses Market Share to Mobile Operating Systems
by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
Jan 3, 2010

Microsoft’s Windows resumed its usual losing form in December as the operating system’s usage share dropped by about a third of a point even as the new Windows 7 posted a second straight month of impressive gains, Web metrics firm Net Applications said Friday.

Although rival desktop operating systems — Mac and Linux — essentially remained flat, mobile OSes, including Google‘s Android and Apple‘s iPhone OS, took up the slack created by Windows’ dip. Mobile operating systems, said Net Applications, now power 1.3% of all the hardware that surfs the Internet.

Windows finished the year with a 92.2% share, down 0.3 of a percentage point. It was the eighth month in 2009 during which Windows lost share.

So more people are using mobile operating systems. And Microsoft Windows has “fallen” to a lowly 92.2% share of all operating systems when mobile OSs are included.

Does anyone seriously believe that having a 92.2% market share is going to worry Microsoft or its shareholders?

Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome is a post from: PsychNet Reviews and Recommendations

©2010 PsychNet Reviews and Recommendations. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts

• System Mechanic – Automatic system optimization for Windows XP and Vista (0)
• Review: Microsoft Security Essentials (1)

Microsoft recently released their free antivirus and antispyware product called Microsoft Security Essentials, which appears to be based on the same engine that previously powered Windows Defender for Windows XP and Vista. Security Essentials works for both XP and Vista (and presumably also for Windows 7).

As I’ve noted previously (Basic Computer Security 2009 Part 2), I long ago became fed up with big commercial or freeware suites that hog computer resources in the name of security. I’ve been personally using Avast antivirus and recommending Avira as an alternative.

However, I decided to give Security Essentials a test drive. I installed it on a Dell Vostro desktop computer running Windows XP Pro SP3 with an Intel Core2 2.33 GHz processor and 4 gigs of ram, as well as a Toshiba laptop running Vista Home Premium SP2 with an AMD dual-core 2.4 GHz processor.

I found it was a little slower than Avast on the Vista laptop but tolerable, especially given that it scanned for spyware as well the virus family. My initial impression was uncertain but I was willing to work with Security Essentials for a while on the laptop.

On the desktop it was a very different story. It slowed my XP system to a crawl with almost constant activity that was using 20-50% of available RAM at any given time. I gave it a couple of hours in case this was just an initial scan but even following the Quick Scan I’d requested it continued to churn away. Even switching windows from email to my browser or to Word often took a few seconds.

I have reverted to Avast on both machines. Perhaps the fault lies with an imperfect release candidate (although this is supposed to be a debugged “gold” release) but I’m not willing to struggle with another resource hog when more efficient solutions are available.

Note: See Update: Microsoft Security Essentials.

Review: Microsoft Security Essentials is a post from: PsychNet Reviews and Recommendations

©2010 PsychNet Reviews and Recommendations. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts

• Basic Computer Security 2009 Part 2 (2)
• Basic Computer Security 2009 Part 1 (0)
• Update: Microsoft Security Essentials (1)
• System Mechanic – Automatic system optimization for Windows XP and Vista (0)
• Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome (1)