April 30, 2009

Interested in Options to Internet Explorer? Here Is a Start

As Technology Librarian John Robertson and I were finishing up a Google Reader class for Library staff recently, we began to talk about different browsers. While we at The Tech Desk use mostly the open-source browser, Firefox, the majority of librarians at Troy use Internet Explorer. We taught the class using IE, but answered some questions about Firefox.

John mentioned that he uses Google Chrome as his browser. Many staff members were curious about it, never having heard of Chrome.

This made me wonder which browsers are being used by our readers. Since we use Google Analytics to track our readership, I was able to answer that question fairly easily.

First, let us look at the big picture. Worldwide, Internet Explorer’s share of the browser market is declining. Now, about 66% of surfers use IE. At the same time, Firefox has increased its market share to around 21%. Apple’s Safari browser makes up 8% of the market, and Google’s Chrome about 1%.

Our readers look a lot like those worldwide. About 57% use Internet Explorer, down about 5% since September 2008, when we started keeping statistics. Firefox use has remained fairly constant at 36%. Apple users are starting to find us in greater numbers, as Safari use is up almost 38%, to 3% of our users. Google’s Chrome, the newest entry in the field, is up 25% since September, to 2% of users.

However you look at these numbers, it is clear that a large percentage of Internet users – somewhere between 33% and 40% -- use a browser other than Internet Explorer.

If you are interested in looking at browser options for your surfing, compare Internet browsers of today and tomorrow.

And to learn more about Google Chrome, check out these short videos from the Official Google Blog. Some of them are pretty good.

1 comment:

Maria said...

I used to use Internet Explorer but now I use Firefox and love it. Google Chrome didn't allow me to do certain things as easily and it seemed to run slow on my computer.