At the end of this month major traffic watchers and statistical houses started releasing data showing that for the first time, Internet Explorer is below the 50% market share level for internet browsers.
tr.v. out·foxed, out·fox·ing, out·fox·es
To surpass (another) in cleverness or cunning; outsmart.
pol·ish (polish)
v. pol·ished, pol·ish·ing, pol·ish·es
Phrasal Verb:
polish off Informal
To finish or dispose of quickly and easily.
The Data
As anyone experienced with data will tell you, the flaw is in the details.
Data can only be as complex and smart as the sources it’s coming from, which is always a problem. So as you gaze at the various data sources, remember that nobody can really track every browser session, the best they can try for is a ‘fair average’.
To that end here’s one of the best charts I could locate:
First thing to note is the decline of IE, but more interesting is that Chrome, and Safari (hiding behind the others) are gaining ground while FireFox is losing some ground. Technically Safari is growing faster than Chrome, but when you consider that Safari is the default browser of all those iOS devices selling like hot-cakes, the fact that Chrome’s growing almost as fast, really tells us something.
I know there’s been some ‘landmark’ moments in browser shares before. I think I’ve even blogged on here about it before, but this is a unique moment that I don’t think we’ll see again for some time.
Short lived losses?
Windows 8 will be a really big win for IE market share.
This is how Windows 8 will greet the user by default:
..notice the inception of Microsoft Bing, inside Microsoft IE, inside Microsoft Windows 8?
I’m sure milk comes shooting out of Google’s nose when they see stuff like this going on with new products that will be sold to the world.
I won’t rant on this point, I’ll just remind readers of the post I’ve already made on Windows 8 earlier this year.
In a nutshell I’m almost tempted to print the above image (here’s a larger version) and stick it on the wall because once Windows 8 rolls out I don’t think we’ll see that blue section that small for a long time.
SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 12:42 pm
