As if we should care, CNet released a story today detailing the squabble between the Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software. Apparently, they have both claimed to have won the “Best Browser” award from PC World magazine. So… what does this coveted achievement mean for the company that came out on top? Bragging rights. Nothing more. Since both companies are so eager to brag, and so eager to denounce Microsoft’s competing browser, I thought I’d share some relevant statistics.
Janco Associated Inc. has release a browser market-share study showing which web browsers are in use, and their respective market share. Take a look at the following chart:
How does this relate to the “Best Browser” award? Quite simply, it shows that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser has never been more successful. Competitors today have less market share overall than they did back in 2001. So, when we are determining which browser is “best,” we should look at the needs of the individual or organization. If you are deploying web content for the rest of the world to view, which is the best browser to support? You got it – Internet Explorer. If you are looking to adopt a web browser within your organization, and want one that the majority of your employees are already comfortable with, you will also probably go with Internet Explorer.
Quite frankly, I don’t care one bit about the collection of minute technical advantages one browser may have over another. No browser is 100% secure, and a single security flaw creates the same amount of risk as 5 security flaws. So, no browser can respectably argue that it is safe and secure.
The bottom line here is that PC World’s award is not even worth arguing over. If companies releasing alternatives to Internet Explorer want to change the market landscape, they’d do a lot better by working together rather than squabbling over pointless and worthless magazine awards. Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software need to grow their businesses and market share along with their attitude if they want to be long-term players in the web-browser market. Neither of them yet have a strong enough position to flaunt their arrogance.
W.S.