Consuming the Web

Consuming the Web The World Wide Web has evolved at an incredibly fast pace. There are well over 600 million websites available within a few clicks, containing all the information you could possibly need on a multitude of subjects. But what is the best way to view this wealth of information? We've taken a look at some key facts and figures surrounding the most popular web browsers, and asked leading online tech experts for their views... THE BROWSER PIE From a worldwide perspective, which browser is currently the most popular amongst web users? 40% 2% Other Google Chrome 1% Opera 8% Apple Safari 28% Microsoft 20% Internet Mozilla Firefox Explorer BATTLE OF THE BROWSERS Recent data shows that Google's Chrome has emerged as the most popular choice amongst internet This hasn't always been the case. We can see from the below graphs how Chrome has overtaken Firefox and Internet Explorer since 2008. WORLD INTERNET EXPLORER 68%. • 40% FIREFOX • 29% 25% • • 20% CHROME SAFARI 3% 1% • 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 INTERNET EXPLORER 71% . 36% 31% FIREFOX 23% 16% 15% CHROME SAFARI UK "data from statcounter.com, Correct as of 25 April 2013 A BRIEF HISTORY OF WEB BROWSERS World Wide Web The original web browser' was created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, using a NEXT computer. The choice of browsers wasn't 1990 quite as good as it is now - it was the only way to view the infant web! The name of the browser was eventually changed from WorldWideWeb to Nexus to avoid confusion. Mosaic 1993 1993 saw the launch of NCSA Mosaic 1.0, which became the first web browser to achieve widespread popularity. Prior to Mosaic, the web was almost entirely text – if you wanted to view an image, you had to click on a link and the image would open in a new window. Mosaic allowed you to view text and images on the same page, thus making the web a much more user-friendly place. NCSA ows te Mgan eloped ur Space nnouncements Netscape For a while in the 1990s Netscape dominated the browser market. Created when a Mosaic developer devised a new browser named Mosaic Netscape, it was renamed Netscape for legal reasons and became immensely popular thanks to its usability and reliability. It was also free for non-commercial use. 1994 Internet Explorer In 1995 Microsoft, as part of its Windows 95 Plus! pack, released Internet Explorer 1.0, with Mosaic once again involved in the creative process. Just three months after the first iteration, Internet Explorer 2.0 was released as a free download. The revolutionary aspect of IE 2.0 was that it was free to all users, even commercial companies. Future versions of IE went on to overtake Netscape to become by far the most popular web browser. 1995 Safari Safari stands out from the other browsers as being primarily made for Apple's operating systems. The early Apple Macintosh computers used other browsers such as Netscape but in 2003 Apple chief Steve Jobs announced that Apple was releasing its own browser, Safari, based on the KHTML rendering engine, WebKit. This was to become the default browser for all Apple products. 2003 Firefox 2004 After Internet Explorer's market share overtook its offering, Netscape open-sourced its brows- er code to the Mozilla Foundation. After a few 2008 years development and a couple of name changes (originally Phoenix and then Firebird), a stand-alone browser was released in 2004, which included tabbed browsing and separate search bars Chrome Google released its own browser in 2008. WebKit was also used for the development of Chrome as well as a faster JavaScript engine called V8. Since its release in 2008 Google Chrome's popularity has soared and it recently overtook Explorer and Firefox as the most used browser. WHAT THE EXPERTS THINK We asked some of the UK's top bloggers what they liked and disliked about the main web browsers. BROWSER OF CHOICE: "I use Chrome for its speed and stability. I also use Safari, but it refuses to load some websites." GOOGLE CHROME Dave, Geekanoids youtube.com/geekanoids "It is a shame that Firefox is now so bloated with features, it used to be superb." THE UK DEST SOURCE FOR TEOH NEWS BROWSER OF CHOICE: "Safari is clean, responsive and exactly what I need from an internet browser." SAFARI "I don't enjoy the user interface of Internet Explorer and it frustrates me in a way an Daz gtonline.co.uk gionLINE internet browser shouldn't." BROWSER OF CHOICE: "I like Firefox because it's fast, free, secure & easy to use. I prefer Mozilla's commitment to privacy." FIREFOX Ken kenstechtips.com "I'm a little bit worried about Chrome as it sends a lot of information back to Google." Ken's Tech Tips BROWSER OF CHOICE: "Chrome is Light with cross Platform synchronisation, I am able to browse, save bookmarks and access them on GOOGLE CHROME my iMac, PC, Office PC, iPad, iPhone and Xperia Z if and when I need to." Tomi, Gadgetsboy gadgetsboy.co.uk "I don't like the load time of Internet Explorer and Browser issues that I come across when developing websites." SADEES BOY BROWSER OF CHOICE: "I like safari because l'm an apple fiend and I like my browsing preferences being streamlined throughout my range of devices." SAFARI Laura nakedblogging.com "I Can't think of a single redeeming feature about Internet Explorer. Outdated and almost all websites have display/functionality issues when used via IE." Naked Blogging MoneySupermarket( com SOURCES: w3.org, gs.statcounter.com, royal.pingdom.com, wired.com, wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_wars