Top web browsers 2018: Chrome, then everyone else

[djbaxter]

Top web browsers 2018: Microsoft scratches out gains as analytics vendor expels bots
By Gregg Keizer, Computerworld
May 2, 2018

According to data published Tuesday by California-based analytics vendor Net Applications, Microsoft's Edge and Internet Explorer (IE) combined to account for 16.8% of the browser market during April. The one-tenth of a point increase over March was near the browsers' five-month average.

The rosier outlook for Microsoft's browsers stood in contrast to earlier forecasts based on Net Applications' numbers. The reason for the change: The metrics company again went back into its data, this time for February, and revised its numbers after expelling bot traffic.

Mozilla's Firefox did not benefit from Net Applications' latest bot cleansing, as it again shed share in April, losing four-tenths of a percentage point to end at 10.2%. That was after March's decline of six-tenths of a point to 10.5%.

As Computerworld has pointed out several times since Mozilla launched a revamped Firefox labeled "Quantum," the redesign and associated attention has failed to stop the browser's long bleeding of user share. In the five months since Quantum's debut, Firefox has lost 1.3 percentage points, which represented 11% of its end-of-November share.

If the trend over the past five months continues, Firefox will slip under the 10% user share bar this month, and fall below 9% by September.

Meanwhile, the user share of Google's Chrome and Apple's Safari fell and climbed, respectively, last month. Chrome lost almost a tenth of a percentage point, slipping to 61.7%, while Safari scratched out another half of one-tenth of a point to make an even 4%.

However, Safari continued to lose ground where it counts, on Apple's Mac systems. Like Microsoft, Apple has been laid low by "Chrome Disease," as more of its Mac owners have deserted the company's own browser (Safari) for an alternative (almost certainly Chrome for the most part). Although Safari was the browser of choice for as much as two-thirds of those running OS X (the former name for macOS), Safari slipped into the minority on Apple machines in December. Last month, Safari was the primary browser on just 43% of all Macs.

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[Linda Buquet]

Whoa, didn't know. I use both Chrome and FF but am still a big FF fan so use it 90%.

 

[djbaxter]

I'm the same. I suppose I could get used to Chrome if I had to but I've used Firefox for years and it's still my default browser. I had no idea the numbers for Firefox were so low.