In the world of internet browsers, people have traditionally stuck with the installed option that came with their computer. Internet Explorer on PCs and Safari on Macs. Internet Explorer has been losing more and more market share to Mozilla Firefox and Google’s Chrome browser. Firefox edged out Internet Explorer for the #1 spot back in January 2009. Chrome has been growing fast, and is quickly stealing the market away from IE, but let’s take a deeper look at the numbers to learn more.

Web browser users statistics for April, 2010:
46.4%  -Firefox
33.4%  -Internet Explorer
13.6%  -Chrome
3.7%  -Safari
2.2%  -Opera

Last year’s numbers, April, 2009:
47.1%  -Firefox
42.1%  -Internet Explorer
4.9%  -Chrome
3.0%  -Safari
2.2%  -Opera

This data illustrates the growing trend for IE and Safari users to switch to Firefox or Chrome web browsers. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons for the switch.

Firefox is a popular, free, open-source web browser from Mozilla. It’s small and it’s fast. It’s based on the Mozilla code, and it’s one of the most standards-compliant browsers available. It is also available for Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS X, and Linux. Firefox boasts improved performance over IE or Safari. The new Firefox lets you view web pages faster, using less of your computer’s memory. Newer Features include: Password Manager, One-click Bookmarking, Improved Performance, Smart Location Bar, Instant Web Site ID, Full Zoom, Anti-Malware, Add-ons, Download Manager, just to name a few.

Google claims they wanted to rethink the browser. Browsing in 2010 is very different than the past; we now email, shop, pay bills, and run other applications in our browsers. Chrome runs each tab isolated from another, which prevents one tab from crashing another. It’s also more secure, and better for the memory; when a tab is closed its memory is eliminated. Chrome uses a powerful Javascript engine called V8 which helps large applications perform better. Your start page contains your nine most visited web pages, a list of recent pages, and favorite search engines. Chrome is also open-source so new features are also available and upgradable.

To wrap up, let’s take a look at how the Operating System statistics look:
OS Platform Statistics, April 2010:
56.1%  -Windows XP
16.7%  -Windows 7
13.2%  -Windows Vista
7.1%  -Mac OS X
4.5%  -Linux
1.8%  -Older Windows OS

Last year’s OS Statistics, April 2009:
68.0%  -Windows XP
17.9%  -Windows Vista
6.1%  -Mac OS X
4.0%  -Linux
2.6%  -Other Windows OS (Including Windows 7 which was still new)