back to article Internet Explorer makes modest gains against Google Chrome

The browser world war, which appeared to have already been handily won by Google Chrome, is heating up again – well, "warming up" might be more accurate – with Microsoft's Internet Explorer having reversed some of its long, relatively steady decline. A mere two years ago, Internet Explorer was the undisputed king of the …

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  1. Big-nosed Pengie

    To be fair, Google's done a Microsoft. Chrome is the default browser on Android, so the vast majority of Android users (which means a significant majority of phone users) are using Chrome. So these stats don't reflect user choice; as far as IE and Chrome are concerned they largely only represent the default.

    1. Jolyon Smith
      Coat

      Some more statistics for the statistics grinder...

      "Chrome is the default browser on Android"

      Not entirely accurate.

      Chrome is the default browser on Android 4.x. Chrome isn't even supported on pre 4.0 Android. 4.x Android accounts - as of Feb 2013 - for about 14% of Android devices.

      That's hardly the same as "doing a Microsoft". Not least because even new Android devices continue to be introduced without having been forced to pre-install Android 4.0 or Chrome, quite unlike the situation with Microsoft.

      Not defending Google or attacking Microsoft. Just setting the record a little straighter. :)

    2. Richard Plinston

      > Android ... So these stats don't reflect user choice;

      Users chose Android (maybe with Chrome or several others) and did not choose Windows Phone (with IE), that's a user choice.

    3. eulampios

      wrong

      Chrome is not a default browser of Android, at least on older than 4.0 versions. It might be based on WebKit though.

    4. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

      Where can I get IE for Android?

      Not that I am interested in either, but for Google to offer IE as a choice, Microsoft would have to port it and license it.

      1. ThomH

        Re: Where can I get IE for Android?

        Default on Android or not, StatCounter's statistics separately show iOS (iPod + iPhone) and Android both to be about equal, around the 30% mark — Android is slightly ahead (this is worldwide, after all, not just US) but if Chrome's showing in the overall chart were significantly attributable to Android then you'd expect Safari to be doing very well too.

        Since Safari isn't doing anywhere near as well in the StatCounter chart, I don't think the mobile angle is influential.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Internet Explorer does at least have far fewer security vulnerabilities than Chrome. I expect that is one reason why market share is growing again.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        @AC 07.59

        It's a pity you are an AC, if you had used your real name you could have put a "joke alert" icon next to your post so here is one for you.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: @AC 07.59

          No joke Elron. You might not have been aware of it, but IE has far fewer security vulnerabilities than Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Corporates that have to patch respective browsers certainly are....

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: @AC 07.59

          Why? He's right. In a recent security review of the top 50 most used program's Chrome was found to have the most vulnerabilities even going as far as to have almost six times as many vulnerabilities than the Windows 7 OS and over seven times as many vulnerabilities as IE and more vulnerabilities than all the MS products combined from the top 50 most used products.

          http://secunia.com/vulnerability-review/vulnerability_update_top50.html

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Stop

            Re: @AC 07.59

            Remember Chrome (as in in Chromium) is opensource so it's going to get pulled apart far more than IE but also it gets patched a lot faster. Those vulnerabilities were patched years ago and don't forget flash comes with chrome so any flash vulnerabilities get flagged against chrome, you still have the same vulnerabilities in IE flash. Read between the lines and not just the headlines.

            http://secunia.com/community/advisories/search/?search=chrome&page=0

            compare with IE

            http://secunia.com/community/advisories/search/?search=internet+explorer

            Personally I use FF, adblock and noscript, as my Gran used to say "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure".

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: @AC 07.59

              PS IE is still tied to many of Windows core libraries and IMHO gives the greater security risk.

              Ever noticed in skype which version of flash player it uses for flash ads ? Yep ax.

              1. JDX Gold badge

                Re: @AC 07.59

                Didn't Chrome get hacked as readily as IE at the last hack-fest thingie? I know ChromeOS came out pretty unscathed but the Chrome browser didn't.

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: @AC 07.59

                  @JDX yes that's correct:

                  Nils and Jon from MWRLabs were successful in exploiting Google Chrome using WebKit and Windows kernel flaws to bypass Chrome sandbox and win $100,000.

                  Note - Windows kernel flaws.

                  1. Anonymous Coward
                    Anonymous Coward

                    Re: @AC 07.59

                    Following this up for further reading see here:

                    http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/using-kernel-exploits-bypass-sandboxes-fun-and-profit-031813

            2. mhenriday
              Pint

              Re: @AC 07.59

              The graphs to be compared are found here for Chrome and here for IE, respectively. To my mind, Chrome is the obvious winner, but like Elron's grandmother, I use FF (Nightly 23.0a1) with Adblock Plus and NoScript as my default browser....

              Henri

    6. Displacement Activity

      @BigNose

      To be fair, Google's done a Microsoft. Chrome is the default browser on Android, so the vast majority of Android users (which means a significant majority of phone users) are using Chrome. So these stats don't reflect user choice

      No - StatCounter doesn't make it clear if 'Browser' means all browsers, or just desktop browsers, but it seems that it's just desktop browsers. In any event, you can generate the mobile browser stats at StatCounter, and 'Chrome' is not shown as a mobile browser; it shows 'Android'. And, second, 'Android' is buried in 'Others' on the Browser chart (the one in the article), at 0.47%.

  2. Don Jefe
    Happy

    We switched from Firefox back to IE in February.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      And we're all very happy for you.

    2. Bob Vistakin
      Facepalm

      And found the cries of "Ayyyyyyy Eeeeeeeeh!" just as comforting as the first time round it screwed up some standard CSS, or insisted on dozens of ActiveX "helpers" to be installed before rendering the simplest of pages and going into "compatibility mode".

  3. Pomgolian
    Paris Hilton

    Meanwhile, in the antipodes...

    Down here in Chrome infested NZ, IE is continuing to sink. TradeMe is the Kiwi equivalent of ebay and thus the stats are probably typical of the average web user.

    http://labs.trademe.co.nz/trade-me-browser-stats-march-2013

    makes for interesting reading

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Meanwhile, in the antipodes...

      Love that chart showing that Win8 overtook Linux as a desktop OS in the first month it was launched. Classic.

      1. eulampios

        @AC

        You' d love even more if Linux overtook even Win7, provided it would be preinstalled on most sold PCs, where you're presented with EULA that you can't even decline.

    2. Jolyon Smith
      FAIL

      Re: Meanwhile, in the antipodes...

      Kiwi's *WISH* that TradeMe was the local equivalent of ebay. It is the dominant auction listings site, if that's what you mean. But other than that TradeMe is a piece of sh*t. They stitched up the market very quickly and have since simply sat back and coined it, without improving or building on their success.

      1. Pomgolian
        Boffin

        Re: Meanwhile, in the antipodes...

        Most probably true, I was merely paraphrasing for those in the northern hemisphere.

        My point was their stats are based on server logs, and not on samples collected by websites where the webmaster has added code to feed back to StatCounter. As such it's probably quite a fair reflection of the browsers that people at least in NZ are actually using as opposed to those that they are reported to be using.

    3. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Meanwhile, in the antipodes...

      @Pomgolian - interesting stats. Statistics for particular sites are almost always more helpful because the obvious bias needs little accounting for. Particularly transactional sites have everything to gain by scrutinising the numbers in detail.

      We saw a slight uptick in IE use in early March which has since fallen off.

      For other aggregated stats, Akamai now provides worldwide figures at the somewhat pompously named "Internet Observatory". There is a considerable bias in the set (very American, corporate and entertainment sites) but the sheer volume of data and the dependency solely on UA adds credence to those of us who use script blockers and, thus, never appear in StatCounter's figures.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    DEAD CAT UPWARD DEATH SPIRAL ALERT!!

    It is like a dying cat has been sucked in to a mini tornado and propelled upwards!!!

    Or, it may be that people like me and all my friends are starting to dislike the abuses of privacy that come with use of Google Chrome and are moving to IE10.

    Eadon, you would be funny if you were not so tragic.

    1. Shades

      Re: DEAD CAT UPWARD DEATH SPIRAL ALERT!!

      If you liked Chrome, but dislike all the creepy Googly stuff, then why not give Iron a try? Its Chrome but with all the creepy stuff stripped out.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: DEAD CAT UPWARD DEATH SPIRAL ALERT!!

        @Shades - don't feed the troll.

  5. Rukario
    Mushroom

    Meanwhile in the DPRK...

    Kim Jong-Un uses Firefox.

    1. Thorne

      Re: Meanwhile in the DPRK...

      "Kim Jong-Un uses Firefox."

      Kim Jong-Un uses drugs...

      1. hplasm
        Big Brother

        Re: Meanwhile in the DPRK...

        Kim Jong-Un uses drugs...

        Distilled from the tears of the NK people...

  6. kevin biswas

    Opera's share seems have gone negative...

    And what happened to poor old Firefox ? My best guess is that everyone got sick of a new version breaking all their plugins every 3 weeks.

    1. Shades

      Re: Opera's share seems have gone negative...

      I don't think I've had a single addon break since Mozilla moved Firefox over to the new version/update system.

    2. eulampios

      about firefox

      Using Firefox 20.0 on a several LMDE's here. Firefox is as stable as rock with a few indefensible add-ons and us arguably the most functional web browser. On Android it might be a different story though...

      1. eulampios

        Re: about firefox

        s/indefensible/indispensable/

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Opera's share seems have gone negative...

      Or ran off when V4 changed the UI?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Opera's share seems have gone negative...

      " My best guess is that everyone got sick of a new version breaking all their plugins every 3 weeks."

      A couple of years ago my old hobby website was reworked to support a wider variety of browsers. What was surprising was that IE was the browser that was most compatible with the Javascript's intentions. This week IE10 broke the Javascript - and it now only works with the browser in "IE8" mode. Safari has also gained a display quirk. The latest versions of Firefox, Opera, and Chrome still work as expected.

      The old metaphor of spinning plates comes to mind.

  7. Gray Ham Bronze badge
    Headmaster

    Lies, damned lies and ...

    ... misattributed quotations?

    I don't believe the quote really comes from Disraeli - I certainly can't remember ever reading it. Willing to be corrected, though, if you have a reliable source.

    1. graeme leggett Silver badge

      Re: Lies, damned lies and ...

      I don't know about reliable as such but a well annotated article on wikipedia says that Twain attributed it to Disraeli though it doesn't appear in anything Disraeli wrote and was not a phrase known during Disraeli's lifetime

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: Lies, damned lies and ...

    http://www.xkcd.com/978/

  9. Number6

    Bias?

    I run Adblock Plus and NoScript, and I have Statcounter in the block list. Does that mean they don't see my web traffic and browser choice?

    It might have changed, but last time I looked, useful add-ons weren't available for IE, so one assumes that all its users were recorded, but for Chrome and Firefox, a proportion of users are supposedly invisible to the stat collectors.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Bias?

      Yes, you are invisible to them, thought I suspect the proportion of such users is very small in respect to the overall population sample. The bigger problem is you have no idea which sites are included are, therefore, where the inevitable bias is. The counter argument, of course, is the pseudo-random distribution of websites included but that is to discount both network effects for acquisition and the bias towards professional service providers for larger websites: The Register itself does not use statcounter.

  10. Patrick Finch

    This data is subject to change

    (N.B. I work for Mozilla)

    StatCounter has only qualified 2 days' worth of data for April, see their FAQ:

    "After the expiration of a 14 day period from first publication, no changes will be made to the data."

    Anyone who watches their data reasonably closely knows that data published during this 14-day window does change quite frequently.

    I like StatCounter's interface a great deal, but a count of unweighted page views is not a great proxy for market share. For this reason I tend to follow NetApplications. No method is perfect, but I prefer having a documented method to not having one.

  11. Maharg
    Pint

    I love My Chrome… Fed up with “Chroooooome”

    Chrome is quick, easy to use and nice to look at, I just don't like my browser blatantly spying on me, I know they all do it, but Chrome takes the piss, I brought a new tent recently online, and now every other advert is for tents, tents, tents everywhere, tents are like cars and houses, you don’t buy them often and I don’t need more then one, it’s as useful as when I was looking for holidays to Florida, and eBay offered me the chance to “Buy or Sell Florida”. I know I can disable all the adds, I know I can block these things, but I seem to have to do it at least once a week, but it’s less hassle to just use IE or FireFox, I may even go back to Opera.

    Pint – For the Father Jack reference in title

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: I love My Chrome… Fed up with “Chroooooome”

      The ads served have little to do with your choice of browser and a lot to do with the cookies that you allow the networks to serve. Clear out your cookies, check their settings (disabling third party is a reasonable solution) and install something like NotScript.

  12. JDX Gold badge

    Not surprising

    IE10 is now at least half-decent so there are far fewer reasons to switch from it than there were when it was Chrome Vs IE7/8 - other browsers might still be better but the difference is reduced therefore the pressure to move is also reduced. Any bundled software only needs to be "good enough" to retain users.

  13. AndrewCarlton
    Angel

    I like IE9

    So I'm a bit strange but I actually like IE9, its clean and fast, the welcome to IE9 prompt is short and sweet.

    Now IE10 (Metro version [I don't care what Microsoft call it!!]) can go burn in hell, the idea of "hiding" tabs and URL bar was obviously concieved by someone stoned/drunk, I use windows 8 and have FF21 and Chrome 26 installed, if Win8 came with a Metro version IE9 by default I don't think FF/Chrome would get a look in.

    Obviously IE8 and lower were a steamy pile of c**p, although I think a good number of techies would agree with me on that one

    1. El Andy

      Re: I like IE9

      @AndrewCarlton: Now IE10 (Metro version [I don't care what Microsoft call it!!]) can go burn in hell, the idea of "hiding" tabs and URL bar was obviously concieved by someone stoned/drunk, I use windows 8 and have FF21 and Chrome 26 installed, if Win8 came with a Metro version IE9 by default I don't think FF/Chrome would get a look in.

      If those are the things you don't like about Metro IE10, why don't you just use the desktop IE10, which looks pretty much the same as IE9 in Windows 7 but is faster and has even better standards support?

  14. Sporkinum

    Firefox users

    Firefox users are more likely to customize their browsers. And Firefox makes it easy to block cookies, ads, and scripts. IE has a crappy version of ad blocking, as does Chrome. I don't think IE has any way to handle cookies, and I think that Chrome's method lacks elegance.

    Basically, most people don't care about what they use, and if they do care a little bit, they will run Chrome due to the ubiquity of Google's spamming of their browser.

    As a long time Firefox user, it makes me happy to see so many use other browsers. I can keep blocking the hell out of everything, and they can see the ads and pay for my internet. ;)

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