StatCounter’s data from last week, above, show Google Chrome is now the world’s No. 1 browser by a nose. But it’ll be a growing lead in business if the tech pros I spoke to in the U.S. and globally are any guide. And who better?
So what do tech pros say? Does Google Chrome have the cajones for enterprise?
Here’s a sampling of the comments I’m getting at anewdomain.net. I’ll add to it throughout the day.
Simon Bengtsonn, a web designer temporarily based in Australia, said “Chrome is definitely superior. The extensions, the apps, the omnibox and the syncing are killer features” for personal and business users. A no brainer.
Ishaan Garg, a techpro at Trickvilla, was emphatic that Google Chrome’s pull-ahead will have a positive effect overall for enterprise, businesses and small business bloggers alike.
Dominance for Google Chrome, the browser he views as far superior also because of its “amazing extensions,” he said, “of course affects businesses and blogs in general.
“For Internet Explorer, you need to write a different CSS style sheet – it follows different rules. Many HTML5 extensions don’t work,” he said. “And when IE’s (popularity) globally goes down, he added, “I will be able to get rid of an extra style sheet – and the headache of (always having to check) whether each of my new CSS elements are compatible with IE (and other browsers.
“As more users switch to Chrome,” he pointed out, “developers will get a boost to build some more amazing Google Chrome extensions.”
So it’s all about the extensions? What else is in play here? What of the other browser, particularly Mozilla Firefox? I’ll update the story, as I said, throughout the day with IT and tech pro comments.
An aside. I remember back when Microsoft Internet Explorer overtook Netscape in 1998. Wow. I was the first tech correspondent at a major US network at the time — ABC News, where I reported on tech for Good Morning America and World News Tonight with (the late) Peter Jennings. Back then, getting my producers to understand the importance of this story was practically impossible and I was unable to give it more than a minimum of coverage because so few mainstream TV viewers at the time even knew what we then formally called the World Wide Web was. I was still on Good Morning America teaching Joan Lunden how to use email on live TV a couple of days a week.
While the mainstream didn’t catch it, Silicon Valley and Redmond got it, all right. Here’s a good cycle back through time on the order of what happened in those early browser wars in 1998, courtesy the BBC It was a huge win for Microsoft then, especially considering how late in coming to the Internet party Microsoft was. Consider: Then CEO Bill Gates, in the first edition of his 1995 book, The Road Ahead, barely mentioned the Internet if at all. In fairness, the publisher added Internet commentary to later printings. So for Microsoft, a true turtle in the very first browser race, its 1998 win over a cocky Netscape was major.
And now, as they say, the tables are turned. If even just a bit.
So you think Microsoft can turn the tables once again with its IE 9? I do. Microsoft has a lot to lose here, particularly on the eve of its Windows 8 release on mobile, desktop and server platforms. It’s gotta be smarting right about now.
