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| Courtesy of Flickr |
The Internet is an ever-changing landscape that creates long term revolutions in the way we think, act, work and play. Every so often a milestone takes place that has great significance. A very recent change that took place was that Google Chrome displaced the Internet Explorer as the number one browser in the world. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer held the reins for 4+ years. Now a Microsoft rival and Internet corporate giant has taken the lead. In this article, I will tell you why this is an important milestone in our lives. I will also share with you some of the features which I believe explain why Chrome is now number one and why the Internet Explorer has fallen behind. Read on and learn why we are in the Google Chrome era.
Battle of the Browser Giants!
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| Browser-wars (Photo credit: _redheat) |
Why is This Important?
It’s important because whoever “owns your eyes” as you use the Internet directly affects how you use the Internet itself. It’s also important because Chrome was born in this environment that year. Its heritage started with Netscape and in part, to the code from the Mozilla project. A browser's functionality directly affects how a website will look and feel to the user. A programmer designs websites primarily for whatever the dominant platform is
at that point in time. Yes, they will tweak their website so they generally work with most browsers, but often they will have to make compromises to make sure the dominant platforms' needs are met. It’s also important because whoever controls the majority of Internet properties also feed the majority of users what they see. So in essence, the general population is always in danger of being swayed (i.e. censored ) by whomever the dominant player is. In the early days the dominant players were kept in check by somewhat of opposing forces. First, it was Yahoo and Netscape, then it became the Internet Explorer and Yahoo, then Internet Explorer and Google and now, it’s just Google! I am not one of these conspiracy buff who thinks that every giant company on the planet is out to rule the world. I happen to like Google and Chrome. I am just pointing out that there is always a danger when one company controls most of any one aspects of our lives.
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Why Chrome ... What Propelled it to The Top?
Chrome was launched as a free browser in September of 2008 (as a beta). It has steadily grown in features and maturity over the past 4 years. Today, Chrome is still free, owns 31% of the worlds browser market (from statcounter.com) and is the dominant player on the internet. Google is one of the largest corporations in the world and it owns Chrome. It’s not a coincidence that Chrome has finally reached the number one position. Its parent company Google, controls 81% of the search market (from StatOwl.com) and about a 1/3 of all internet traffic as a whole. Because Google owns so many high usage internet properties, it has been able
to learn what a user wants and in turn, incorporate those features into its now dominant browser. It can also provide massive advertising to promote Chrome since it owns the huge portion of all internet destinations. Destinations like Google Search, YouTube, Picasa, Analytics, AdWords, AdSence and a lot more essentially make it easier for Google to get users to try Chrome. On top of that, Google has started selling Chrome-only notebooks, (Chrome Books). These notebook use Chrome is the operating system, which makes them low cost and fast. Nevertheless, the real reason I think Chrome has become number one is that it provides more people with the features they want. It is fast, highly customizable and integrates well with many of Google’s internet properties. In addition, since Google controls most of the internet traffic, it makes sense that their browser would eventually become number one.
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My Favorite Features and Benefits!
Google Chrome touts itself as being the fastest browser on the internet. Google also states that it is feature rich and very stable. I can verify that it is fast, but so are Firefox and several other browsers. However when compared to the Internet Explorer, the prior browser leader, it feels really fast. Internet Explorer also takes a long time to start where Chrome's start-up time is fast. Google has concentrated on making sure it’s browsers performance is top notch. Therefore, when measuring a return on this feature, Chrome’s speed is very good and makes it a top performer. You will spend a lot less time waiting for your pages to download and you will get more done in less time.
Is it Feature -Rich?
As far as being feature -rich, it does meet this criterion, too. However, I would give the edge to Firefox for having the most plug-in’s and add-on’s. Speaking of cool features that a browser can have, Chrome has several unique native features. The first one worth mentioning is voice recognition in Google search. That’s right. If you have a laptop, cell phone, or tablet with Google Chrome, you have voice search capabilities. The second feature is how Chrome has a lot of native support for all the other Google properties and applications.
This list can be extensive and include YouTube, Google+, Google Play and
many more. If you go to the Google Chrome store, you will find many wonderful apps that will make your Chrome browser more powerful and friendly. Again, this is also true for Firefox and other browsers but some of the implementations are better on Chrome. For example, I love a Grammar/Spelling checker called Ginger. Ginger is available for many browsers, word processing and email client platforms. Ginger provides support for MS-Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome. However, its spell checker integration in Gmail on Chrome is phenomenal. Don’t get me wrong, this plug-in works well with all the programs they support. Having used the pro version of Ginger in MS-Word for quite some time, I was impressed at how seamless Gingers spelling check works in Gmail (on Chrome verse Gmail on Firefox). On the other hand, many of the pro features are not yet available on Chrome (or Gmail on Chrome) so I am not ready to give up MS-Word yet.
This list can be extensive and include YouTube, Google+, Google Play and
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| A "Multiplier 400 Compact Sport" Gerber multi-tool, in the open position, with all |
How Does Stability Compare?
The last item is stability. Chrome is very stable, especially if you are using relatively new hardware (3 years old or newer). It also helps to be using a newer 64 bit operating system like Windows 7 or Apple's latest OS. Follow these rules and you will not be disappointed. However, if you’re trying to hold on to Windows XP as your operating system you may be disappointed. I have seen XP unexpectedly reboot |
| Peacekeeper Benchmark Comparison (Firefox 12 vs Google Chrome 18) (Photo credit: Squidooer) |
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ng at Working the Web to Win, co-host of the weekly Internet radio show, "Working the Web To Win" on BlogTalkRadio.com, a writer, an entrepreneur for more than 30 years, a veteran of BNI for 19 years and was a BNI director for over five years. He is still an active BNI member and follows its philosophy of "Givers Gain." He is the owner of several businesses in Jacksonville, Florida. He actively
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