Windows web browser statistics - numbers and graphs

In this article we would be looking at the statistics of Windows based web browsers. These statistics are based on visitors to this web site (www.webdevelopersnotes.com) and might not be consistent with what you see for yours because the profile of visitors coming to your site would probably be different. WebDevelopersNotes.com features articles, tutorials, resources, tips and tricks on web development and caters to a niche audience of wannabe and experienced web developers; and this definitely skews the stats.

Internet Explorer for Windows - statistics

Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the world's most popular browser and continues to reign supreme on this web site. Almost half of visitors to WebDevelopersNotes.com employ this program to surf the web. However, Internet Explorer statistics show that its share has been decreasing steadily over the years.

Internet Explorer had given Netscape Communicator a drumming of a life time, so much so that the latter has almost gone into oblivion. The famous browser war between Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator turned out to be a massacre with Netscape's share accounting for less than 0.3%, at the time of writing.

Now, Firefox, the free and supposedly more secure browser, has been giving Internet Explorer a hard time. Most of the share of the latter has been eaten up by the former. The popularity and usage of Firefox continues to grow while I.E. lessens.

The new free browser from Google - Chrome is another player to watch out for. Though in the first two months of its release, Chrome has affected Firefox share more than Internet Explorer's - we should wait and watch. A product from Google has high chances of becoming popular but with two browsers now in its kitty (it's very own free browser Chrome and the "endorsed" Firefox), the company needs to be wary of self cannibalization.

Usage statistics of Firefox on Windows

Firefox, which is a free web browser from Mozilla, continues to steadily increase its user base. The gain in its usage statistics and popularity can be attributed to the strong support from the web development community and from Google who not only included it in the free software pack but also offered it as a referral product to thousands of publishers via the Adsense program. A lot of Adsense publishers I know, loved to promote Firefox via banners and links because each download by a visitor from a referral link earned them a dollar. Also the online media frenzy and hundreds of blog posts that covered the launch of Firefox 3 created a sort of mysticism - if you are not using this browser you are surely missing out on a great program.

Extending the capability of Firefox with add-ons was another aspect that helped new users embrace the web browser . There are tons of these plugins available for free that make surfing the web not only easier but much more productive.

Firefox vs. Internet Explorer web browser usage statistics

As mentioned above, on the Windows operating system, Firefox continues to eat into Internet Explorer's share. The little blip we see for Firefox in the month of September 2008 might be attributed to Google's Chrome, which goes to show that more Firefox users have given the new browser a try than ones using Internet Explorer. Obviously, these are very early stages to jump to any conclusions; we must wait and watch for the next year or so. But you can be sure that Firefox vs. Internet Explorer fight will continue.

Windows Safari usage statistics

Though still relatively insignificant, my web site statistics also show an emergence of Safari for Windows. This browser was released by Apple for the Windows platform sometime near the middle of 2007. The usage of Windows Safari has increased but the usage of Safari on the Mac has decreased, its place taken by Firefox (for Mac).

Usage statistics for Chrome and Opera

Google Chrome was released on the 2nd of September 2008. This was a big surprise of many because Google was already supporting Firefox (and still is, at the time of writing). In fact, the free software pack from Google has Firefox but no Chrome. Update: the Chrome web browser has now been included in the Google software pack. I guess this move was made on the 11th of December 2008 when Chrome came out of beta version.
The good news for Chrome fans is that, in the very first month of its release, the browser went ahead of Opera. Now, I believe that Chrome users are primarily Firefox users and the new browser still needs to make strong inroads in the share of Internet Explorer.

Statistics for Opera have been steady with no major ups and downs though there has been a marginal but perceptible decrease over the last 3 years.

Other web browsers for Windows

The numbers for other web browsers for Windows were negligible; there is no use in discussing browsers that brought in only a handful of visitors.