Switchfast Blog - The Future of IT

Future of the Internet Browser: Speed is King

Monday, November 30, 2009 by Michael Holley

Remember Netscape Navigator? It seems hard to believe now, but Netscape once owned close to 90% of the internet browser market share worldwide, and was still competitive as recently as ten years ago. Although Microsoft's Internet Explorer defeated the old browser handily and remains the market leader today, it became complacent at the top and is now facing stiff competition once again. Ironically, IE's biggest competitor, Mozilla's Firefox, is an open source project that is a direct offshoot of the late Netscape Navigator.

But Mozilla aren't the only ones gunning for the top spot. Google has entered the browser wars competitively with its ultra-speedy Chrome browser, and the Norwegian Opera isn't far behind. Even Apple's Safari, which is available for Windows as well as Macintosh OS X, has been gaining share as of late.

The reason for the shuffle is simple: innovation. While Microsoft has been content to focus almost solely on security improvements, the others have focused on improving the user experience: new features, enhanced customization, stability, and speed. Consumers have flocked to the alternative browsers in droves over the last two years, allowing Firefox to gain around 25% of the market share alone.

Now, with seemingly every major technology company jumping on the cloud bandwagon, it appears that even Microsoft is getting the message. In a recent sneak peek into the development of IE 9, Microsoft touted new hardware-accelerated graphics processing in its works. Microsoft's technology will utilize your computer's graphics processor to aid in the rendering of graphics and text, something that will significantly increase performance in those categories. Shortly after this announcement, Firefox responded that it is working on similar technology as well, and will likely finish first. Ah, the beauty of competition.

The reality is that this technology will likely become very common very quickly, and not a moment too soon for optimum use wiuh the rapidly expanding army of browser-based applications that are becoming more sophisticated each day. These revived "browser wars" are a sign both of an exciting time for internet users and a shifting computational model that will have us accessing remote resources more often and in more ways than ever.

Whose side are you on?

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8
Mozilla Firefox v3.5.5
Google Chrome v3.0.195.33
Apple Safari 4
Opera Web Browser 10.10

Best,

Switchfast Technologies
Chicago IT Support & Consulting
Rochester IT Support & Consulting