Not only is there war in the world, but a so-called 'browser war' is also taking place on the internet.
The browser war is a competitive battle between various web browsers, in which Internet Explorer – much to the annoyance of many web developers – has held the reins for quite some time.
In the 90s, the browser war was primarily between Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, until Mozilla Firefox was introduced in 2000.
As a result of the rise of Mozilla Firefox and the consequently steadily declining popularity of Netscape Navigator, AOL announced on December 28, 2007, that it would cease development and active support of Netscape Navigator as of February 1, 2008.
Meanwhile, Mozilla Firefox has managed to achieve a global market share of 30%, placing it in second place among the most used browsers worldwide.
Google Chrome
In the previous year (September 2008), Google entered the browser war by launching a frontal attack on Microsoft Internet Explorer. Google did this by deploying its new browser: Google Chrome.
In doing so, Google states that it has completely rethought the browser concept and that Chrome has been rebuilt from the ground up. Google calls Chrome not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications.
Due to the rising popularity of Google's browser, Mozilla Firefox is no longer seeing an upward trend in its market share, while Google Chrome has managed to achieve a market share of 15,6% in about 2,5 years, with a trend that is still rising. This places Google Chrome in third place among the most used browsers worldwide. An advantage for Google is that Mozilla has far fewer financial resources to promote its product, and Google Chrome appears to be rapidly closing the gap with Mozilla Firefox.
Settlement
In 2010, Microsoft received a settlement from the European Commission, which found that Microsoft was abusing Windows' dominant position by including Internet Explorer as standard with Microsoft's Windows operating system, thereby giving competing browsers too little of a chance.
Since April 2010, Internet Explorer users have been shown a screen via a Windows update allowing them to choose from the use of various browsers.
The future
An interesting question on which we have been gaining increasing clarity lately is: 'What will the browser look like in the future?'
An important term that emerges in answering this question is Web 3.0, also known as the 'come to me' Web. Whereas with Web 1.0 people searched for information via the browser, with Web 3.0 the information comes to the user.
Another important principle of Web 3.0 is that this information retrieval will not only take place via a desktop PC, but also from various other (mobile) devices.
No more browser version with automatic updates
In the future, browsers will no longer have a true browser version. However, end users have no interest whatsoever in the browser version number; it simply has to work properly.
In the future, automatic updates will prevent many of the problems we currently see with 'outdated' browsers. As a result, browsers can be equipped with the latest technologies much faster, and bugs and security vulnerabilities can be fixed more quickly.
Automatic browser updates are already implemented in Google Chrome, for example. The browser updates automatically in the background and require no action from the user.
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