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War of the browsers?
In the good old days of 1997, Netscape Navigator had a market share of about 72 per cent. At the same time Internet Explorer 3.0 (IE3.0) could barely grab 18 per cent of the market. Then, in October that year Microsoft came up with Internet Explorer 4.0 (IE4.0) — a much better browser than Navigator. Hence, began the first browser war. Despite challenging the market superiority of Navigator, IE4.0 was unable to harm the popularity enjoyed by Navigator at the time.
The year 1998 proved disastrous for Netscape Navigator as Microsoft released Win98 — an operating system with a free, preinstalled and much advanced version of Internet Explorer (that is, IE5.0). From then on, Netscape’s troubles began, as its market share began to diminish almost by the day. On the other hand, IE dominated the market, becoming the undisputed king of the browser market worldwide.
However, the situation may change sooner than you think. A couple of weeks ago, WebSideStory, a firm that provides browser-related facts and figures, said that for the first time, IE usage has dropped one per cent — from 95.73 per cent to 94.73 per cent. Other sources also revealed an alarming fact; IE has lost about 15 per cent of its market share — something that IE never experienced during the last seven years, or so.
One of the main reason for this change in market trend is Mozilla Firefox — a newly-released, open-source browser being distributed by the Mozilla Foundation for free.
Another factor that affected IE’s market share during 2004 was the repeated vulnerabilities and security holes in different IE versions that were revealed throughout the year. Also last year, a number of spyware infected IE and left its users at the mercy of “black hackers”.
The ActiveX functionality — that enables IE to work dynamically — facilitates black hackers and crackers to hijack the users’ browsers as well. Though Microsoft frequently releases patches to cover these newly-discovered security holes, but a number of users are still moving away from IE to other browsers, like Netscape Navigator and Opera.
Taking advantage of the situation, the Mozilla foundation, that Netscape founded in 1998, has released Firefox, which is now considered to be the coolest web browser. Released in late 2004, Firefox now has millions of users worldwide who feel this is the best alternate to IE. For many experts, the popularity of Firefox isn’t surprising. To them, Firefox release came just in time. It’s evident that Firefox has just begun another world browser war. And, the ultimate winner of this war will be the most secure, most user friendly browser with more capabilities.
Once again, Netscape has also joined this war with its Netscape 8.0 beta — a much powerful, much capable browser than Firefox itself. How complicated is this situation for Microsoft? An announcement made by Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, regarding the expected release of IE 7.0 beta, just reveals the tip of an iceberg. Despite topping the web browser market, Microsoft doesn’t want to see the slightest decline in IE’s share.
Let’s take a look at Microsoft, some of its key competitors and their on-going efforts to conquer the “battle field.”
Internet Explorer
IE is the key player in this browser war. Experts predict that the new version of IE will be launched in 2006, along with Longhorn, an upcoming version of the Windows operating system. It was at the RSA Conference (2005) in San Francisco, that Bill Gates announced Microsoft’s forthcoming release of Internet Explorer’s version 7.0 beta. According to him, IE7.0 will prove to be more secure than previous versions, as Microsoft is trying to fix its flaws. But, no one knows whether it will support only Windows XP (with Service Pack 2), or have backward-compatibility as well.
In addition to higher security, IE7.0 beta will also have a built-in anti-spyware that will, most probably, resemble related features now seen in Firefox and Netscape.
Firefox
Firefox is the second strongest competitor in the browser war. Currently, it holds only a small percentage of the market, but “Black Rose” (who joined the Mozilla foundation when he was only 14) hopes that Firefox will acquire 10 per cent of the market share by the end of this year. No doubt, Firefox is becoming very popular and is the best alternative to IE, but experts are fiercely debating its future.
For many experts, the long-term survival of Firefox seems quite impossible, especially when the competitor is IE. Others think Firefox will surpass the expectations of “Black Rose”. One can’t say for sure what will happen, but current trends suggest that Firefox is in trouble at the moment.
For instance, some critical flaws in Firefox were made public a couple of weeks ago and shook those who feel security holes and vulnerabilities are only found in IE. Accordingly, experts predict more flaws in it, as security analysts scrutinize it for checkups.
Expectedly, Firefox may experience more setbacks, with the release of IE 7.0 beta. Many users may shift back to IE and Firefox’s popularity may go down. Having released Firefox and its associated email client software Thunderbird, the Mozilla foundation is catching up with Microsoft. But it may difficult to get rid of an established software giant. More interestingly, the motivating force behind Mozilla is nothing but AOL itself — another multidisciplinary giant.
Netscape
With its Netscape 8.0 beta, AOL is taking part in the browser war. Netscape’s new version also has surprises. It uses two different rendering engines: the first is Gecko that also powers Firefox, while the second is Internet Explorer’s rendering engine. Benefiting from two different rendering engines, Netscape’s new version is able to display web pages in a way similar to that of IE. The new features of Netscape 8.0 beta include tabbed browsing, a pop-up blocker, an automated form filter, RSS feeds and anti-spyware.
Firefox’s inability to access IE-specific websites has also been eliminated in Netscape 8.0 beta. Although it turns more powerful by using two different page rendering engines, it also inherits problems found in both of these browsers. Experts also hope that Netscape’s market share may exceed Firefox in the near future.
Opera
Opera holds a browser market share of a little more than 2 per cent, but it has the potential to give a tough time to other competitors. Back in 1994, Telenor — a Norwegian telecommunication firm — started a research project called “Opera”, to develop a web browser. This is amongst a handful of web browsers that are multi-platformed. That is, it supports a good number of operating systems, including Windows, Linux, OS/2, Sun Solaris, and so on. Opera, now an independent company, claims that its browser is the world’s fastest web browser. And their claim has been justified.
Having said that, one can only wait and see where this browser war will lead. Who will turn out to be the winner? Only time will tell.
Browser links
- Firefox
- Opera
- Netscape
- Internet Explorer
The writer works for the monthly magazine Global Science, Karachi. His email address is
