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Chrome Beats Internet Explorer On Any Given Sunday

Posted by timothy on from the don't-let-lumberg-find-out dept.

tsamsoniw writes "Over the past three weeks, Chrome has beaten out Internet Explorer as the No. 1 browser in the world — but only on Sundays. In fact, according to data from StatCounter, Chrome usage is higher on weekends than it is during the work week, whereas IE usage drops on Saturdays and Sundays. Evidently, end-users prefer Chrome at home, which might be helping the browser get a foothold at work." (So apparently it's not just a freak occurrence.)

16 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Chrome vs IE by Johnny+Mister · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There's a simple reason for this. Google has been heavily pushing Chrome to end-users via advertisements, their search engine, YouTube, and by making deals with computer manufacturers and software authors (adware) by paying them to spread Chrome. On workplaces this tactic doesn't really work as individual workers are often unable to install adware and other malware on their computers as IT knows what they are doing and have restricted that. It is quite similar to why most spam is sent from home computers - users don't know how to secure and maintain their systems.

    1. Re:Chrome vs IE by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not bad considering Microsoft pushes IE to end-users via it being pre-installed on their operating system...

    2. Re:Chrome vs IE by tomhath · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's obvious this is home versus work usage. What's interesting is the Firefox doesn't show the same peaks and valleys as Chrome, IE and Safari. Maybe it's already used more in corporate computers? That's certainly the case where I work.

    3. Re:Chrome vs IE by SJHillman · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I work at one of those places and I'm one of those IT control freaks. There's a good reason for it - we don't have the time or the people to troubleshoot five different browsers. Just because a user prefers Chrome over IE doesn't mean they know how to use it. Even the simple stuff, like displaying a PDF in a browser. I wasted a half hour trying to teach a user how to print a PDF from Chrome because the buttons were slightly different than they were in IE (which she was already familiar with). It'd be great to standardize on Chrome or Opera, but then there would be more retraining involved and IE has a lot of (admittedly artificial) advantages, such as vendor support, AD control, etc. Then there's the fact that even if we did standardize on Chrome, some people would want Firefox. If we did Firefox, some people would want Safari. So in the end, IE is by far the easiest, cheapest and least time consuming option whether or not it's your favorite browser.

    4. Re:Chrome vs IE by Flammon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Which makes Firefox's share quite impressive considering that it was acquired on merit.

      --
      ayottesoftware.com
    5. Re:Chrome vs IE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I maintain several internal websites for a parent company and it's 9 child companies, and somehow I seem to manage to test for at least IE7,IE8,IE9, Chrome, Safari, Firefox. I just consider that good practice for the industry that I am in, and as a web application developer. 99.9% of the fixes I have to do are for IE not the other browsers. Our company is pretty standardized on IE, but I still take pride in my code working in all browsers, it might take some upfront work, but every site I have kept that standard with has been easier to migrate forward. Example, back when IE6 was the standard that's what most in out company coded for, I coded mine for IE6, and Firefox, and as IE7 came out I started testing against that (even though the company wasn't looking to move to IE7) when the company changed to IE8 as the standard all the other web devs were scrambling and banging their heads on desks, and I have maybe 20 minutes worth of changes across many sites. some of the other IE6 sites still won't work properly. so in the end I saved myself time and headache, and saved the company money by not just coding for IE... I suggest all web devs do the same if they have any pride in their work.

    6. Re:Chrome vs IE by Appolonius+of+Perge · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Firefox nightly has a very fast pdf reader built in, so if you wait long enough it will make it to the ESR.

    7. Re:Chrome vs IE by DrgnDancer · · Score: 5, Interesting

      There's ways around that too. At Boeing we had an interesting setup. No one had admin access to their own computers, but we had a piece of software on that allowed installation of a wide and varied library of vetted software with sudo like privileges. You opened this tool, and it took you to a library of software: pretty much most of the popular web browsers, a large number of useful free (or Free) tools, and a few licensed tools that we had site licenses for. You clicked on the software you wanted to install, and a privileged installer process started up and installed it. it was pretty cool. You couldn't exactly stay bleeding edge up to date with it (not exactly a bad thing), but you could get a lot of useful tools and software without IT having to worry about infection vectors (obviously they vetted anything that went into the library).

      Lots of software (like Firefox, maybe Chrome?) can be installed in a non-privileged mode anyway. It puts all the files in the user's directory and doesn't write anything to the registry. Hell Firefox has a portable mode that you can just install on a Thumb drive and run without even installing it.

      --
      I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
    8. Re:Chrome vs IE by Haedrian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Beat me too it. I'm still using Firefox 4, but it's ridiculous I can't run it on a 1/3rd gig laptop without having to reboot firefox every hour (memory leak). .

      So you're complaining that an old version has a bug which they fixed in the future?

      Update.

  2. Or by Rik+Sweeney · · Score: 5, Informative

    Evidently, end-users prefer Chrome at home, which might be helping the browser get a foothold at work.

    Or, my employer won't let me install any software on my work machine so I'm stuck with IE(6).

    --
    Summation 2
  3. I'm forced to use it at work. :( by ciderbrew · · Score: 3, Informative

    They could do this with LotusNotes too. Lots of people use shite that's not fit for purpose at work.

  4. Inflated Chrome stats because of page prerendering by Giorgio+Maone · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does StatCounter take in account Chrome's page views inflation caused by its Instant Pages prerendering feature?

    I'd be surprised, since even Google Analytics itself is affected...

    Anyway, please be careful before announcing "Chrome usage surpassed this or that" :P

    --
    There's a browser safer than Firefox, it is Firefox, with NoScript
  5. Why we require IE by crazyjj · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My workplace requires IE for one specific (but very important) reason. Everyone here uses Powerpoint (way too much, IMHO, but that's another issue), and Powerpoint has a built-in tool for converting presentations to webpages (meaning they can be posted on our intranet with forms and other pages). But those webpages only look right in IE. Pretty sneaky on MS's part. The alternative would be trying to convert tens-of-thousands-of-slides worth of presentations into html by hand. So it's a lot easier to just force people to use IE rather than having to deal with either the conversion costs or 2,000 phone calls with conversations like this:

    Caller: "These slides don't look right"

    Tech: "What browser are you using?"

    Caller: "I'm using the internet"

    Tech: "What is the picture you click on to get to the internet look like?"

    Caller: "I don't know, JUST FIX IT!!!"

    --
    What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
  6. Have you considered Chrome is just 'better'? by goldcd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I know why I originally switched from FF/IE (work) - Chrome was noticeably faster. Not in some "I've checked the benchmarks" kind of way, in the "I've installed it and this is clearly faster and more pleasurable to use."
    After the initial speed thing, it was the UI that's kept me. Dragging tabs to windows, pinning tabs, scrolling tabs, bookmark sync, add-on/app sync, background update etc etc. Also simply installing Chrome on a new machine, simply giving it my google login and the Chrome that appears on the new desktop immediately resembling the version on my home machine.
    Reading through the above, it's probably the background update that was the killer bit. I genuinely have no idea what version of Chrome I'm currently running. I installed it years ago and it's just been there ever since. My entirely subjective opinion is that the features and improvements silently appear before I ever even realized I need them - so I remain 'happy' and 'content' (and would have to see some utterly novel, ground-breaking feature advertised on another browser to even bother to download it)
    By auto-update I don't mean like thunderbird or itunes, where an attempt to launch it suddenly triggers update popups, delays and release notes. I mean I don't even know it's happened. If this approach could just be extended to OS, drivers as well as apps, I'd be happy as Larry.

  7. Re:One Reason - IE ActiveX Scripts by steveb3210 · · Score: 5, Informative

    You're out of touch with reality - ActiveX is a dead technology and people will migrate away from it, not the other way around.

  8. Re:Inflated Chrome stats because of page prerender by wile_e_wonka · · Score: 3, Informative

    Answer is here:
    http://gs.statcounter.com/faq#pre-rendering