While Chrome Dominates, Microsoft Edge Struggles To Attract New Users (neowin.net)

An anonymous reader quotes Neowin's report on the newest browser-usage figures from NetMarketShare: Microsoft Edge only commands a market share of 5.65% -- which is an increase of only 0.02 percentage points compared to last month... it only grew by 0.56% year-over-year. On the other hand, Google Chrome has continued its dominance with a market share of 59.49%. As a point of reference, this is a sizeable growth of 10.84 percentage points year-over-year... Data from another firm, StatCounter, depicts an even more depressing situation for Microsoft. According to the report, Edge sits at 3.89%... Chrome is the king of all browsers according to these statistics as well, with a market share of 63.21% -- a decrease of 0.14 percentage points compared to last month. Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari command 14%, 9.28%, and 5.16% respectively.
The firm also calculates that when it comes to desktop operating systems, Windows has 91.51% of all users, followed by MacOS at 6.12 and Linux at 2.36%.

Comments

Edge's OK

[Anonymous Coward]

It was a POS when it came out but it got better. Now, it's usable.

Interesting to think that forcing the Windows 10 upgrade while Edge was a total turd may have accidentally killed the web browser market for Microsoft.

Re: Edge's OK

[ArmoredDragon]

I disagree. Microsoft's UI design language just plain sucks, and Edge is no exception. A great example of why it sucks is this page:

https://www.bing.com/translato...

On laptop and touch screens, the light grey to the right of the "auto-detect" dropdown box sends an impression (to most users I show it to) that this is where you're supposed to type the text. But it's not, where you're supposed to type text is in the little box below it with an outline so thin that it's barely even visible on many screens, so it's not immediately even obvious that the text field is actually there at all.

Edge has this problem in the URL bar, where there's no UI hint that you can actually type there unless you happen to move your mouse over it, though most people who have used other web browsers tend to get it just because that's where the URL bar sits in other browsers so it's not quite a deal breaker, but it would otherwise be. Though a greater example of fail in Edge is when users want to change the default search engine. It turns out that they are rarely ever able to figure it out on their own without searching the internet for an answer, whereas they are more easily able to do so with IE and Chrome.

And that's just for novice users. Edge also doesn't have a place for power users either since it lacks most of the features (beyond just rendering web content) that modern browsers have had for a very long time. The only audience that Edge is suitable for are hardcore Microsoft fans. Yes, they exist, and they're also every bit as annoying as Apple fans were back when nobody used Apple products.

Sucks on multiple fronts

[Tablizer]

It's neither compatible with IE, nor better.

Depicts an depressing situation

[s1d3track3D]

depicts an even more depressing situation for Microsoft. According to the report, Edge sits at 3.89%...

when it comes to desktop operating systems, Windows has 91.51% of all users...

Depicts an even more depressing situation for the world...

User Interface

[Tim12s]

It all comes down to the user interface.

I'd still be with firefox if they didnt butcher the interface trying to copy windows ribbon with a shytty alternative.

Re:User Interface

[theweatherelectric]

What are you talking about? There's already a WebExtensions version of uBlock Origin. Read the release notes.

Re:User Interface

[urbanriot]

"Hey everyone! Look what we did! We threw Internet Explorer out the window, copied Chrome, added the Windows 8 Metro interface that everyone loves, and we took out all the options! ... and if anyone has any feedback, we don't care!"

The fundamental point that both Microsoft and Google are missing with the latest iterations of their browser, is that Internet Explorer offered an alternative to Chrome that gave people more personally configurable options, plenty of corporate configurable options via group policies, and a menu interface that wasn't too complicated. Microsoft decided they'd try to copy Google and made the decision easier. Want to relocate temporary internet files? Nope. Compatibility view? Nope, that's Internet Explorer. Want to fix Edge when this store app breaks, which it often does? Good luck.

I drank the kool aid between the Windows NT 4 / 2000 / XP / Vista / 7 days but these days Microsoft is a company I don't recognize and doesn't recognize its users. This is why Apple computers are popping up everywhere in my periphery, they actually care about the user experience.

Re:User Interface

[Zerf]

Unfortunately as is mentioned on their add-on page at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/classicthemerestorer/ Classic Theme Restorer will no longer work in Firefox 57 which is expected to be released in November 2017. Mozilla is dropping support for XUL/legacy add-ons.

Both are bad

[tezbobobo]

This is actually still really bad news for consumers. Both browsers are designed to lock you into an ecosystem. In Chrome's case it is Google's advertising ecosystem; Edge is designed to keep you dependant on Microsoft tech. What is really needed is a move to Firefox and (yes) Opera. A diversification of browsers is good for compatibility and standards compliance and liberates users from monopolistic corporation whose motivations are unclear and convoluted.

Re:Both are bad

[donaldm]

This is actually still really bad news for consumers. Both browsers are designed to lock you into an ecosystem. In Chrome's case it is Google's advertising ecosystem; Edge is designed to keep you dependant on Microsoft tech. What is really needed is a move to Firefox and (yes) Opera. A diversification of browsers is good for compatibility and standards compliance and liberates users from monopolistic corporation whose motivations are unclear and convoluted.

With Chrome you can go into the settings and change what you want to be tracked or not tracked. In fact, you don't even have to log in to Google so if they are tracking for advertising purposes all they have is an IP address. There is also an "Incognito window" (Pretty well all browsers have this) although this does not stop tracking by ISP's and the target site. Yes TOR can but you have to trust that the site operators respect your privacy.

Personally, I would rather trust a browser not to be annoying with regard to privacy since you do have some control and if you are not happy you can always use a different browser or search engine. On my system (Fedora 25), I have Qupzilla installed by default and it only takes a second to launch it (SSD's are great) and by default it uses DuckDuckGo. Of course, if your operating system by default effectively ticks all the boxes of Malware then it does not matter which web browser you use.

Re:Both are bad

[Opportunist]

You could also always just go for a chromium based browser like SRiron that strips the Google ogling from the Chrome.

Re:Both are bad

[fafalone]

Firefox is 100% dedicated to becoming indistinguishable from Chrome. They've been continually dumbing it down and shitting up the UI for years, and soon they're trashing the one remaining bright spot, plugins. Losing NPAPI plugins wasn't the problem, the real issue is coming this November with the elimination of XUL. The new WebExtensions offers far less power and customization. The only reason I don't use Chrome now is because of its god awful extension capabilities, so once Firefox is similarly crippled the last reason to use it flies out the window. They don't understand how they got a large userbase, don't understand why it shrunk, and don't understand that their current userbase doesn't want ChromeFox and cloning Chrome won't attract new ones.
So no, nobody is going to be moving to Firefox, nor should they, and their existing userbase will largely be abandoning them this year. I'll be using a pre-57 version for as long as that's viable, then that's it.

You say Yes to Opera, but does it really offer a compelling alternative to MS/Chrome like Firefox used to? Doesn't seem that way. The Pale Moon fork of Firefox seems like the only reasonable alternative at this point. But that's never going to be mainstream. So Edge v. Chrome here we come.

Re:Both are bad

[Bing Tsher E]

SeaMonkey is also a choice.

But it's never going to be mainstream.

But who cares about it being mainstream??? Isn't this Slashdot?

I use Edge for Netflix and nothing else

[Ramze]

Edge is the only browser that Netflix supports for 1080p (and even 4K streaming with certain processors). All other browsers are stuck at 720p or less for Netflix. It's an artificial limitation created by Netflix for piracy protection, but until I set up another device (perhaps an Amazon Fire TV) that can do as well or better for Netflix, I'll stick with Edge. Netflix's Windows 10 app will also allow 1080p, but the interface is a bit wonky, and for some reason, it doesn't work well on my laptop (though it works perfectly well for another laptop I have, and I have no idea why.) The app will just up and crash.... but, Edge works just fine.

Sure, I could use a different browser and watch Netflix in 720p, but why when Edge can do better?

My 1080p smart TV has its own Netflix app, but I believe it's also limited to 720p (it's pretty old for a 1080p TV)... maybe if/when I get a 4K TV I'll just use the app that comes with it instead.

Re:I use Edge for Netflix and nothing else

[Ramze]

I tend to agree... but, it's their official reason.

I don't think Netflix really cares about piracy -- they dominate the online streaming market & they're about to surpass any cable company in terms of subscriptions in the USA alone (assuming they haven't already). Why would they care if anyone pirates Orange is the New Black when almost everyone has a subscription and can watch it for free (with paid subscription) whenever they like anyway. Watching a pirate version just means you aren't using Netflix's bandwidth when you watch if you're already a subscriber. (and Netflix is now allowing downloaded content to various devices as they know this is true.)

They have to pay lip service to piracy prevention for content creators, though -- and I'm sure the content creators are also dictating what platforms they can do what on. Edge uses a different security model than other Windows browsers, so I'm sure that's the real difference... for now.

Chrome, the One Percenter

[CyberNigma]

Chrome may only be 59.49% of the market share, but it owns 99% of the memory out there. It's the browser one percenter!!

Can Chrome become the new IE?

[wvmarle]

Chrome becoming the new IE is what I'm afraid of. Its market share is >60 and rising fast - at this rate in a few years Chrome is reaching 90% and everything else is marginalised. That opens up the opportunity for Google to start "extending" its browser and for web developers to develop sites that are Chrome-only as "it's what everyone uses", instead of coding to standards as they just about have to in the current situation.

The risk of Google stopping browser innovation and stalling the web for a decade is less likely than back in the IE vs Netscape days but it is a distinct possibility when we again have a single browser dominating the field.

Re:Can Chrome become the new IE?

[Voyager529]

Partially, I agree with this - anyone having 90% of a market in just about any computing segment turns into a problem pretty quickly. Google, however, is in a place where they've been EEEing 'the internet'. Google fonts are everywhere. Google AMP is becoming a de facto requirement for mobile sites. GCC might be bouncing between second and third place with Microsoft for cloud hosting, but don't underestimate Google's ability to play the long game. Google also basically-owns the advertising market, meaning that they largely control the financial aspect of what runs many of the smaller sites. Even if they switched market shares with Opera, an internet without Google is basically a broken internet now.

Re:Even with aggressive defaults

[tepples]

But are people willing to pay $50 to leave Edge behind? Windows 10 S is locked down to run only Edge, just as iOS is locked down to run only Safari and other Apple WebKit wrappers. As of July 2017, Windows 10 S is targeted toward the school market, but I've read rumors here on Slashdot that Microsoft plans to eventually replace Windows 10 Home on new PCs with Windows 10 S.

The problem is Microsoft

[SpaghettiPattern]

Too many negative connotations with MS. Nice guys until they're on the winning hand. And then they turn into big, cocky scoundrels.

Excellent situation

[OneHundredAndTen]

The dominance of MS in the desktop is an excellent situation for those of us who like Linux in such an environment: all the security issues will be blamed on Microsoft, and the bad guys will continue focusing on Windows, leaving us mostly alone. We might not get access to the latest and greatest hardware immediately, and we might not have some key applications (none, in my case - YMMV) albeit a Windows VM (or even Wine) fixes that. But we enjoy a fully functional desktop, that does everything that we want, that is secure and (when avoiding the Windows wannabees hogs that are KDE and (especially) Gnome) efficient. Thank you, Microsoft. May things continue this way indefinitely.

Gosh

[ledow]

Gosh, I wonder why people don't really choose to use a browser that's a replacement for a previously atrocious browser from the same company, that was foisted upon people resulting in monopoly lawsuits, that choose just about every non-standard and insecure method of rendering a page that it possibly could, that only ever runs on a single operating system, is again bundled so you can't avoid it and pesters the shit out of you on upgrades to make it the default AGAIN, and really doesn't do anything that other browsers don't do, while also NOT doing quite a lot of things that other browsers do.

I can't possibly work it out.

add-ons make the difference

[swell]

I stick with Firefox because of the addons. No Flash nonsense with slide shows, popups, flashing adverts, etc. No unwanted trackers or spyware. No suspicious remote scripts. And the ability to change the format of a page: for instance, seeing Slashdot the full width of the window instead of wasting half my expensive screen space.

It seems that some of these addons are available for other browsers, but perhaps less effective. I'd experiment with other browsers but I really don't care as long as Firefox gives me a clean browsing experience. Yes, your browser may be 1.6% faster, but if it can't cut the crap from the screen I don't care. The choice of browser for me is not a religious obsession, it is simply a plea for peace of mind as I try to navigate aggressive web pages and preserve some privacy.

Would have to wrap EdgeHTML

[tepples]

From the Windows 10 S FAQ: "When in Windows 10 S configuration, you are able to download any browser available in the Windows Store"

From "Windows Store Policies", as reported in "Microsoft Has Effectively Banned Third-Party Browsers From the Windows Store" by Catalin Cimpanu:

10.2.1
Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate HTML and JavaScript engines provided by the Windows Platform.

Thus all web browsers for Windows 10 S are wrappers for the same EdgeHTML engine that Microsoft Edge uses, in the same way that all* web browsers for iOS are wrappers for the same Apple WebKit engine that Safari uses. If a user encounters a site that relies on a new web platform feature that Edge does not implement, the option to switch to a Blink or Gecko browser in order to work around lack of support in Edge is paywalled to users of Windows 10 S, as the user would first have to purchase the upgrade to Windows 10 Pro.

I know Google has made Chrome In Name Only for iOS, and Mozilla has made Firefox In Name Only for iOS, both of which wrap Apple WebKit. But to what extent would it be a worthwhile effort and positive brand move for Google and Mozilla to produce browsers that wrap EdgeHTML for Windows Store?

* Except Opera Mini, which is more like running Remote Desktop to a web browser running on a VPS somewhere.