NEWS / WINDOWS

IE 7 to Gain Rapid Adoption

26 Oct, 2006, 3:00 pm IST | by Sharon Khare | Windows

WebSideStory, a provider of digital marketing and analytics solutions, has released data showing that Microsoft's long-awaited browser, Internet Explorer 7, will likely gain rapid adoption on the web if past history is any indication.

Based on the growth of its predecessor, IE 7 should become the dominant browser version within a year, perhaps even faster as Microsoft bundles the new browser and its enhanced security measures into an automatic security update.

Launched in August 2001, IE 6 grew to more than 45 percent usage share within one year on Windows operating systems, and then surpassed IE 5 for good one month later, according to the WebSideStory Index, a compilation of global Internet user trends and e-commerce statistics. Index data is collected from the millions of daily Internet users who visit web sites using WebSideStory's on-demand web analytics technology, HBX Analytics. IE 6 achieved 80 percent market share in early 2004, before hitting a high of 89 percent on March 8, 2006. Launched last week, IE 7 is already gaining steam, picking up more than 1.5 percentage points to rise to 4.07 percent usage share as of yesterday—a 65 percent jump.

Despite containing features first popularized in Firefox, such as tabbed browsing, IE 7 is not expected to have much of an impact on the growth of Firefox, which released its latest version (v2) earlier this week. Firefox had a U.S. usage share of 9.88 percent on Windows as of last Friday, compared with 86.18 percent for all versions of Internet Explorer, according to WebSideStory.

"We expect IE 7 to have little short-term impact on Firefox because once a favorite browser gets installed, it's difficult to replace. For now, Firefox appears to have become the browser of choice for about 10 percent of Americans," said Rand Schulman, Chief Marketing Officer at WebSideStory. "IE 7 will grow quickly, but directly at the expense of IE 6."

In addition to enhanced security measures, such as a phishing filter and new parental controls, IE 7 also contains new user interface improvements and Web 2.0 capabilities, including an RSS feed aggregator and improved Ajax support. Other browsers such as Firefox and Flock are also beginning to offer new Web 2.0 capabilities, such as support for rich web applications and the ability to share photos and other content with people online.

"It's clear to WebSideStory and our customers that these new browser capabilities will continue to drive the adoption of Web 2.0 applications and fuel innovations across the web," Schulman said.

Tags: IE 7 , Microsoft

RELATED STORIES

It's Official. Research Proves Internet Explorer Users Are Dumb

It's Official. Research Proves Internet Explorer Users Are Dumb

Have you been using Microsoft Internet Explorer to surf the web lately? If the answer is 'yes' then according to a report from the ApTiquant Psychometric Consulting Co., you may have a deficiency of intellectual acuity, or in simpler words, you have a low IQ!

Microsoft gains ground in patent feud with Motorola over texting

Microsoft goes So.cl

Microsoft builds Kinectacles, Kinect Bridge for the blind and speech impaired

Intel Windows 8 tablets to hit markets in November

Microsoft joins Hybrid Memory Cube consortium to speed-up industry adoption

Dolby signs pact with Microsoft

 

OPINIONS

Padmini Harchandrai

The latest "should they-shouldn't they" event with Facebook is the lift of the minimu...

MORE OPINIONS

Leaked Images, Availability, Pricing,
Specs, Pre-order

features

Top 5 free all-in-one messengers for Windows

Top 5 free all-in-one messengers for Windows

The number of instant messaging services have exploded, since the first...

By Rossi Fernandes

Project Darpan: Digitizing Indian local languages

Project Darpan: Digitizing Indian local languages

Compared to the relatively slow adoption rate of the traditional PC, that...

By Naina Khedekar

Top 10 tips for Internet Explorer 9

Top 10 tips for Internet Explorer 9

Microsoft’s browser Internet Explorer has been around a while and things

By Tech2

MORE FEATURES

Google Nexus tablet to be unveiled at Google I/O 2012

Derek Matuszewski

Sat May 26, 19:03:39

Portable Wi-Fi Drives for your smartphone

Nitish Kumar

Sat May 26, 18:41:21

Portable Wi-Fi Drives for your smartphone

Dr-Mosleh Ghaffari

Sat May 26, 18:30:11

MORE DISCUSSIONS