8 ms·

The fact that Edge lags behind in desktop browser share is absurd. Looking at some charts online it appears to have 1/5 the usage of Chrome. That’s crazy. 80% o

by tyleo 5y ago

The fact that Edge lags behind in desktop browser share is absurd. Looking at some charts online it appears to have 1/5 the usage of Chrome. That’s crazy. 80% of people are finding, installing, and using Chrome when a default is provided by the OS. On the other hand, the continuous own-goals like this leave me unsurprised. It’s like Microsoft wants to create a bad browser.

notriddle 5y ago
Or it's bundled by their PC, along with mcafee
dgellow 5y ago
20% of Chrome market share in ~1 year is not that bad IMHO. The new Edge is fairly recent.
- tentacleuno 5y ago
  It looks good on paper but we both know a large amount of that is due to the dark patterns Microsoft employs in Windows to force people into using Edge[0][1]. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29248460 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29248460 [1]: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=Microsoft%20edge&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
AlexandrB 5y ago
It feels like a very "enterprisey" way of thinking. Where business deals and partnerships take precedence over user experience. I'm reminded of how the Java installer bundled (or still bundles?) an Ask toolbar for some reason.
- heurisko 5y ago
  I was going to say the same thing. Truly bizarre that Oracle did this for so long. There was even a petition about it. https://www.change.org/p/oracle-corporation-stop-bundling-ask-toolbar-with-the-java-installer https://www.change.org/p/oracle-corporation-stop-bundling-as... It seemed such a counterproductive way to popularise a platform, as it immediately shredded their credibility, to seem the same level as that of some random company peddling malware.
kreeben 5y ago
The reason might be because ten years ago we all went home to our moms and pops and told them we had finally found a perfect browser for them that was much safer and leaner and better in every way and even though the switch from IE to Chrome was hard on them, they went along. Now they are masters of their browser and will not listen to us proclaiming that "well, I was wrong to put you on Chrome, but this time I really have found the bestest browser". Also, there's a lack of benign browsers in the market. Even team FF tries to make your mom buy things she doesn't really want or need, with their Firefox Suggest feature.
- Mikeb85 5y ago
  Chrome is still the best, by far. No ads and random anti-patterns I don't want in the interface (looking at you Firefox), no MS shenanigans (10x worse than FF), it just gets out of the way and does its job. Bonus it runs DRM (I don't like it but necessary evil), casts to Chromecast, Google is still the best search engine, etc...
  - lotsofpulp 5y ago
    On macOS, Safari is the best for me due to noticeably increased battery life.
    - FormerBandmate 5y ago
      Edge used to do this while having all the Chrome QoL features that make it better than Safari. Now they're eating away at that cause they're idiots. The Windows 11 era of Windows sucks
      - cehrlich 5y ago
        I really don't get it. I switched to Edge on Mac a while ago because it was more compatible than Safari but less bloaty than Chrome. But I don't think they have anywhere near enough market share yet to start milking it. There is _nothing_ keeping me tied to Edge, and I haven't even really started recommending it to people yet.
05 5y ago
> 80% of people are finding, installing, and using Chrome when a default is provided by the OS. I would be amazed if we were talking Firefox, but Google pushes Chrome down your throat pretty hard..
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago
  >I would be amazed if we were talking Firefox, but Google pushes Chrome down your throat pretty hard. Exactly. IIRC, every time you use Google, Gmail or Youtube, from any non-Chrome browser, you get ads like "Everything works better on Chrome, wanna try it?" shoved in your face every step of the way. So no surprise Chrome owns the web when Google owns the most visited websites in the world. IIRC Google intentionally had a weird non-standard <div> placed in Youtube that would break rendering under old non-chromium Edge to hurt user experience and to force Edge users to Chrome which AFAIK was the straw that broke the camel's back and forced Microsoft to throw in the towel and move new Edge onto Chromium as it is today.
  - tentacleuno 5y ago
    > IIRC Google intentionally had a weird non-standard <div> placed in Youtube that would break rendering under old non-chromium Edge to hurt user experience and to force Edge users to Chrome which AFAIK was the straw that broke the camel's back and forced Microsoft to throw in the towel and move new Edge onto Chromium as it is today. Yeah, you're right, they did do that[0]. Just posted about this in another comment. [0]: https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18148736/google-youtube-microsoft-edge-intern-claims https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18148736/google-youtube-...
howinteresting 5y ago
Chrome itself benefits from being pushed by Google properties, including it being the only ad on the Google homepage. Back in the day it took off in popularity after being bundled with Flash Player.
- Mikeb85 5y ago
  Hah. I'm willing to bet the first thing entered into that majority of non-Chrome desktop browsers is a search for Google Chrome.
  - tentacleuno 5y ago
    > Hah. I'm willing to bet the first thing entered into that majority of non-Chrome desktop browsers is a search for Google Chrome. Can you blame them? Especially with the whole Bing stealing search results[0] thing -- that really damaged Microsoft's reputation. [0]: https://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914 https://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying...
sirius87 5y ago
A lot of developers dunk on Google for Chrome pushing people to sign in to their Google account for sync. For elderly non-tech folks like my Dad's close friend, signing into Chrome Profile/Sync (whatever it's now called) is like "signing into the internet". "I can check my e-mail, browse the internet". He doesn't remember a single password, except for Google and Facebook. He doesn't know "what passwords do". If any other browser opens up for whatever reason (sometimes PDF files open in Edge), he's totally at sea.
- Y_Y 5y ago
  To be fair, I use Firefox to achieve pretty much the same thing.
dheera 5y ago
Because a lot of websites still only work with Chrome. It's that simple.
- jeltz 5y ago
  Not really. I use Firefox almost all the time and while I occasionally encounter Chrome only websites they are very rare.
  - eitland 5y ago
    Actually agree to some degree. I only use Firefox and the only page I struggle with is the time sheet at work. With that I have to open developer tools and disable caching. I'm also happy to say that the brilliant linux-loving techies in our IT department is planning to replace that web application :-)
- mminer237 5y ago
  How could a website work with Chrome and not Edge? Just user agent sniffing ignoring the Chrome and specifically choosing not to work with Edge? I can't imagine that's common at all.
  - dheera 5y ago
    Sadly it is common for products made outside Silicon Valley. I even had a website once say that my Chrome version had to be between A and B, and wouldn't accept a Chrome version greater than B.
  - sdflhasjd 5y ago
    Google deliberately gimps functionality of maps in Edge and Firefox at least. Definitely not a problem for the wider web though.
paulryanrogers 5y ago
Don't some OEMs include Chrome these days? Combined with Google services pushing Chrome and it's future is secure.
saint-loup 5y ago
Besides marketing tactics brought up by sibling comments, isn't Chrome pre-installed on quite a few OEM computers brands?
lagmos 5y ago
To be fair, it's probably quicker to download and install chrome/ff/brave than to fix the absolutely user hostile default settings on edge.

by tyleo 5y ago

notriddle 5y ago

Or it's bundled by their PC, along with mcafee

dgellow 5y ago

20% of Chrome market share in ~1 year is not that bad IMHO. The new Edge is fairly recent.

tentacleuno 5y ago
It looks good on paper but we both know a large amount of that is due to the dark patterns Microsoft employs in Windows to force people into using Edge[0][1]. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29248460 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29248460 [1]: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=Microsoft%20edge&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

AlexandrB 5y ago

It feels like a very "enterprisey" way of thinking. Where business deals and partnerships take precedence over user experience. I'm reminded of how the Java installer bundled (or still bundles?) an Ask toolbar for some reason.

heurisko 5y ago
I was going to say the same thing. Truly bizarre that Oracle did this for so long. There was even a petition about it. https://www.change.org/p/oracle-corporation-stop-bundling-ask-toolbar-with-the-java-installer https://www.change.org/p/oracle-corporation-stop-bundling-as... It seemed such a counterproductive way to popularise a platform, as it immediately shredded their credibility, to seem the same level as that of some random company peddling malware.

kreeben 5y ago

The reason might be because ten years ago we all went home to our moms and pops and told them we had finally found a perfect browser for them that was much safer and leaner and better in every way and even though the switch from IE to Chrome was hard on them, they went along. Now they are masters of their browser and will not listen to us proclaiming that "well, I was wrong to put you on Chrome, but this time I really have found the bestest browser". Also, there's a lack of benign browsers in the market. Even team FF tries to make your mom buy things she doesn't really want or need, with their Firefox Suggest feature.

Mikeb85 5y ago
Chrome is still the best, by far. No ads and random anti-patterns I don't want in the interface (looking at you Firefox), no MS shenanigans (10x worse than FF), it just gets out of the way and does its job. Bonus it runs DRM (I don't like it but necessary evil), casts to Chromecast, Google is still the best search engine, etc...
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  On macOS, Safari is the best for me due to noticeably increased battery life.
  - FormerBandmate 5y ago
    Edge used to do this while having all the Chrome QoL features that make it better than Safari. Now they're eating away at that cause they're idiots. The Windows 11 era of Windows sucks
    - cehrlich 5y ago
      I really don't get it. I switched to Edge on Mac a while ago because it was more compatible than Safari but less bloaty than Chrome. But I don't think they have anywhere near enough market share yet to start milking it. There is _nothing_ keeping me tied to Edge, and I haven't even really started recommending it to people yet.

05 5y ago

> 80% of people are finding, installing, and using Chrome when a default is provided by the OS. I would be amazed if we were talking Firefox, but Google pushes Chrome down your throat pretty hard..

ChuckNorris89 5y ago
>I would be amazed if we were talking Firefox, but Google pushes Chrome down your throat pretty hard. Exactly. IIRC, every time you use Google, Gmail or Youtube, from any non-Chrome browser, you get ads like "Everything works better on Chrome, wanna try it?" shoved in your face every step of the way. So no surprise Chrome owns the web when Google owns the most visited websites in the world. IIRC Google intentionally had a weird non-standard <div> placed in Youtube that would break rendering under old non-chromium Edge to hurt user experience and to force Edge users to Chrome which AFAIK was the straw that broke the camel's back and forced Microsoft to throw in the towel and move new Edge onto Chromium as it is today.
- tentacleuno 5y ago
  > IIRC Google intentionally had a weird non-standard <div> placed in Youtube that would break rendering under old non-chromium Edge to hurt user experience and to force Edge users to Chrome which AFAIK was the straw that broke the camel's back and forced Microsoft to throw in the towel and move new Edge onto Chromium as it is today. Yeah, you're right, they did do that[0]. Just posted about this in another comment. [0]: https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18148736/google-youtube-microsoft-edge-intern-claims https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/19/18148736/google-youtube-...

howinteresting 5y ago

Chrome itself benefits from being pushed by Google properties, including it being the only ad on the Google homepage. Back in the day it took off in popularity after being bundled with Flash Player.

Mikeb85 5y ago
Hah. I'm willing to bet the first thing entered into that majority of non-Chrome desktop browsers is a search for Google Chrome.
- tentacleuno 5y ago
  > Hah. I'm willing to bet the first thing entered into that majority of non-Chrome desktop browsers is a search for Google Chrome. Can you blame them? Especially with the whole Bing stealing search results[0] thing -- that really damaged Microsoft's reputation. [0]: https://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914 https://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying...

sirius87 5y ago

A lot of developers dunk on Google for Chrome pushing people to sign in to their Google account for sync. For elderly non-tech folks like my Dad's close friend, signing into Chrome Profile/Sync (whatever it's now called) is like "signing into the internet". "I can check my e-mail, browse the internet". He doesn't remember a single password, except for Google and Facebook. He doesn't know "what passwords do". If any other browser opens up for whatever reason (sometimes PDF files open in Edge), he's totally at sea.

Y_Y 5y ago
To be fair, I use Firefox to achieve pretty much the same thing.

dheera 5y ago

Because a lot of websites still only work with Chrome. It's that simple.

jeltz 5y ago
Not really. I use Firefox almost all the time and while I occasionally encounter Chrome only websites they are very rare.
- eitland 5y ago
  Actually agree to some degree. I only use Firefox and the only page I struggle with is the time sheet at work. With that I have to open developer tools and disable caching. I'm also happy to say that the brilliant linux-loving techies in our IT department is planning to replace that web application :-)
mminer237 5y ago
How could a website work with Chrome and not Edge? Just user agent sniffing ignoring the Chrome and specifically choosing not to work with Edge? I can't imagine that's common at all.
- dheera 5y ago
  Sadly it is common for products made outside Silicon Valley. I even had a website once say that my Chrome version had to be between A and B, and wouldn't accept a Chrome version greater than B.
- sdflhasjd 5y ago
  Google deliberately gimps functionality of maps in Edge and Firefox at least. Definitely not a problem for the wider web though.

paulryanrogers 5y ago

Don't some OEMs include Chrome these days? Combined with Google services pushing Chrome and it's future is secure.

saint-loup 5y ago

Besides marketing tactics brought up by sibling comments, isn't Chrome pre-installed on quite a few OEM computers brands?

lagmos 5y ago

To be fair, it's probably quicker to download and install chrome/ff/brave than to fix the absolutely user hostile default settings on edge.