Chrome Frame

[Arathena]

Google has a new plugin for IE that removes the guts of IE and transplants the guts of Chrome. Microsoft hates this. Bwa-hah-hah.

Good idea, too, since Google grabbed a bunch of people off the street in New York, and only EIGHT PERCENT of them knew what a browser was!

[Ddrak]

It's not that intrusive seeing it only replaces the IE renderer if the web page specifically asks for it. An interesting move from Google, but you can almost bet that service packs from Microsoft that fix security errors "accidentally" break it, or riddle it with popup warnings.

Dd

[Taxious]

only EIGHT PERCENT of them knew what a browser was!

wtf... that's much lower than I would have expected.

[Arathena]

It's not that intrusive seeing it only replaces the IE renderer if the web page specifically asks for it. An interesting move from Google, but you can almost bet that service packs from Microsoft that fix security errors "accidentally" break it, or riddle it with popup warnings.

Dd

Yeah, but the thing is, it means that web developers can now make an end-run around Microsoft's inability to conform to rendering standards. It makes me wonder how much in terms of development support money Microsoft stands to lose - Someone has to teach people how to do things for the browser that doesn't work.

only EIGHT PERCENT of them knew what a browser was!

wtf... that's much lower than I would have expected.

Why? Consider the non-power user's experience: You buy this black or beige box. You plug it in, fiddle with all those strange wires, and it works. You click on the thingy on the screen that says 'Internet'. You go straight away to Microsoft's default site, maybe you go up top to the address bar, type 'google.com, maybe you just use whatever search engine is in the MS default page now, and that's your internet experience. Who cares what the browser is? It's that site you use to find things you want, rite? It works. And don't forget that - As long as you can get your lolcats, the non-power user doesn't care.

[Taxious]

The 8% just doesn't seem right to me. According to http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp FireFox accounts for nearly 50% of the browser market lately. As far as I know, FireFox still doesn't come pre-packaged with any computer meaning that people are willingly downloading and using it as an alternative to IE. I wouldn't say that 50% of people that use the internet are "power users" though...

[Arathena]

The 8% just doesn't seem right to me. According to http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp FireFox accounts for nearly 50% of the browser market lately. As far as I know, FireFox still doesn't come pre-packaged with any computer meaning that people are willingly downloading and using it as an alternative to IE. I wouldn't say that 50% of people that use the internet are "power users" though...

I would say that two thirds of that 50% could easily be people who went to their friends that did know something, and went, "The internet keeps crashing my computer!"

[Taxious]

I guess that's true.

The Chrome growth is exciting though, although it doesn't mean much given that only 8% of Americans know/care.

Google Chrome 2009:
August 7.0%
July 6.5%
June 6.0%
May 5.5%
April 4.9%
March 4.2%
February 4.0%
January 3.9%

[Arathena]

Charitably, I'll bet that a lot more than 8% know the technical distinction... and not more than 20% care about anything other than operational reliability.

[Ddrak]

Tax,

Those stats are for the w3schools site only, which would have about 0% of noobs on the web. Wikipedia has a much better summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_shar ... b_browsers

IE = 65%
FF = 26%
Safari = 4%
Chrome = 3%


@Ara

Yeah, but the thing is, it means that web developers can now make an end-run around Microsoft's inability to conform to rendering standards. It makes me wonder how much in terms of development support money Microsoft stands to lose - Someone has to teach people how to do things for the browser that doesn't work.

Not much. Devs don't usually go to MS for support on that sort of thing. The ones who stand to lose are the training companies, or the web development agencies themselves who are faced with people able to do the work for much less. Like I said though, it's really not an end-run around the browser because MS can and will break it whenever they feel it's a good idea.

Consider the non-power user's experience: You buy this black or beige box. You plug it in, fiddle with all those strange wires, and it works. You click on the thingy on the screen that says 'Internet'. You go straight away to Microsoft's default site

Actually, no. Almost all boxes have branding applied to their IE/FF installs by default these days and send you to whatever home site they feel like sending you to. The branding tends to annoy the shit outta me because I like "about:blank" as my home page.

Dd

[Taxious]

Those stats are for the w3schools site only, which would have about 0% of noobs on the web. Wikipedia has a much better summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_shar ... b_browsers

IE = 65%
FF = 26%
Safari = 4%
Chrome = 3%

Ahhh those make more sense... hehe

[Arathena]

@Ara
Like I said though, it's really not an end-run around the browser because MS can and will break it whenever they feel it's a good idea.p

I suppose that depends on how many sites adopt it. If customers start rocking the boat, I imagine that there will be a certain amount of reluctance to pull the plug.

Actually, no. Almost all boxes have branding applied to their IE/FF installs by default these days and send you to whatever home site they feel like sending you to. The branding tends to annoy the shit outta me because I like "about:blank" as my home page.
Dd

Guess that's what I get for being too poor to buy a new box in the last couple years.