Most Popular Browsers, Search Engines and Operating Systems

It has been quite a while since I wrote about browsers, search engines, and operating systems. During the past few years, there have been significant changes in the way we access our computing devices. There have been significant changes in the market percentages of the different programs. Time to see what is going on out there on the internet.

First browsers. A browser, also known as a web browser, is a program that runs on your device (using the term to include anything attached to the internet) that enables the user to navigate the World Wide Web to access and display data of all kinds. You might be surprised at what are now the most commonly used programs. Here is the lineup from Statista.com for 2018.

• Chrome for Android 27.62%
• Chrome 63.0 13.76%
• Chrome 64.0 11.55%
• Safari iPhone 9.58%
• Firefox 58.0 3.41%

Here is another list from ZDNet.com

• Chrome 44.5%
• Safari 25.4%
• Various versions of Internet Explorer 15.5%
• Firefox 7.4%
• Edge 3.5%

Here is another website with statistics: Digtal.gov. This is where some of the information about usage comes from. There are many other sources.

Now, what about search engines? Here is another list from Statista.com. But really, the answer is there is Google and everybody else. Google has 63.5 percent of the overall search inquiries in the U.S., but on mobile devices, it has 93% of the market share. Worldwide, Google has an 86.3 percent market share. No other search engine has even close to 10% of the market. 

Next, on to operating systems. Here we have two divisions: desktop and mobile. There are probably not many surprises here. It is back to Statista.com. 

Desktop

• Windows 82.55%
• MacOS is about 12%

The rest share what's left. 

Mobile again from Statista.com

• Android 30.5%
• iOS 23.8%
• Microsoft 2.6%
• RIM (Blackberry) 6.8

Many others with very small percentages.

If you can remember what was popular back a few years, you can see that there has been a huge change in the way computers are used and the programs that are the most used.