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This image comes from one of the many marketing companies that monitor browser usage across the internet. Where I love that we are here? For folks that made strides in the industry in the 2010’s? We took a beating to get here.

Here are some plain facts about this - but would love to hear you add any thoughts.

- Chrome used to be called a consumer browser. Some may still say that. But two out of the three most popular used browsers are based on Chromium today.

- Safari is still based on WebKit…and is popular because of the Apple brand and those millions of iPhones that are out there.

- At least in my industry folks are still consuming eLearning today more at their desktops with a little less that 6% consuming from their phones.

- The death of Adobe flash left scars on many in our industry with a full EOL in late 2020 (honestly browsers were moving us earlier away from supporting flash based eLearning).. But it has been a breath of fresh air to be working with HTML 5 as a ubiquitous format for browsers today.
- Love it or hate it? If your content is not responsive today? You are behind the times.
- There have been a few “brain farts” done with the adjustment of some important things in browsers…how many remember your auto start videos not starting one day and then the next they did? How about eLearning modules writing to certain file storage modules in your modern browser all of a sudden not doing that anymore?

- Firefox was probably the most flexible and forgiving for web developers to work with. That may even be true to this day (someone is going to throw an egg at me), but that also does not mean it has nearly the lions share of Chrome…

- Both Chrome and Firefox get funky with memory leaks often (which can cease up your entire workstation’s experience). I want to say this feels true more with Firefox…but that is purely anecdotal evidence.

There are some great “boutique browsers” today helping to serve a niche…but we predominantly QA and test our learning solutions in Chrome and Edge with Firefox almost always being tested as a third…

Let’s hear some more facts about the environment we cater to our audiences in.

Some interesting observations here. Although I personally use Chrome, I didn’t know that it was so far ahead of the pack (or that Edge is actually based on Chromium). About 95% of our learners access our site on desktop rather than mobile. It would be interesting to know what the percentage is for other admins.

I find it interesting your QA doesn’t include safari since it is a different engine than chrome/edge. 
 

while I do like these “state of the internet” as a whole for general conversations in life an whatnot, when it comes to for work I find it misleading and more important to be running reports like this internally. Especially in business world, while this is the state of the world, it may not be true here. Your bullet on desktop usage is a fine example of this, others can include still supporting IE unfortunately in large enterprises, also sometimes device policies point to different usage scenarios, i.e. no android used so less mobile chrome and increased mobile safari due to power of default. Can create a completely different pie to factor and make choices by. 

Also based on Chromium - I have been using Brave for quite some time now.

Firefox is my second and serves as my main alt browser for test accounts.

It seems Google showed up on the scene at the right time when people were frustrated with IE and were ripe for something new that worked well.

I am an iOS user with both iPhone and iPad but still do not use the Safari app as a primary browser. I use it for when I check it to test and that is about all.

Also based on Chromium - I have been using Brave for quite some time now.

Firefox is my second and serves as my main alt browser for test accounts.

It seems Google showed up on the scene at the right time when people were frustrated with IE and were ripe for something new that worked well.

I am an iOS user with both iPhone and iPad but still do not use the Safari app as a primary browser. I use it for when I check it to test and that is about all.

:) but I’d hardly call you a ‘normal’ user to base things on.

Met to mention, Brave is very nice for those who are into exploring alternatives for sure!

:) but I’d hardly call you a ‘normal’ user to base things on.

Keen eye… keen eye. 

I find it interesting your QA doesn’t include safari since it is a different engine than chrome/edge. 

@Bfarkas - we don’t do it currently only because macs are not a standard issued computer at our workplace. iPhones are more ubiquitous, but they also fall into a category of not a standard issued piece of equipment.

I do agree with that where these stats are helpful to help you understand the global perspective? Your global perspective at work can be a very different story.

You are reminding me though of an important practice from years ago? It is probably still important to have a supported browser statement facing our service desks and users…all modern browsers does not mean all supported browsers.

@gstager You are not alone! 

@gstager You are not alone! 

 

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