When Dawn Shrum was in college a few years ago, her one and only Web browser was Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Boy, has her browsing changed since then.
The 26-year-old online marketing analyst for Itron, a smart-metering company in Spokane, Wash., now often uses four at once: IE; Google’s blur-fast Chrome; non-profit Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox; and Apple’s Safari, when on her Mac.
The same is true with Eric Timm, 34, a senior network architect in Madison, Wis. Chrome is his preferred choice. IE is his default browser at work. For maximum use of the Pandora Internet-radio service, Timm prefers Firefox. And he uses Safari on his iPhone.
“It’s refreshing to get different views, since I’m on a browser eight to 10 hours a day,” Timm says, chuckling.
Shrum’s and Timm’s changes in habit reflect a significant shift in how millions of Americans use browsers to traverse the Internet for information, pictures and video. A decade ago, the Web browser market was a two-horse race between Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Netscape Communications’ Navigator. (We all know who won.) Today, it’s a crowded field. Microsoft is still No. 1, but its lead in market share faces challenges from Mozilla, Google, Apple and others.
Indeed, every few weeks, there seems to be a major browser announcement. This week, Flock beefed up its social-networking browser by upgrading its speed and adding LinkedIn, a popular networking site used by 85 million people.
Earlier this month, start-up RockMelt — the brainchild of former Netscape Communications employees and financially backed by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen — launched to glowing user reviews. At about the same time, Google delivered an update to Chrome that is faster and more secure, and does a better job of reading digital files.
Not to be outdone, new versions of IE and Firefox are due early next year.
“There are more good options…