I see the commodity price of tinfoil surged after this thread made the front page.
The simple truth is Google, just like Microsoft, or the President for that matter, is just an easy target to blame and vilify everything happening in the world on them.
Which has absolutely nothing to do with Chrome overtaking MSIE.
Fact is a superior product is taking hold and the only way to reverse that trend is to fix MSIE to once again, be the best of breed. Additionally, MS needs to get a decent foothold in mobile which is the current driving force, and they have nothing, squat.
MS's new slogan should be "Windows 8. Too Little, Too Late."
is there any money in IE? how do they actually make money with it.
Originally, by MS attempting to make MSIE an integral part of the OS they were attempting to lock everyone into MS Windows and other tightly integrated MS products, that was the first hook.
Then of course if your browser is integrated into the OS then your search engine obviously becomes the default home page in that browser, which means ads for MS Bing customers are seen before any others.
That's why the EU started jumping up and down hissing and spitting because MS basically controlled the entire food chain from OS to advertiser. Of course now that Google is attempting to do the same thing with Chrome OS, and they didn't even invent this trick, people are jumping up and down again. However, nobody has even mentioned making Chrome OS offer alternative browsers or search engines, funny that.
Truth is people really don't want choices. They want appliances. Things that simply come out of the box, turn on, and work the first time. If people wanted choices they could've bought Apple with Safari or got Ubuntu with Firefox, nobody twisted their arms to buy hardware pre-loaded with MS products but it's seen as a turnkey appliance.
Funny, my PlayStation or Wii (maybe both) has Opera and I can't even buy a replacement for it, similar situation with the new TV loaded with apps. Android phones all come with Google browsers and SEs out of the box and nobody cares. Likewise, iPhones and iPads, clearly market leaders, all come with Safari by default. However, get to the desktop computer, which for 99% of the planet is just as much an appliance as the smart phone or tablet, and suddenly they must have choices, it's mandated nonsense.
IMO it's all these
appliances that will end up dictating the dominant browser because the desktop is rapidly shifting to mobile computing for many people, tablet at a minimum, and they tend to want to use the same tools on all devices when possible.
What that means is that currently, Safari and Chrome have the home team advantage by dominating the mobile market and MS, not having a good showing in mobile, is rapidly losing that customer base.
Even more amusing is many still snub the mobile market and don't even realize what a game changer it's become and is far more than trend setting at this point, as mobile is practically running the show.
It will be interesting to see which browser clearly dominates in a year or two. I'm thinking the market will get more fractured with new upstarts like Dolphin, which I love, and it'll level out with with more big players as they grab market share.
Only time will tell.
