July, 2011: Google Chrome, Safari Share Up; Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera – Down

By | August 2, 2011 | 48 Comments

July, 2011: Google Chrome, Safari Share Up; Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera - Down

It’s August already as we look at the July’s web browser market share numbers. As you will see from the stats below, this month was awful for everyone but WebKit.

Internet Explorer is first in our list and there are no surprises here. It has lost some of its market share again, down from 53.68% to 52.71% (0.97 point decrease).

Firefox 5 did not change the situation for Mozilla as its browser market share continues to grind lower, down from 21.67% to 21.47% (0.2 point decrease).

Google’s Chrome growth is in a steady uptrend, nothing new here, up from 13.11% to 13.49% (0.38 point increase).

As we spoiled already, Safari has also increased its market share with a pretty significant gain, up from 7.48% to 8.10% (0.62 point increase).

For pretty much 6 months in a row now, Opera continues to lose its market share, down from 1.73% to 1.65% (0.08 point decrease).

That’s all for today, folks.

Thanks to Net Applications for the graph.


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • IE & Opera FanBoy

    Opera should invest more on following
    -> Support more JavaScript standard support.
    -> Support more Enterprise support like Group Policy, ADFS , intergrated auth like NTLM, Kerberos ,..etc.
    -> Faster startup time 
    -> Better Marketing.

    Opera, See Chrome came so late but they are in the leading game. Seems like Opera need to fix their direction a lot.

    • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

      + compatibility

      v11+ was a disaster for me, 70% of the site menus I visit daily did not even work, thanks to their “genius” new way to render that.

      Heck, even new paypal checkout form is broken when using ctrl+enter to fill the passwords.

      • Mikah

        Opera 11+ & even v12 pre alpha’s have been rock solid for me maybe because I’m using the portable version & syncing instead of upgrading ?
        I do remember when Opera 10.50 came out it was a disaster if you upgraded but great with a clean install.
        Don’t know whether ctrl+enter works for Paypal  I prefer the extra security of relying on my memory when it concerns money.

      • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

        What are all the annoying things? Websites that doesn’t work with Opera because of the webmasters?

    • Dante

      “Opera, See Chrome came so late but they are in the leading game.”
      Chrome = big Google marketing + Apple (initial fork of the KHTML engine) code
      Firefox = big Google marketing (support end this year) + Netscape (initial Mosaic) code 
      IE = Microsoft Windows + Microsoft (initial Mosaic) code
      Opera = Opera code – small European browser + popular mobile browser

      Opera start faster than Firefox or Safari. Installation is about 5x smaller than Chrome or Safari and have good ECMA-262 ver5 support: http://sputnik.googlelabs.com

      • Anonymous

        Yet despite all the initial conseption it still has the lowest Browser share.

        And you are fogetting Telenor – The sixth largest Mobile network.

        Opera began with the best. They just failed at marketting and simplicity.

        • Mikah

          The Opera web browser started as a project at Telenor in 1994  & in 1995 the developers left & Opera became independent , how is that beginning with the best ? might be true of Chrome & Firefox but not Opera.
          Opera Mobile started in 2000  &  Opera Mini in 2006  & Opera announced a deal with Telenor in 2010
          It’s a small company with around 2% of the worldwide desktop browser market & leads the mobile browsers.
          Maybe its too complex for the majority  personally I find it very simple especially compared to my favorite program which is Photoshop.

          • Anonymous

            You can’t say that.

            Mozilla started the same way and then Firefox.

          • Mikah

            The Mosaic browser led to Netscape Navigator which in turn spawned Mozilla then Firefox
            The Linux browser Konqueror led to Apples Safari & Webkit then Chrome
            Opera started as a project at Telenor & was not based on any other browser.

          • Nobody

            so others were smarter to use something that was already done?

            since when reinventing the wheel is supposed to be rewarded?

            operaboys are claiming that choosing the hardest way is in some way better than doing the same work the easiest way. it does not work that way. if you think that it does, go to work only after you design and produce your own car.

          • Mikah

            Not claiming anything simply stating facts.
            “since when reinventing the wheel is supposed to be rewarded?”
            Think about it before shooting off your mouth, its 1994 which great browser was Opera supposed to copy ?

          • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

            But Mozilla kept receiving money from AOL.

      • IE & Opera FanBoy

        The Compare options Google posted http://sputnik.googlelabs.com/compare there was very old , they needs to be updated. In my Windows 7 machine IE9 scores more than Opera, but still I use Opera to comment this :)

        I like IE9 because it blends into OS smoothly.
        I like Opera because where browser chrome innovation take place,

  • http://awesomewallpapers.wordpress.com/ Ben

    I understand the rise of Chrome, but Safari?  Who would use Safari?  There are hardly any customizability options for it.

    • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

      Safari also includes mobile version in the stats, hence such rise.

      • http://awesomewallpapers.wordpress.com/ Ben

        That’s true…

      • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

        Lion.

    • http://www.rudivisser.com/ Rudi Visser

      I opened up Safari by accident on my Mac yesterday, it’s sooooooo nice.

      • Mikah

        it’s sooooooo nice on a Mac but on Windows it’s sooooooo bad at least for me.

        • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

          Do you know what exactly makes Safari better on Mac? I see some people saying this but I don’t think they can say any reason…

      • http://awesomewallpapers.wordpress.com/ Ben

        I’m sure it looks nice, but does it have addons/customization options?  That’s what I look for in a web browser.

        • http://www.rudivisser.com/ Rudi Visser

          Not that I’m aware of – That’s what kindof makes me like it a bit :D

      • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

        I’m sure it has no difference when compared to Windows version.

        • http://www.rudivisser.com/ Rudi Visser

          I don’t recall saying it did?

          • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

            WHAT exactly makes Safari better on Mac?

          • http://www.rudivisser.com/ Rudi Visser

            Seriously, are you reading something that I said different? I never said it was better…..

          • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

            Hm, oops, I’m going to post the question for the right person…
            So, do you like Safari or were you being ironic on “sooooooo nice”?

          • http://www.rudivisser.com/ Rudi Visser

            Haha, I kindof do like it, just for the fact that it’s borderless when windowed.

            I always had a liking to software that is borderless, but in a nice way. So in that respect it’s nice, but I don’t see it replacing Opera as my primary browser.

  • http://personalcomputersos.com Bob Zenith

    “As you will see form the stats below” – form should be from ;-)

    • http://www.favbrowser.com Vygantas Lipskas

      Thank you!

  • Anonymous
  • Nobody

    pretty nice share drop for opera here – two months == -20% and that is after the ‘bestest release of stablest and featurest version’

    i’m not surprised, as there is a limit in patience – who is going to use a browser, that ALWAYS has some little or bigger problem with every webpage? facebook, twitter, gmail, google in general, ms services, yahoo mail – the list is long, and these are THE places on the net. and it is always ‘THEIR fault!’

    for so many long years opera did almost nothing to fix these – only recently (the build that eliminated int size limits on elements – pretty late man, pretty late pretty long list of pages that fixed) they started to seriously fix their own yard instead of improving such essential feature the speed dial is.

    when i realized that the highlight of 11.50 is a revolution in extension-worth feature i knew that it will not end happily. seriously – was the previous speeddial that big of a problem to devote entire .50 release for it? and make a show around something small and insignificant like this? doesnt opera has other, more serious and nagging problems?

    • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

      But it’s “their fault”, and I’m using Opera because I want they fix their part. I’m pro-standards.

      I think other browsers have way bigger problems…
      http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik/blog/2011/05/28/why-i-dont-use-google-chrome-or-other-browsers-besides-opera

      • Nobody

        these ‘problems’ you linked are your OPINIONS. most of these stuff do not mean anything to anyone – who cares if something is MDI or SDI or WTF if it works the way user wants? technical prowess means nothing when there is no experience gain for the user. so opera has a MDI (is it still MDI? i remember them changing this..) browser that cant use facebook, google, twitter or live services (recently, also apple store..)

        and ‘their fault’ is a cheap excuse masking facts, that most issues opera face is a consequence of opera OWN bugs – or their own stupid decisions to swim upstream and create ‘opera standards’. opera pays for this arrogance with broken pages.

        btw – what ‘standards’ do you support? html4 that is full of holes and as such isnt a standard, or html5, that is of good quality, but still isnt standarised and changes constantly? tough choice, isnt it?

        • Guru

          What you write is your OPINION, and most of that do not mean anything to anyone either. If it is their fault, then it is their fault, period. 
          I don’t support any standard – I trust my browser does. Both html4 and html5 are standards. html5 is standarised and is not final yet. Evidently, both are to be supported.

          • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

            No, HTML5 isn’t *to be supported* as you say it isn’t final yet…

        • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

          I think I don’t need to answer you, you might know Opera Software’s sitepatching blogs…

          I can use all the websites you cites flawlessly.
          Go search what’s MDI, they didn’t remove it… And it isn’t the highest point of Opera for you to comment on it like it’s the crucial part of my post.

          • Nobody

            http://my.opera.com/sitepatching/blog/2011/07/25/removing-amazon-jquery-patch-again-new-fixes-for-t-online-webmail-and-y-mail

            so you can use YMAIL and amazon and somehow opera themselves say that there are serious issues? how come?

            http://my.opera.com/sitepatching/blog/2011/08/08/summer-cleaning

            newest blog entry – tell me and the readers how many of these were fixed with CORE fix? in short, how many of previous opera webpage issues were caused by opera OWN bugs? sorry, i cant hear, you say 75%?

          • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

            I don’t have the time to answer this completely but… Wait I ended up doing it…
            I want to say some things.

            Other browsers also have compatibility issues. Other browsers also have core / bug fixes on their changelogs go look.
            Why can’t you notice it?
            Trident, Gecko and WebKit has more market share, web design teaching websites are infested with info for good programming for IE/Fx/WebKit. Webdesigners make their websites thinking on making it work with the major browsers they know. Also, take Firefox for example, it has a much bigger community that report bugs on webpages and more people to fix it, and they do it, Fx also have patches for pages (and bugfixes on chagelogs! :o ).
            My thoughts:
            Opera Software should contract more people to be part of Open the Web project and focus on the top websites that have problems. They already do a lot of contact with the websites that have problems (they have web openers positions), but they simply don’t cooperate, or take a long time.
            Even with these compatibility problems (caused by websites, since they workaround code for IE, why not for Opera and others), Opera’s still the best browser.

  • Anyday

    You guy are missing the point, website have never worked in Opera, its not as if they stopped working more in the last 6 months.

    I am an Opera super user, and have convereted a lot of average users to using Opera. I read up a lot on Opera, and I know what is awsome about it. That awsomeness requires a learning curve that no average user can invest time in.
    Slowly those average users that I had converted are moving away from Opera, and I know why, because these people always come to me about Opera.

    There were two reasons people have used Opera 1) Innovation 2) Speed

    1) Today ever browser is copying others, for average user innovation is lost
    2) What has really changed in the last 6 months is that the last few releases (in fact since 10.50) have been slowing down

    Every single Opera user that I converted today talks about how much memory Opera is eating up and feels slower, some even complain about how frequently it crashes. Those people who could not stand Opera not working with certain sites never stuck with Opera for long and never really contributed to its usage share. Those that stuck to it – used it because of speed and some feature they liked.

    Speed is gone, users are going – period.

  • Saex_Conroy

    Anyday, id like you to know that this philosophy of using some neglected product and blindly supporting it till it dies, like a captain who sinks with its ship, is pretty useless

    now, everyone has the right to choose whats best for them, but who cares about innovation when something, not that innovative, BUT POLISHED, gets the job done BETTER in a more quality manner

    Linux has made many innovations and they have been stolen by both Mac and Windows, and at this point Windows is the #1 OS in the world, at least masses use it. and the reason it is is because it has the greatest support for applications and when OSes were young in the 80s Windows somehow managed to push above the others and its now #1 and it will be as long as it gets the job done for the ordinary users around the world

    same is with browsers – Firefox may steal ideas from others, im not interested in that, i dont care, but once i saw Firefox 2.x installed on a school PC many years ago, and tried on my own PC and never looked for a different browser (i was using IE6 till then, though 7 was already out)

    now im interested in the progress of browsers, but for me Firefox is the best, Chrome is the second best and others dont really do the job for me

    so if Opera does the job for you thats fine, but i dont understand why would you use such a.. crippled browser who lacks extensions such as “download ANY flash video from ANY website” or “REAL adblocking.. even within flash videos”

    Opera, doesnt have as powerful addons as Firefox has, this is one of the reason why i cant use Opera.. not that i download flash videos on a daily basis, but i know that if i want to, i will just install an addon, not install a new browser

    and unless Opera is completely revamped – from the ground up (which will never happen) it wont get more share than 2%, because its not as useful or advanced as Firefox or Chrome

    Opera were ranting how they have many functions like mouse gestures, save sessions, inbuilt e-mail clinet,  torrent client and many others

    well, Firefox doesnt have any of this inbuilt, because its letting its users decide which of these functions they want with addons and which they dont, thats what i like about Firefox

    Opera is bloated with functions i will never use and it lacks many more i use… so give me a reason to use Opera.. its like being spoiled by chocolate and then they put you back in the stone age and you have to eat burned meat.. it cant happen, you will always be unhappy

    • Mikah

      Yeah feature rich  Opera is is bloated the smallest download with under 10 MB & you can install it as normal or as a portable.

    • http://my.opera.com/rafaelluik Rafael

      You don’t need to use any feature of Opera if you want.

    • Mikah

      regarding the Firefox extensions that save sessions are they like Opera’s save sessions that preserve the tab history ?

  • 通闹 黄

    Opera is not only incompatible with websites, it’s just unusable. All the “stable” versions of opera crashes on a daily basis, or it won’t crash, but will become very slow after some hours of using. I would rather use IE6, at least it’s solid and well polished, people blame Microsoft for bundling IE6 with Windows, but isn’t IE6 really better than netscape, it is IMO.

    • Armin

      Not strange that someone with a name spelled with Chinese characters would say that.

      • 通闹 黄

        What a sympathetic man, don’t have any sense of logic, and only relies on his smartass stereotype. Still have no idea which country this stupid man might come from, German?what the hell!

    • Giri

      IE6 may be better than Netscape. Opera is definitely better than IE6 – there is no point arguing with this, the earth is not flat either. On my setups (of Opera) I can’t recall the last crash, not on my 64 bit laptop with Ubuntu 11.04, Acer netbook 32 bit with UNR 10.10, or 64 bit desktop with Win7. Perhaps there is somethign wrong with your setup? But whatever the reason, this surely kills appreciation towards a browser.

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