Safari may soon lose its place as the second most-used web browser, in the desktop anyway

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: The global desktop web browser battle has long been a one-horse race dominated by Google’s Chrome. According to the latest data from StatCounter, Chrome controlled 65.38 percent of the desktop browser market share as of January 2022. The battle for second place, however, is heating up as the gap between Apple’s Safari and Microsoft’s Edge has been narrowing over the past year.

In January 2021, Safari had 10.38 percent of the market compared to Edge’s 7.81 percent. As of this past January, Safari was sitting at 9.84 percent with Edge close behind at 9.54.

Should current trends continue, it won’t be long before Edge overtakes Safari.

Mozilla’s browser could also make a play for the podium as Firefox had a market share of 9.18 percent last month and has been trending upward since late 2021.

Opera, meanwhile, is near the bottom of the barrel as only three percent of desktop users were surfing the Internet with it as of January 2022. That's still better than the 1.06 percent share Internet Explorer is clinging to.

Chrome has only lost 1.25 of the market over the past year.

The race isn’t as close in the US as the bottom four browsers all have about a six percent market share gap between each other. Chrome still rules the roost, however, with a market share of 60.06 percent.

What's your desktop browser of choice?

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/93524-safari-may-soon-lose-place-second-most-used.html

 

[DZillaXx]

Wait... People use Safari on their Macbooks?....

 

[hahahanoobs]

Edge all day.
PC and mobile.

 

[terzaerian]

Using Chrome in an era where Vivaldi exists makes about as much sense as choosing to drive a Yugo when they're giving out free Ferraris. It boggles sense

 

[DZillaXx]

Using Chrome in an era where Vivaldi exists makes about as much sense as choosing to drive a Yugo when they're giving out free Ferraris. It boggles sense

Eh. Chrome makes it super easy to sync data between devices, allows the ability to cast to a TV, and plenty of great plugins.... There simply is no better option for a many device setup.

I have multiple Chrome Profiles tied to different google accounts, each one is encrypted. So not only do you need to log into my google account, which requires 2 factor and practically impossible to bypass. You'd have to know the Encryption password, that I've never used on anything else.

Why would I need some random web browser that isn't going to make my life easier. Chrome ends up being more like a super car when you actually end up using it correctly.

 

[terzaerian]

Eh. Chrome makes it super easy to sync data between devices, allows the ability to cast to a TV, and plenty of great plugins.... There simply is no better option for a many device setup.

I have multiple Chrome Profiles tied to different google accounts, each one is encrypted. So not only do you need to log into my google account, which requires 2 factor and practically impossible to bypass. You'd have to know the Encryption password, that I've never used on anything else.

Why would I need some random web browser that isn't going to make my life easier. Chrome ends up being more like a super car when you actually end up using it correctly.

Syncing browsers and plugins were impressive back in the 2000s with Opera but acting like this is a "killer app" distinction nowadays is laughable. Everyone does it - including Vivaldi, on Windows, Android, and Linux - and Vivaldi bakes in hundreds of other features that no amount of sketchy Russian Chrome plugins ever can.

The fact you need to lock your Chrome profiles down like Fort Knox doesn't really give you any points on convenience or usability, either. Bars on your windows just means you live in a sh*tty neighborhood.

 

[DZillaXx]

Syncing browsers and plugins were impressive back in the 2000s with Opera but acting like this is a "killer app" distinction nowadays is laughable. Everyone does it - including Vivaldi, on Windows, Android, and Linux - and Vivaldi bakes in hundreds of other features that no amount of sketchy Russian Chrome plugins ever can.

The fact you need to lock your Chrome profiles down like Fort Knox doesn't really give you any points on convenience or usability, either. Bars on your windows just means you live in a sh*tty neighborhood.

I guess if you are lazy and just want someone else to setup your web browser the way you want it, sure it is fine.

Its nothing more than open source plugins just built in. Its nothing special, and chrome and firefox users have been able to do pretty much anything worthwhile vivaldi does for years.

And protecting your user data is never a bad idea, even if you don't need to.

 

[Dimitriid]

Maybe not the best correlation as an indicator but honestly, I was expecting for Safari to have far better adoption rate because I was expecting the M1 to greatly increase market share for Apple in the PC arena.

Doesn't seems to be the case: they're popular products mind you, but nowhere near as popular as they are on the smartphone arena and that doesn't seems to be changing.

 

[GoldenGoat]

Can Safari do NoScript and uBlock Origin?

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Edge all day.
PC and mobile.

Nah Firefox or Brave. Brave is the only decent Chromium based browser (maybe Vivaldi too I guess). But on Mac, Safari is rubbish. It's so feature poor I only use Brave.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Nah Firefox or Brave. Brave is the only decent Chromium based browser (maybe Vivaldi too I guess). But on Mac, Safari is rubbish. It's so feature poor I only use Brave.

Been there, done that.

 

[Eldritch]

Firefox is amazing but isn't my primary browser.

Here's why : Its password sync SUCKS! It requires both devices to be On at the same time. So if I update my login at my home computer then I try to use that at my office laptop then can't do that. I have to leave my home computer on and then use my office laptop to Sync! Who does that? Even the bookmarks don't sync correctly.

Password managers are not the point here, the browser should be able to at least Sync critical stuff in 2022.

 

[punctualturn]

Firefox is amazing but isn't my primary browser.

Here's why : Its password sync SUCKS! It requires both devices to be On at the same time. So if I update my login at my home computer then I try to use that at my office laptop then can't do that. I have to leave my home computer on and then use my office laptop to Sync! Who does that? Even the bookmarks don't sync correctly.

Using Firefox since it was called Phoenix!

Never had real issues and I havent used a browser password manager in ages.

Personally, I love Bitwarden over any other password managers.

Password managers are not the point here, the browser should be able to at least Sync critical stuff in 2022.

 

[bviktor]

Firefox is amazing but isn't my primary browser.

Here's why : Its password sync SUCKS! It requires both devices to be On at the same time. So if I update my login at my home computer then I try to use that at my office laptop then can't do that. I have to leave my home computer on and then use my office laptop to Sync! Who does that? Even the bookmarks don't sync correctly.

Password managers are not the point here, the browser should be able to at least Sync critical stuff in 2022.

That's just factually wrong or you're having some very weird issues.

In any case, use a proper password manager, like Bitwarden, instead of restricting yourself to a browser.

 

[Nobina]

Using Chrome in an era where Vivaldi exists makes about as much sense as choosing to drive a Yugo when they're giving out free Ferraris. It boggles sense

The reason anyone uses any browser is cause they're used to it from years of use and it "just works". I'm sure plenty of browsers are better than Chrome but people are like that, they don't want a UI change and the thought of having to through the process of importing history, passwords, bookmarks and so on makes switching even less tempting.

 

[terzaerian]

Nah Firefox or Brave. Brave is the only decent Chromium based browser (maybe Vivaldi too I guess). But on Mac, Safari is rubbish. It's so feature poor I only use Brave.

Brave + Vivaldi are the dream team I use Brave as a back-up if something isn't working in Vivaldi and I'm trying to isolate it to whether it's the website just being dumb or something else. I kind of wish Brave would also make its version of adblock as a plug-in too so I could use it on Vivaldi.

The reason anyone uses any browser is cause they're used to it from years of use and it "just works". I'm sure plenty of browsers are better than Chrome but people are like that, they don't want a UI change and the thought of having to through the process of importing history, passwords, bookmarks and so on makes switching even less tempting.

The fact a Yugo 'just works' doesn't change the fact it's a Yugo. 'Basic' would be a better descriptor for Chrome than 'simple'.

 

[MXPIE01]

The reason anyone uses any browser is cause they're used to it from years of use and it "just works".

all the alternatives mentioned 'just work'

I'm sure plenty of browsers are better than Chrome but people are like that, they don't want a UI change and the thought of having to through the process of importing history, passwords, bookmarks and so on makes switching even less tempting.

UI is barely changeable at all across chrome-like browsers and most have sync capabilities. changing would be quick and painless.

don't get me wrong, I understand your larger point why the average people don't look into it, but your specific arguments were not very good.

 

[Nobina]

The fact a Yugo 'just works' doesn't change the fact it's a Yugo. 'Basic' would be a better descriptor for Chrome than 'simple'.

That analogy doesn't work. You even said you have a backup browser in case things don't work on the main one.

all the alternatives mentioned 'just work'


UI is barely changeable at all across chrome-like browsers and most have sync capabilities. changing would be quick and painless.

don't get me wrong, I understand your larger point why the average people don't look into it, but your specific arguments were not very good.

For you, it might be quick and painless, but you underestimate how little it takes for people to just say "nah". If I'm wrong, why aren't people switching to these browsers then? I ask genuinely.

 

[terzaerian]

That analogy doesn't work. You even said you have a backup browser in case things don't work on the main one.

The reason a website doesn't work is typically because said site has been typically designed to work only with Chrome and nothing else. So basically you drive a Yugo that makes everyone else's car break down.

And while leveraging market share to break the functionality of competitors might be okay with Apple and Google fanboys, it's generally frowned upon by serious tech enthusiasts.

 

[lazer]

What people use safari and edge?
non tech people, there are soooooo many better browsers out there, FF, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, and many others too. Why bother with those that scoop your data and have few or no add ons?