Internet Explorer Dethroned As Biggest Browser

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) was once the dominant web browser - with a usage share of 95% in 2002.

But Internet Explorer was hit with a one-two punch with Firefox's launch in 2004, and the advent of Google Chrome in 2008.

Now Internet Explorer has finally been dethroned by Google Chrome as the world's most popular web browser.

Web analytics firm NetMarketShare says all versions of Chrome are now more popular than all versions of any other browser.

Chrome makes up 41.66% of the browser market, 0.31% more than Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge.

Edge is Microsoft (Euronext: MSF.NX - news) 's replacement for Internet Explorer, which was released last year.

As Google also dominates the search engine business and mobile operating systems, it controls a huge proportion of the internet experience for many internet users.

In the mid-2000s, then-Google chief executive Eric Schmidt was resistant to launching a standalone browser.

He later said: "At the time, Google was a small company," adding that he did not want to go through "bruising browser wars".

But software built by Mozilla Firefox developers helped to change his mind, and a beta version was released in 2008.

Internet Explorer, which was first called Windows Internet Explorer, was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95.