🔙 Throwback Thursday for 2024-11-28
In this Thankful Throwback Thursday I am thankful for the web browser technology that has arguably made my career since the 1990s possible starting with NCSA Mosaic to my modern day daily drivers — Safari and Chrome.
Click.
Click.
Click.
Long ago, back in the ancient times of… 2008, Google Chrome was launched as a Windows browser alternative in that most Google of releases… a Beta. These were the days of desktops and laptops with phones being mostly feature phones.
Of course, the year before, Apple released iPhone with it, the Safari mobile browser. Safari on the Mac was ~4 years old by then and Safari on Windows was ~1 year old (but wouldn’t be around for more than a few more years).
Within just a few years, Google Chrome had been ported to reach most popular operating systems. Also, Google Chrome was now considered a browser worth tracking by market percentage use.
By 2010, alternative browser popularity was still solidly in the shadows of Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE). Meanwhile, the mobile world was growing rapidly.
https://www.techmeme.com/121002/p9#a121002p9
By 2012, Chrome became available (yes, as a Beta) on Android. Now, there was a growth in mobile browsers besides Safari on iPhone and Safari on Windows has reached its nadir — and Chrome reached parity with MSIE.
By 2013, Safari on iPhone had taken a commanding lead as a mobile browser. Increasingly, mobile was part of the browser market share story.
https://www.techmeme.com/130403/p11#a130403p11
Fast forwarding to this year, Google Chrome isn’t just popular… it’s the most popular browser as measured by market share. But, as the saying goes about a tall poppy… it gets noticed.
https://www.techmeme.com/241120/p43#a241120p43
Why now? Here’s a hint:
