IE8 is Now World's Most Popular Web Browser

By Marcus Yam
published

New world browser king, new shirt.

Firefox 3.5 was for a short period the most popular browser in the world, taking the lead from Micrsoft's Internet Explorer 6. With Firefox users now slowly transitioning from 3.5 to the newly released 3.6, the window was left open for Microsoft to climb ahead--and that's what it has done.

Microsoft pointed to Net Application's January browser market share report showing that Internet Explorer 8 is not only the most popular browser on Windows with 27.9-percent usage share, but that it now has 25.6-percent of market share across all operating systems on a worldwide-weighted usage share basis.

While Internet Explorer has taken a lot of heat over the years for rather loose adherences to web standards and security, especially when compared against the competition, IE8 takes big strides in making the web a better place.

The big factor is IE8's attention to malware protection. Microsoft boasted that, as of today, Internet Explorer 8 has done over 350 million malware blocks.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
81 Comments Comment from the forums
  • haunted one
    350 million malware blocks? That's just scary.

    Ironically, my comp got infected with some malware that targets just IE. I ended up having to disable IE!!!
    Reply
  • tramit
    That girl sure does make me want to change to IE8 unless Firefox steps it up and shows me a better looking girl. :P
    Reply
  • buzznut
    oh em gee. Internet explorer 8 has got to be the worst piece of $#!7, I mean software I have had the unfortunate displeasure to use in the last 5 years. They took a fully functional web browser, broke it, then took the ability to customize the browser away and hid it somewhere else!!!!

    I would truly love to strangle whoever did that, but instead I will do the next best thing. Delete internet explorer from all my machines and use firefox or chrome. I can't believe people actually like this crap!

    I also can not access my school's website with this IE8, even though my university wants student's to use internet explorer exclusively to access the website. They should have a disclaimer, "Works with Internet Explorer, unless of course you're using IE8 then don't bother trying to log on. Better luck turning in your semester project next time."
    Reply
  • buzznut
    Oh yeah, I'm not finished. What the hell is up with IE8 being an "Important update?" I guarantee that's the ONLY reason its the most popular, because everyone with automatic updates has the BS unwittingly installed on their computer.!!!

    WTF!!!
    Reply
  • alchemy69
    I think those figures are almost as inflated as that blonde's chest, and just as artificially.
    Reply
  • Nexus52085
    buzznutoh em gee. Internet explorer 8 has got to be the worst piece of $#!7, I mean software I have had the unfortunate displeasure to use in the last 5 years. They took a fully functional web browser, broke it, then took the ability to customize the browser away and hid it somewhere else!!!!I would truly love to strangle whoever did that, but instead I will do the next best thing. Delete internet explorer from all my machines and use firefox or chrome. I can't believe people actually like this crap!I also can not access my school's website with this IE8, even though my university wants student's to use internet explorer exclusively to access the website. They should have a disclaimer, "Works with Internet Explorer, unless of course you're using IE8 then don't bother trying to log on. Better luck turning in your semester project next time."
    Sounds to me like you don't know how to use IE.
    Reply
  • alvine
    rule 34 on that girl
    Reply
  • devnul3
    Aurora.
    Reply
  • devnul3
    Aurora.
    Reply
  • dinamic
    is it 1 April already?
    Reply