Spartan browser hype.
Google 'Windows 10' at all in the past week and the search results will be flooded with news about Microsoft's new browser codenamed Spartan which should be released with Windows 10.
Some sites list this as a major plus for helping revive the OS and others are simply touting the new features. Frankly, I think it is all hype.
No one buys an OS or chooses a computer based on default browser. Therefore it isn't really a plus for the OS. Those loyal to Firefox or Chrome are perfectly comfortable downloading them and changing their default browser. And this is honestly unlikely to sway many of those. A better browser might keep more new users on the default. And the only reason that matters is for the default search engine. Ad revenue is lucrative still. MS wants you to use Bing which is the default in IE, and will likely be the default in Spartan. Google wants you to use Chrome which defaults to Google Search and Yahoo! would love you to switch to Firefox which now defaults to Yahoo! search. Beyond that the browser wars are largely irrelevant.
Honestly, I don't care much about browsers or even browser performance. Metrics change with every release and I don't have time to sit there and benchmark every browser or even review benchmarks and change my browser on a bi-weekly basis. It is sheer stupidity to choose a browser based on speed. It will be a short lived victory.
The only time I bothered switching from IE was when IE11 was first released. Probably close to 60% of web sites didn't render properly. It got sorted out, but that was a real issue. And one worth switch browsers for, at least temporarily. I couldn't even log into certain financial sites or use certain online pay gateways. So it was a pretty massively flawed browser.
As far as new features... who cares about inking and Cortana? I'm sure there are people out there who care. The point is really more about what percentage of the market that realistically represents.
It will likely be the default browser, so when I upgrade to Windows 10 I will likely use it. But it won't be because I chose to use, it will be because I likely won't bother to choose to use something else.
[update]
To be clear on a few points... the browser wars, for the likes of companies that are also search providers is ALL about ad revenue. Microsoft and Google don't invest thousands of man hours in IE and Chrome to give you a better browser just for good will. They do to increase the number of users leveraging their search platform. Being the best is often a good argument for pulling in more users.
This doesn't really guarantee anything though. I never actually use the search bar in my browser. I generally navigate to Google even though I use IE for example.
But, some decent percentage of users intentionally or accidentally use the search bars in their browsers. And every percent that skews the search metrics in favour of one search provider or another is likely worth millions of dollars in ad revenue.
[/update]
Some sites list this as a major plus for helping revive the OS and others are simply touting the new features. Frankly, I think it is all hype.
No one buys an OS or chooses a computer based on default browser. Therefore it isn't really a plus for the OS. Those loyal to Firefox or Chrome are perfectly comfortable downloading them and changing their default browser. And this is honestly unlikely to sway many of those. A better browser might keep more new users on the default. And the only reason that matters is for the default search engine. Ad revenue is lucrative still. MS wants you to use Bing which is the default in IE, and will likely be the default in Spartan. Google wants you to use Chrome which defaults to Google Search and Yahoo! would love you to switch to Firefox which now defaults to Yahoo! search. Beyond that the browser wars are largely irrelevant.
Honestly, I don't care much about browsers or even browser performance. Metrics change with every release and I don't have time to sit there and benchmark every browser or even review benchmarks and change my browser on a bi-weekly basis. It is sheer stupidity to choose a browser based on speed. It will be a short lived victory.
The only time I bothered switching from IE was when IE11 was first released. Probably close to 60% of web sites didn't render properly. It got sorted out, but that was a real issue. And one worth switch browsers for, at least temporarily. I couldn't even log into certain financial sites or use certain online pay gateways. So it was a pretty massively flawed browser.
As far as new features... who cares about inking and Cortana? I'm sure there are people out there who care. The point is really more about what percentage of the market that realistically represents.
It will likely be the default browser, so when I upgrade to Windows 10 I will likely use it. But it won't be because I chose to use, it will be because I likely won't bother to choose to use something else.
[update]
To be clear on a few points... the browser wars, for the likes of companies that are also search providers is ALL about ad revenue. Microsoft and Google don't invest thousands of man hours in IE and Chrome to give you a better browser just for good will. They do to increase the number of users leveraging their search platform. Being the best is often a good argument for pulling in more users.
This doesn't really guarantee anything though. I never actually use the search bar in my browser. I generally navigate to Google even though I use IE for example.
But, some decent percentage of users intentionally or accidentally use the search bars in their browsers. And every percent that skews the search metrics in favour of one search provider or another is likely worth millions of dollars in ad revenue.
[/update]
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