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Technology Stocks : MSFT Internet Explorer vs. NSCP Navigator -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: brian z who wrote (21067)	9/29/1998 10:46:00 AM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

Microsoft surpasses Netscape in browser share -- or does it? zdnet.com Thought I'd repost the link with the real headline, you weasel. This article is not clear on exactly what is being measured. The dispute on "IE browser share" is clearly stated, though. The fudge factor in this spin cycle centers on America Online Inc. users. In straight-ahead comparisons, Netscape's Navigator browser bests Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, 41.5 percent to 27.5 percent, according to International Data Corp.'s study on browser market share, released Monday. But IE is the default browser on AOL, so its users, technically speaking, use IE. Adding AOL's 16.3 percent of Web users to IE's total means it edges out Navigator, with 43.8 percent of the market. IDC splits out AOL into its own category, saying it would be misrepresentative to put AOL into the IE totals, since AOL users can't choose their browser. Nonetheless, IDC analyst Joan-Carol Brigham conceded that "by technology, (Microsoft) has passed them for the first time." Right. My parents still use AOL, I set them up with it because it was simple and most of the other national providers weren't available locally. They don't use IE, though. I found the AOL "customized" IE obscure and pointless. I taught them to minimize the whole AOL outer window and just run Nav. Makes things much simpler. Integrity and uniformity, etc. My dad still occasionally explores within AOL, but he finds the AOL content too slow for his patience. I found the whole AOL experience mystifying myself, I wasn't much use as a tutor. Then, there's the issue of Microsoft's "offer you can't refuse" to AOL. By most measures, Microsoft paid AOL to take it, at the same time "driving a stake through the heart of MSN" in doing so. That stake part is Bill's own words. That particular issue is the subject of litigation at the moment. But what was more important, the Netscape "air supply" operation or MSN? As the title of the WII movie said, "They were expendable". Cheers, Dan.