Each time I come across a report on the state of browser usage on the Internet, I’m left a little nonplussed. Apparently, Internet explorer still remains the most used browser in the market and by a far margin no less. Current statistics suggest that 52.84% of all desktop users still use IE.

What am I missing here? Am I the only person who’s under the impression that IE has been the butt of all jokes and memes ever since the — I don’t know, late 90s? Who are all these people?

And maybe I’m being a little brash, but how have they managed to not come across Firefox, Chrome, Opera or any other modern browser which works as browsers should — in a fast, easy and convenient manner.

See, I don’t have anything against IE or Microsoft, IE was great, back in 1999 when we had nothing else. The only logical conclusion I can conjure up when I think of people using IE is when someone uses Bing to search for information. Maybe someone is doing that, searching for information through Bing using IE. God, that’s a painful thing to imagine. I was actually invited to an introductory conference on IE8 when it was launched, what followed formed the most boring 30 minutes of my life.

Getting over my mini rant about IE and moving on, Firefox has apparently been losing ground at 20.90%, while Chrome makes inroads into the desktops of more and more people with a 18.90% share. I can actually understand that. I used to be a Firefox loyalist. I used to think that Chrome was far too minimalistic for any serious use. But over the past few years, Firefox somehow seems to offer an increasingly cumbersome experience. I think this has something to do with the beautiful way in which Chrome handles extensions and the comparison that ensues. Chrome has extensions which enable users to access a wide assortment of apps, a lot of which are even cloud based, making life easy in more ways than one. And their web store has a great look and feel to it.

Honestly, Firefox has some catching up to do. About IE, really, what’s happening people?

Its baffling: IE still the most used browser in the market

About Vishveshwar Jatain

VJ is the associate editor of wireframe. He loves writing, cooking, technology, life hacks, weird people, strange things, and his alone time. When not creating a ruckus about the rampant misuse of apostrophes, he can be found writing stories about startups, entrepreneurship and social web.