as far as i know people generally mainly use internet explorer i dont see any big advantages in other browsers anyway. MS were first to the market which leaves them the choice to do what they want

Sigh.

Do yourself a favour. Go to www.mozilla.com and download Firefox, and see how ignorant that post was.

The only reason IE has so much marketshare is because it comes pre-installed on all Windows computers.

Nice one Kantor. Whilst we're rebutting some fairly amusing points, I would like to respond to
"MS were first to the market which leaves them the choice to do what they want"

Netscape Navigator - 1994
IE - 1995
Opera - 1996
Safari - 2003
Firefox - 2004
Chrome - 2008

So the things we learn are as follows
IE was infact not the first to the market
The later the initial release, the better the browser. Chrome > FF > S > O > IE > NN
Although that is an unfair comparison because we are comparing 1998 NN to 2008/9 releases of everything else
Also, sorry Opera fans, but it's true :P

I would have to disagree slightly.

Firefox >>>> Chrome > Opera > IE > Safari > Netscape.

I really don't like Safari. Too simplistic.

@ssj

ok Sorry, but I was too tired to deal with learning anything by that last post.

The way I view it is that if IE isn't bundled with Windows as a (technically) free product, Mozilla no longer has any incentive to leave their product free, and designing a web browser isn't a simple task.

Also Browsers don't connect to the Internet last I checked, these things only visualize what the internet is saying.

But I can see these companies doing a transition pattern where they give a free version of the browser with advertisements eating screen space, then when that doesn't work (for whatever reason) then I can see that just turning into a trial version.

Could be my own common sense, not saying it's a good thing that IE is bundled with most computers, because business wise it obviously isn't for the competitors, just saying from a consumer perspective, the above is in high possibility.

Simplicity is nice sometimes and from my limited experience with it (installed firefox right away) it's quick and snappy. I did hate however how it doesn't show the URL of the highlighted link. I don't like clicking links blindly.

How stupid is that. :D It is not like people are forced to use IE. What is next, solitaire,paint&notepad?

Someone educate me, do companies actually get paid when someone users their browser? I don't get the big deal right now.

Through command line, its too bad that would be far past what most computer users are capable of doing.

I don't know how they are supposed to remove IE from windows, as far as I undertand it IE shares many of its components with explorer.

You see, usually to the right of the URL bar, the quicksearch area?

Everytime you use that, the company that made the browser gets money from the search engine used.

There's other ways. Firefox, por example: the default homepage is a google search - but you'll notice it's not www.google.com. If you use that page to perform the search, they also get paid.