Supposedly today we have a lot of browsers to choose from - Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, etc. Having choices is a good thing, right? Nobody wants to relive the time of almost complete Internet Explorer domination again. Unfortunately our choices are significantly fewer than they seem to be at first glance, as Chrome and Safari (thanks to the iPhone) totally dominate the browser landscape in terms of usage and almost all browsers these days are built on top of Chromium, Chrome’s open-source version. Funny enough even Edge is built on top of Chromium today, despite the bitter rivalry between Google and Microsoft. What’s also funny is that Chrome and Safari control about 85% of the browser market share today, and Microsoft’s Edge commands only about 4%:
Of course, basing their products on Chromium makes a lot of sense for browser vendors - it’s significantly cheaper for them not to have to invest in their own engine, participate in discussions about web standards and not have to deal with compatibility complaints. A long time ago I was an Opera user for a while and despite loving the browser overall, I was often frustrated that some sites were broken with it, simply because few developers would bother to support a niche browser. Now when Opera is based on Chromium that’s a problem that solves itself and Opera’s team can focus solely on their browser’s UI/UX. Let Google do all the heavy lifting for them…