Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox starting to steal the show on the web

Competing for the public attention takes a lot, these days.

Clout is not enough to do it anymore.

The public is fickle, as many an actor, politician, and playwright - not to mention computer company - has discovered in the past fifty years.

During the past 5 years, one web browser, which had been dominant, has been sort of a Rip van Winkle.

It has been sleeping. While meanwhile, down in the information village below, a handful of groups and a lot of just-in-it-for-the-fun value-adding programmers - have created a modern world web experience far different than anything imagined at the start of this decade.

Right now, the latest web browser from Apple (Safari) combined with the latest web browser from the Mozilla group, Firefox - command more than fifteen percent of the so-called browser market share.

I think user share would be a more correct term but the point is the same.

Their cachet and influence has gone up, along with their user population, because they grew the power of their programs and managed to do it not at the expense of the overall user experience using the computer. They just work, and the computer just works.

Part of what seems to be helping them both is that both companies agree to use the same file formats. Ones that have long been documented at websites like W3.org and a few others.

The fact is that Safari and Firefox can easily display virtually all web pages now. Someone creating a new web page has to work pretty hard to make it not display correctly in either of them.

Some do, but it remains to be seen whether they will be rewarded for their efforts at doing that anymore.

Market share for browsers, operating systems and search engines

There was a huge stink last year when a number of the Katrina refuges tried to log into the public website for emergency assistance and were told to buy a new computer.

Their browser was not compatible with the site and only worked with the one that came with a recent version of a certain computer, updated with the latest version of that software.

These were people who had been forced to leave their homes with just the clothes on their backs, and likely never owned a state-of-the-art, brand-spanking-new computer.

They were trying to just use an old computer in a temporary/emergency shelter to access some services like they had promised they would be able to use.

The W3.org site has been sitting there a lot time. Apple and Firefox makers read the directions, and created their web browsers accordingly.

After looking at the pie chart on the page linked to above, it is easy to see that creating web pages that just work in one version of one web browser simply will not cut it anymore.

Look how many people do not even use that brand of web browser, let alone a particular version with particular accessory software that in turn levies even more requirements on the computer+owner.

ATMs and phone support systems all over the US have worked in Spanish, not just English, throughout this decade.

Shouldn't web page designers work not just with one year, make, and model of web browser whose users comprise 40, 50, or 70 percent of the population of this nation?

Isn't it time they work with all of them. Especially when it is an emergency and they need help, they want to manage their bank account.

They can do it in Spanish in Washington, DC. Why on earth can't they do it on the web with Safari or Firefox, or a ten year old computer, in Washington, DC?

See my point?

When you look at the features of the browsers, it is the Safari and the Firefox and Camino and Sea Monkey and Mozilla and Netscape browsers that are the more powerful - and the more modern.

Let Rip van Winkle turn over and sleep a few more winks.

Don't expect him to carry the day in an emergency.

Don't him to represent 100% of We The People. Companies and organizations that serve The Public need to do more than support 25%, 50%, or 75%.

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