Chrome owns 65% of the world-wide browser market, but competitors are making big investments to change that.

Chrome’s market dominance is due to treating the browser as a platform, not just a tool to view webpages. Now, Chrome’s challengers are following suit.

Companies are making the browser a focus for a number of reasons:
Collaboration: Browser-first apps like Figma and Miro have shown how a web-based experience can foster collaboration better than desktop apps

Crypto: Browsers are where crypto users access their wallets, their identity and security tools

Now challengers are thinking about browsers as operating systems, and optimizing for different benefits depending on the company.

The key players include:
Apple, which went all-in on customization in Safari with its OS Monterey update, including the ability to customize your start page, toolbar, and tab preferences.

Microsoft, made it even harder for Windows 10 users to change their default browser from Edge by blocking apps like EdgeDeflector. Recently, Microsoft’s Edge browser showed a message that’s aimed at diverting users from its biggest competitor, Chrome. “Still using Google Chrome? That is so 2008”

Brave, which has always optimized for privacy, and recently doubled down on crypto by adding a native wallet where users can trade crypto and store NFTs.

The Browser Company, a startup that’s reimagining browser UI to combat tab overload and increasing user productivity.

Mighty, another startup that uses 10x less memory than Chrome, allowing users to load tabs way more quickly.

But here’s the rub…
… all of the challengers except Safari are built on Chromium, Google’s open-source browser codebase — which raises the question: Can anyone build a better Chrome than Chrome?

While Apple commands a respectable 19% market share, and Microsoft may be able to use lock-in to force users onto Edge, the bar for browser startups has never been higher.

UPDATE: Windows 11 now has a new “Set Default Browser” button.
Microsoft is making it easier for Windows 11 users to change their default browser. This is thought to be the company’s way of motivating users to perform their free Windows 11 upgrade. The option to change browsers is within Windows 11 settings, under the “Apps” tab and the “Default Apps” option.

World-wide stats from the previous 12 months:
Chrome: 64.06%
Safari: 19.22%
Edge: 4.19%
Firefox: 3.91%
Opera: 2.34%
The rest of the pie is split amongst a handful of other browsers.

If I were to change browsers (Chrome is still my go to) I would take a good hard look at “Brave”. Available for Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS, the Brave browser is built on the same foundation as Chrome, which means Brave can use Chrome extensions. In fact, when you click “Find extensions and themes” in Brave’s settings, you are taken to the Chrome Web Store to find extensions and themes for the browser.

Brave has released a public beta version of its own privacy-focused search engine, designed to go head-to-head with Google, called Brave Search, which will become the default search engine in the Brave browser later this year. You can try out the Brave Search beta now on your desktop.
https://search.brave.com/