Google Chrome's popularity growing

Chrome’s share of the browser market is growing at a breakneck pace, according to data from Net Applications. Between February and March, Google’s browser rose to capture a full 6.1% share of the market, maintaining its lead over browsers such as Safari and Opera and closing the gap between Firefox, which currently holds a 24.5% share.

While most browsers rose a fraction of a percent, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer continued to decline, losing almost a whole percent over the past month alone.

Part of Chrome’s increase may be due to Mac users. In December, Chrome for Mac was released, but many users were loathe to switch browsers because the early beta didn’t have extensions or support bookmark syncing. All of that changed with a new version released in February. At that point, Mac users were given all of the bells and whistles that PC users had, and so many opted to make the move to Chrome.

In a quick poll we conducted on Twitter, many users said they heard Chrome was quicker and migrated from Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer. But others said they still stick with Firefox due to a few key features — such as Firebug and certain extensions — that Chrome doesn’t have yet. Others complained that Chrome was unstable or couldn’t handle certain websites or user behaviors as well as Firefox. And some of those in the enterprise are still bound to IE, at least during business hours.

Which browser do you currently use and why? Have you recently made a switch?

My Discovery World Experience

On March 25th, my "Emerging Technologies" class went to Discovery World for a class field trip; to which I haven't been since I was just a wee tot.  This place is full of exciting and cool technologies. Some of their technologies were educational and were good experiences. The HIVE, sponsored by MATC, was one of my favorite attractions, which is composed of a Virtual Program that created the Virtual Milwaukee that can be useful for business environments. It can help any business get an idea of expanding their buildings or adding more space.  Businesses are always expanding and there are always more businesses being build. It can help the construction business get a view of what their projects will be like. It will also make things easier if they can see and move things around when it is actually not build yet.  We went into the HIVE in several groups and my group was the last to go in.  My group went into virtual space, which we "learned" that Pluto isn't really a planet anymore.

Another favorite of mine was the Flight Simulator .  There we got to fly a life-like plane.  This simulated experience practically matches the real experience.  I only wish I got a few pictures where one classmate lost a wing in mid-flight and someone else landed and flipped over her plane (I'm not mentioning any names Professor Theel).

Another Interesting thing I did was lie on a bed of nails.  We lied on a clear platform and someone who worked there would turn on the nails raising them slightly above the surface.  It was an interesting sensation.