Net users bypass browser
Published: 02 Jan 2004 11:05 GMT
The Web may have popularised the Internet, but most users now connect to the Net using non-browser applications, according to figures released this week.
Media players and instant-messaging applications are now by far the most popular Internet applications, dwarfing the Web browser, according to December figures from Nielsen//NetRatings released on Tuesday. Seventy-six percent of active Internet users access the Net using a non-browser application.
The Internet is increasingly working its way into applications outside the browser, blurring the lines between the desktop and the online world, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. "With 76 percent of Web surfers using Internet applications, functionality has grown beyond the browser to become a fundamental piece of the overall desktop," said Nielsen//NetRatings analyst Abha Bhagat, in a statement.
The most popular application in December was Windows Media Player, reaching 34 percent of Internet users; AOL Instant Messenger, reaching 20.27 percent; RealNetworks' players, reaching 19.76 percent; MSN Messenger, reaching 19.31 percent; and Yahoo Messenger, reaching 12.26 percent.
The Web browser Mosaic, introduced a decade ago, made the Internet more accessible to non-technical users by adding a graphical user interface, but industry observers say the spread of Internet applications is taking the IT industry into a post-Web world. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who was recently knighted for his invention of the Web, has now moved on to what he calls "the semantic Web".
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2 comments
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Seems that Broersma likes the idea that there is o... Stephen Neitzke -
Bogus reporting - the Nielsen//NetRatings figures... John Walsh
