Browser Wars!

Over the summer, it seems that the browser wars have intensified, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer’s virtual monopoly has its days numbered. Earlier this year, Google brought out its Chrome browser, to rival Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, and today it was announced that Google have signed a deal to get it in to Sony PCs.

It will be interesting to see how long the competition authorities will allow Google to do this, since Microsoft has been repeatedly told to un-bundle its own Internet Explorer from its Windows Operating System as it hurt competition.

Not only has IE lost out to Chrome, but figures suggest that Firefox now has nearly one third of the browser market worldwide, at 31%.

However, whilst Google may be cannibalising MSFT’s share of the browser market, it is also trying to fight off competition on its core search engine market. The market structure seems to have evolved as barriers to entry have diminished, with the traditional Google monopoly being eroded by a flurry of new competitors. As well as Microsoft’s Bing.com - which saw a tie-up between Microsoft and Yahoo - the “computational knowledge engine” Wolfram Alpha and a revamped Ask Jeeves have also entered the fray.

The consumer is the real winner from all this creative destruction though – with the most recent innovation from Google - “the real-time web”. Its newest feature – named “Caffeine” picks up news stories and puts fresher content higher up the search results.

Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - Supply Side Issues [25 Jan 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: 3D Printing and a Manufacturing Revolution [23 Jan 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopoly and Duopoly in Bus Markets [20 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Patent Wars- A Touchy Subject for Apple [16 Dec 2011]
MON€Y PANIC$ – A Visualisation Challenge [18 Nov 2011]
LSE lecture: Darwin economy [13 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Quiz on Market Structures [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Examples of Price Discrimination in Action [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Ofcom gives stamp of approval for flexible pricing in mail [21 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Contestable Markets - Lucozade takes on Coca Cola [10 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Amazon launches the Kindle Fire [1 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Cotton Prices and the Retail Price of Clothing [13 Jul 2011]
Six Global Trends Shaping Business Strategy [15 Jun 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Supply-Side Policies [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Spare Capacity [23 May 2011]
AQA A2 Economics - European Context [23 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Competition Policy [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Oligopoly [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Entry Barriers in Markets [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: The Importance of Profit [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Market Structure, Conduct & Performance [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Consequences of Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Perfect Competition [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Competition and Efficiency [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Outsourcing [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Business Growth [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation and Economic Policies [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation Efficiency and Welfare [18 May 2011]
AS economics: Using the cost-benefit principle [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation in Markets [4 May 2011]
A2 Micro: EU Aviation - State Aid and State Ownership [28 Apr 2011]
Wiki Revision: A to Z on Monopoly [23 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Competition and Monopoly [17 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Economic Efficiency [16 Apr 2011]
Smartphones and Creative Destruction [16 Apr 2011]
Soap powder cartel leaves stain on colluders [13 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: Prices for New and Second Hand Cars [9 Apr 2011]
Information Failures: Tesco and Second Hand Cars [3 Apr 2011]
A2 Micro: Updates on Competition Issues [2 Apr 2011]
Innovation: Google’s Driverless Car [31 Mar 2011]
The New North - Population Shift [23 Mar 2011]
Timetric: Price convergence within the EU [13 Mar 2011]
Timetric: Internet Browser Market Shares [11 Mar 2011]
Never Mind Plan B - Plan V needed for the UK Economy! [17 Feb 2011]
World’s Most Innovative Companies [17 Feb 2011]
Tracking Market Share in Web Browsers [4 Feb 2011]
Changes in Real Prices [24 Jan 2011]
Winner of the Fun Theory Competition [23 Jan 2011]
Tesco - Time to start a price war! [19 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: How might rising food prices affect food retailers and manufacturers in the UK? [16 Jan 2011]
HMV - another busted flush on the High Street [6 Jan 2011]
Firefox overtakes IE in the EU Browser Market [5 Jan 2011]
Legal Cooperation between Businesses [30 Dec 2010]
Supermarkets - Aunt Sallys or useful case study on economic agents’ behaviour? [22 Dec 2010]
Smarter Googling - Using the Toolbar [1 Dec 2010]
Google investigation [30 Nov 2010]
Google Public Data – Using in Economics Assignments [28 Nov 2010]
Does Facebook have a monopoly over the internet? [21 Nov 2010]
The Rise and Rise of Internet Monopolists [14 Nov 2010]
Experimenting with Google Docs - the Rise of a Digital Conglomerate [8 Nov 2010]
Contestability in the online electricals market [2 Nov 2010]
Melting ice and teaching the effect of competition on profits [31 Oct 2010]
Extend and Enrich with EconoMax [29 Oct 2010]
A2 Micro: Monopoly Price and Output [28 Oct 2010]
Cows with IP addresses and social networks as modes of production [22 Oct 2010]
Quangos can go [14 Oct 2010]
Competition in action: Google vs the World! [6 Oct 2010]
OFT limits ASDA’s expansion plans [23 Sep 2010]
External Growth - Google’s Acquisition Boom [21 Sep 2010]
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab [3 Sep 2010]
Behavioural economics and competition policy [12 Aug 2010]
EC on IBM [2 Aug 2010]
How can supply-side policies help in an economic recession? [6 Jun 2010]
Brazilian aviation reaches new heights [25 May 2010]
A2 Economics Revision - Efficiency and Price Intervention in Markets [21 May 2010]
Google TV - Excellent example of a joint venture [21 May 2010]
Book war over 92% Market growth! [5 May 2010]
Record fines for tobacco price-fixing as cartel goes up in smoke [16 Apr 2010]
Orange tries to make the broadband market more contestable [16 Apr 2010]
The economics of Google [6 Apr 2010]
Broadband and economic growth [3 Apr 2010]
Ofcom bares its teeth [1 Apr 2010]
Price discrimination - Tesco and One Stop [22 Mar 2010]
Apple and patent races [8 Mar 2010]
UK CEOs on their recession strategies [23 Feb 2010]
Launch of the RES Essay Competition 2010 - Essay Titles Are Revealed [14 Feb 2010]
Find a stock market game that works [24 Jan 2010]
Chinese growth in words and pictures [21 Jan 2010]
Contestable Markets - Google launches the Nexus One [6 Jan 2010]
Assorted Links [27 Dec 2009]
The steady (but inexorable) decline of a web monopoly [16 Dec 2009]
Macroeconomic stability [14 Dec 2009]
Tories plan break up of energy oligopoly [4 Dec 2009]
Price comparison sites… [29 Nov 2009]
Super fast food nation [26 Nov 2009]
Net monopolists [22 Nov 2009]
Google and Average Revenue Product of Labour [13 Nov 2009]
GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer choose to collaborate on HIV drugs [3 Nov 2009]
Perfect Competition - Teacher Presentation [2 Nov 2009]
Human and social capital and pathways to prosperity [14 Oct 2009]

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