As of August 2024, the Google Chrome browser accounted for over ** percent of the global market for internet browsers. Apple’s Safari browser was the second most popular internet browser around the world, accounting for about **** percent of market share. Apart from these two, no other browser controlled more than **** percent of the overall market share. Internet use With billions of people around the world having some form of access to the technology, around half of the world’s population can be classified as internet users. In countries like Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany, a big majority of citizens access the internet on a daily basis, whether it be for work or personal entertainment. In the United States, the average adult spends hours per day online, once again showing the large importance of internet in peoples’ daily lives. Web browsers Web browsers serve as the platform through which users from across the globe access the contents of the internet. With the help of a web browser, users can access a huge variety of content including entertainment sites, social media, and online shopping retailers. In recent years, social media sites such as Facebook have become some of the most popular sites, with users determined to keep up-to-date with the digital presence of their friends, families, and favorite celebrities.

As of March 2025, Google represented 79.1 percent of the global online search engine market on desktop devices. Despite being much ahead of its competitors, this represents the lowest share ever recorded by the search engine in these devices for over two decades. Meanwhile, its long-time competitor Bing accounted for 12.21 percent, as tools like Yahoo and Yandex held shares of over 2.9 percent each. Google and the global search market Ever since the introduction of Google Search in 1997, the company has dominated the search engine market, while the shares of all other tools has been rather lopsided. The majority of Google revenues are generated through advertising. Its parent corporation, Alphabet, was one of the biggest internet companies worldwide as of 2024, with a market capitalization of 2.02 trillion U.S. dollars. The company has also expanded its services to mail, productivity tools, enterprise products, mobile devices, and other ventures. As a result, Google earned one of the highest tech company revenues in 2024 with roughly 348.16 billion U.S. dollars. Search engine usage in different countries Google is the most frequently used search engine worldwide. But in some countries, its alternatives are leading or competing with it to some extent. As of the last quarter of 2023, more than 63 percent of internet users in Russia used Yandex, whereas Google users represented little over 33 percent. Meanwhile, Baidu was the most used search engine in China, despite a strong decrease in the percentage of internet users in the country accessing it. In other countries, like Japan and Mexico, people tend to use Yahoo along with Google. By the end of 2024, nearly half of the respondents in Japan said that they had used Yahoo in the past four weeks. In the same year, over 21 percent of users in Mexico said they used Yahoo.

Microsoft's Windows was the dominant desktop operating system (OS) worldwide as of March 2025, with a market share of around ** percent. Apple’s Mac operating system has gained market share over the years, growing to command around a fifth of the market. Linux and Google's Chrome OS have retained small but stable market shares in recent years. Different versions of Microsoft Windows From its initial release in 1985, Microsoft Windows has gone through endless mutations. Notable versions include Windows 95, Windows XP, and Windows 7. Windows 11 is the newest addition to the family, being able to run on PCs, tablets and embedded devices. In 2022, approximately ** million PCs were shipped with Windows operating systems installed. Apple’s Mac operating system With an equally long history, Apple’s Mac operating system (macOS, previously Mac OS X and OS X) has also evolved through numerous releases. MacOS Ventura is the nineteenth release of macOS. A older version of macOS, Catalina, is currently the most popular macOS, now run on **** percent of Apple computers as of January 2023. macOS runs on Apple’s Mac computers, including the MacBook, which is Apple’s laptop PC product including the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, and the iMac – Apple’s desktop computer.