An infographic! If web browsers were wrestlers...

Freestyle Interactive

(CBS) - Remember that "study" that was done last week claiming that Internet Explorer users were stupid? Yes, it was a hoax. And yes, we too, were duped and had to write a retraction. We got so many passionate reactions to the piece that it made us think about the role web browsers play in our lives (and how loyal we are).

It's no secret that technology is marching fiercely toward cloud computing. When selecting a web browser to use, we choose a piece of software that we'll typically use more than anything, besides our operating systems.

We asked Andrew Gaukrodger and his team at Freestyle Interactive, a digital agency and strategic consulting firm, to create a nifty infographic for us to help us visualize our beloved browser choices. Relying on their market research, they ranked each browser by market share, innovation, flexibility and speed - all the important factors. (Click the image to enlarge.)

"Developers are building web apps that work well in Internet Explorer but truly excite in Chrome and Firefox (because they're the web-browsers of the future!). HTML5 is changing the game for browsers - lessening the need for server based data - allowing web designers to build applications that are more nimble and interactive. There's never been more choice for the user as each browser carves-out its own niche," Gaukrodger said.

His thoughts on these six browsers?

Chrome and Firefox: fast and flexible with loyal development communities.

Internet Explorer and Safari: broad appeal but with pre-conditioned user base.

Opera and RockMelt: highly innovative, appealing to technophiles and social-networkers.

Don't think we'd leave the developers out of the loop. We gave them a chance to tell us why we should be using their web browsers.

See what each developer has to say about their web browser

Ultimately, the choice between browsers is not going to be about mechanics. Like the decision to drink Coke or Pepsi, it will be about preference. We hope this will help people make some decisions.

Special thanks to Andrew and the super-creative folks of Freestyle Interactive for designing this CBSNews.com-exclusive infographic.

Agree or disagree with us? Leave your comments below and defend your browser of choice!

7 Photos

Web browser wars: developers defend themselves

[Hellspork]

In order of performance:

Innovation: Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Seamonkey, Internet Explorer, Rockmelt, Safari

Flexibility: Opera, Seamonkey, Firefox, Chrome, Rockmelt, Internet Explorer, Safari

Speed: Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Rockmelt, Seamonkey, Safari

With a few more File API hooks, you could have an OS with Opera for the UI, same as ChromeOS.

[ma_shean]

Interesting infographic, love the idea of a royal rumble very innovative!!For me its really highlighted the seemingly unexplained domination of the global market by IE, its terrible!! Good debate to be had.

[serola]

Hmm... Even your Opera spokesperson says: "Comparing Opera with other browsers is a little like comparing a Swiss Army knife to butter knives."

So where comes this Opera not flexible? By the way, your account confirmation is not flexible. On Opera it claims I have not yet confirmed my account, although I did. So, I had to use Firefox to post this.

[andywarno]

Why did Opera receive low marks for flexibility? Extensions, Skins, and Widgets make it just as flexible as Firefox and Chrome. And then, Unite, Link, Speed Dial, Dragonfly, Turbo, Mail, and the fact that it works on, like, every device ever made put it even further ahead of either Firefox or Chrome in terms of flexibility. To put it in perspective, you actually gave IE higher marks for flexibility than Opera, which is, needless to say, ludicrous. Might wanna rethink this particular score for Opera.

[noop90]

"Relying on their *market research*, they ranked each browser by market share, innovation, flexibility and speed..."

Seriously, "their market research"?? How incompetent can these guys really be? Nearly everything on this "infographic" is wrong.

And for the "infographic", why do the score bullets go from right to left? It's totally non-intuitive and shouldn't happen on an infographic with so little information and from people who claim to be "designers". This stuff is really visualization 101. Such a failure.

[Coldhardkids18]

Opera is the best period. End of story. Over. Bye bye bye.

[Tyw7]

Google Chrome innovative? Ha! It doesn't even have RSS reader! Also, it seems to mess up my internet setting after it set itself up as the default browser. Switch back to IE but the "Internet key" on my keyboard is still defaulting to chrome. Uninstalled chrome and it no longer works. Had to do a system restore to the time before chrome

[Tyw7]

Google Chrome innovative? Ha! It doesn't even have RSS reader! Also, it seems to mess up my internet setting after it set itself up as the default browser. Switch back to IE but the "Internet key" on my keyboard is still defaulting to chrome. Uninstalled chrome and it no longer works. Had to do a system restore to the time before chrome

[Tyw7]

See my blog post at http://my.opera.com/wikipedian/blog/2011/08/10/google-chrome-rss-support where I critize Google's lack of RSS support

[Dan_Hakimi]

They went way too easy on IE. Way, waaaayy too easy. And firefox is faster than that...

[spadija]

What factored into the flexibility score each browser was given? A couple of those ratings don't seem to match up with what I know about each browser.

For instance, both Chrome and Opera support skins, tabs on the side (via commandline switch for Chrome), extensions (from what I understand, Chrome's are more flexible), user JavaScript, and user stylesheets (via extension for Chrome), which should net both browsers a decent flexibility score. But then, nearly every toolbar, panel, button, and context menu in Opera can be edited, moved or removed. Chrome just lets you show/hide the home button and bookmarks toolbar. In Opera, you can configure keyboard shortcuts and use mouse gestures (also configurable). Then Opera has a mail and news feed client, IRC client, Opera Turbo, which compresses data for use on slow connections, Unite, which runs a web server in the browser, and Widgets, which let you create desktop apps with the Opera engine. Opera also has mobile versions which run on normal and smartphones.

Of course, both Opera and Chrome lack the full browser integration that Firefox addons have. I fully agree with your flexibility score for Firefox, but Chrome's score seems a bit too high and Opera's too low unless you're scoring flexibility on completely different criteria.