经济学人242:浏览器之战

　　Browser¹ wars
浏览器之战
Chrome rules the web
谷歌浏览器掌控网络
What Google’s browser has in common with Queen Victoria
谷歌浏览器跟维多利亚女王的共同点是什么？
Aug 10th 2013 |From the print edition
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EMPIRES rise and fall swiftly on the internet. Google’s Chrome browser, which celebrates its fifth birthday next month, has captured much of the territory of older browsers² and is now responsible for about 43% of all the web traffic generated by the world’s desktop³ computers. When Chrome was launched the dominant⁴ browser was Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE), with a 68% share—it is now down to just 25%.
网络帝国兴败迅速。谷歌的Chrome浏览器下个月就要庆祝诞生15周年了。它攻城拔寨，抢夺了旧浏览器不少的份额，现在拥有台式机领域网站流量的43%之多。谷歌浏览器发布的时候，占据主导地位的浏览器是微软的IE浏览器，当时台式机市场占有率为68%，现在已经降到了25%。
It is only 20 years since Mosaic⁵, the first browser capable of combining words and images in a single page, was made available. Some of its developers went on to launch Netscape, an improved version, in 1994, just as the internet was taking off. But Netscape’s dominance quickly crumbled⁶ after Microsoft started bundling IE with its Windows operating system. IE and Microsoft’s other software became so prevalent that in 2000 an American court briefly⁷ contemplated⁸ breaking the company into two.
从第一款能同时显示文本和图像的Mosaic浏览器诞生到现在也不过20年的时间。当年Mosaic的许多开发者继续在1994年开发了改进版的网景浏览器。当时互联网刚要大规模发展。但是网景的主导地位很快被微软取代，因为微软将IE浏览器与其系统绑定销售。微软包括IE在内的很多软件风行一时，以至于2000年的时候，一家美国法院曾经考虑将微软公司一分为二。
By 2010, when the European Commission forced Microsoft to start offering Windows users a choice of browsers, many were switching anyway, especially to Mozilla’s Firefox. Now Chrome is increasingly pushing Firefox to the margins⁹. Measuring browser use is difficult and subjective¹⁰: one source shows that IE is still in front in terms of numbers of visitors to websites. But for e-commerce, share of traffic matters more. By this measure Chrome now dominates much of the planet. Like the boast made of the British empire in Queen Victoria’s time, the sun never sets on its dominions¹¹.
2010年，欧盟执行委员会强制命令微软为Windows使用者提供浏览器选项，很多用户选择了Mozilla公司的火狐浏览器。现在Chrome浏览器的崛起将火狐推到了边缘。衡量一款浏览器的使用情况既困难又主观。一个来源显示按照访问者访问网站的数量算，IE仍然领先。但是对电子商务来说，信息流量份额才是最重要的。按照流量算的话，谷歌浏览器主导了全球的浏览器市场。就像维多利亚时期大英帝国引以为豪的景象：大英帝国的领土上太阳从不落山。

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 browsers   

浏览器

参考例句：

• Three-layer architecture is a model made up of browser, web server and background database server. 这种体系结构是由Browser、Web Server、Database Server组成的浏览器／Web服务器／后台数据库服务器三层模型。 来自互联网
• Another excellent approach is to abandon the browser entirely and, instead, create a non-browser-based, Internet-enabled application. 另一个非常好的方法是干脆放弃浏览器，取而代之，创建一个不基于浏览器，但却是基于互联网的应用。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

3 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

4 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

5 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

6 crumbled   

（把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏

参考例句：

• He crumbled the bread in his fingers. 他用手指把面包捻碎。
• Our hopes crumbled when the business went bankrupt. 商行破产了，我们的希望也破灭了。

7 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

8 contemplated   

adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The doctor contemplated the difficult operation he had to perform. 医生仔细地考虑他所要做的棘手的手术。
• The government has contemplated reforming the entire tax system. 政府打算改革整个税收体制。

9 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

10 subjective   

a.主观(上)的，个人的

参考例句：

• The way they interpreted their past was highly subjective. 他们解释其过去的方式太主观。
• A literary critic should not be too subjective in his approach. 文学评论家的看法不应太主观。

11 dominions   

统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图

参考例句：

• The King sent messengers to every town, village and hamlet in his dominions. 国王派使者到国内每一个市镇，村落和山庄。
• European powers no longer rule over great overseas dominions. 欧洲列强不再统治大块海外领土了。