CompTIA survey declares Internet Explorer as "most influential" tech product

According to a survey conducted by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), Internet Explorer is the "most influential technology product" of the past 25 years.

CompTIA, a non-profit organization that specializes in providing professional IT certifications, polled 471 information technology professionals for the survey during May and June.

The results showed that Internet Explorer was regarded as the most influential technology product over the last quarter century, with 66% of those surveyed saying it deserved that distinction.

Microsoft Word took second place with support from 56% of the participants. Windows 95 ranked third with half of those surveyed giving it a "most influential product" nod.

A non-Microsoft product didn't come until the end of the top five, as the iPod tied for fourth with Microsoft Excel, each taking 49% support from survey respondents. The iPod was a reactive product sparked by the industry forming Rio player, but has itself reinvigorated the market and was part of the creation of digital music stores. Microsoft's Excel and Word remain the universal productivity applications for spreadsheets and word processing.

The Blackberry took the sixth spot with 39% of participants acknowledging its importance. Adobe Photoshop gained support from 35% of those surveyed, locking it in at #7. The top 10 list was rounded out with McAfee Virus Scan (31%), Netscape Navigator (31%), and the Palm Pilot (31%).

CompTIA is not officially sponsored by any specific vendor, but nonetheless the results seem a bit unnerving.

Though Internet Explorer holds a commanding market share lead today, it was not the first browser. The GUI browser Mosaic, developed by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, was released in 1993. Infamous IE competitor Netscape Navigator came out in 1994, nearly two years before Microsoft stepped into the game. IE was more of a response to Netscape than it was an innovation in its own right. Netscape held the top browser usage share until 1999, according to early sampling numbers from Georgia Tech.

Also, because the percentage numbers clearly show that people were able to choose more than one answer, the results don't show a selective response. With the exception of the Palm Pilot, computer hardware was not even in the top 10. Processors, graphics cards, and hard drives were seemingly left out.