The title of this could also be, Microsoft vs. World. Well, not really but, you know what I mean. On the ever-growing World Wide Web, browsers are vying for the top spot as the favorite of millions of internet users. Funny enough, the first ever browser, Netscape is barely worthy of mention based on recent popularity studies.
A recent study indicated that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer continues to dominate the market but not without some strong competition for Mozilla’s, relatively new, Firefox browser. A number of features set these competitors apart.
For instance, Firefox features the all-too-familiar tabbed browsing feature. No more opening multiple browser windows, eating up your precious RAM and slowing down everything on your computer. While a more recent Explorer version can provide the same feature, Firefox pioneered the idea and there is a definite difference in feel when using tabs in Firefox as opposed to Explorer.
Also a very important topic amongst those interested in browsers is that of security. Most studies show Firefox as marginally better in this field as well even though Internet Explorer had years of a head start. This has been partially associated with the way in which Explorer is tied into the operating system while Firefox is a completely independent application.
Add-ons are a popular browser feature that enables enhancements to be made to browser by users. Well Firefox does anyway. Internet Explorer is notoriously hard to code add-ons for while Mozilla even provides help in doing so on their website. They welcome users who add functionality to the browser and a much wider range of applications are available, doing everything from music playing to game downloads.
Finally, a feature of Firefox exists that is not really a part of the browser on a whole, but is rather a modified version made by users called Firefox Portable. This application allows you to take your browser, along with its history and bookmarks, with you everywhere on a USB Flash Drive.
| 2008 | IE7 | IE6 | IE5 | Firefox | Moz | S | O |
| June | 27.0% | 26.5% | 0.5% | 41.0% | 0.5% | 2.6% | 1.7% |
| May | 26.5% | 27.3% | 0.7% | 39.8% | 0.7% | 2.4% | 1.5% |
| April | 24.9% | 28.9% | 1.0% | 39.1% | 0.9% | 2.2% | 1.4% |
| March | 23.3% | 29.5% | 1.1% | 37.0% | 1.1% | 2.1% | 1.4% |
| February | 22.7% | 30.7% | 1.3% | 36.5% | 1.2% | 2.0% | 1.4% |
| January | 21.2% | 32.0% | 1.5% | 36.4% | 1.3% | 1.9% | 1.4% |
While statistics continue to show Internet Explorer as dominant,Firefox is getting more and more share of the market
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The only problem with those stats, is that they are from the W3C’s own site, not for the Internet in general.
It says it at the bottom of the page, as well.
The actual global Firefox adoption is closer to 20% (a tad under, if memory serves). It’s still growing, at least. And it’s giving Microsoft something to worry about (slow growth is still growth, and hopefully it will make Microsoft think about improving their browser better as time goes on).
So, as much as I would love to say something like, “Yeah! Firefox is going to CRUSH IE!” The reality of the situation is that it will be more of a slow growing over, if it takes over IE at all.
That said, more power to Firefox.
W3C’s browser stats:
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
From W3C’s site:
“W3Schools is a website for people with an interest for web technologies. These people are more interested in using alternative browsers than the average user. The average user tends to use Internet Explorer, since it comes preinstalled with Windows. Most do not seek out other browsers.
These facts indicate that the browser figures above are not 100% realistic. Other web sites have statistics showing that Internet Explorer is used by at least 80% of the users.”
Firefox is better in my opinion. But it tends to slow your system down, that’s the only issue I have.
First off, without Netscape, we would not have Firefox. The in development Netscape 5 was opensourced and developed by Mozilla. The separate Mozilla Suite was made, and then the browser component was broken away to form what is now Firefox.
@Almost On: W3CSchools is separate from the W3C.
Jakes last blog post..Mysticgeek Blog: Create Your Own Simple iGoogle Gadget
also, as i recall, opera introduced the tabbed browsing feature some years before mozilla did!
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