Posted on 08/26/2005 6:31:03 PM PDT by Bush2000
Firefox's 'retreat' ensures Microsoft excels
Open source web browser Firefox has lost the momentum it has steadily gained since it was unleashed last year, according to Web analysts at Net Applications.
The online portal’s unique Hit List service reveals a slump in the Mozilla browser’s market share, falling from 8.7% to 8.1 % in July.
Coinciding with its demise, was the advance of Microsoft's IE that has gained some of the ground surrendered in June, climbing back from 86.6 % to 87.2% last month.
The revival for the dominant browser comes on the back of average monthly losses of between .5 to 1% for Redmond, as Firefox started to gain acceptance among a wider audience than just tech-savvy users.
When asked by Contractor UK whether Microsoft’s sudden gains were from the unveiling of a new IE, Net Applications said a re-launch tends revive industry interest, and could have bolstered Microsoft’s market share of the browser market.
When a company launches a new product, there is always renewed interest in what the company has produced and it would also be fair to say that this may have had an effect, said a member of the Hit List team.
Although, there have been browser issues with Windows 2000 in the news, so it is possible that again you may see a dip [in Microsoft’s market share]. Right now, people are looking for security and whenever there are issues with the security of one's system, they will use what they feel will be the most secure.”
Besides Net Applications, web developer site W3 Schools, confirms that adoption of Firefox is falling, just as IE is reaching its highest share of the market in 2005.
According to W3's data on specialist users, Microsoft IE (6) enjoyed a 67.9% share in July, improving to 68.1% in August matched against Firefox’s top share of 21% in May, which has now dropped to 19.8% for the last two months.
Observers noted that both sets of analysis concur that Microsoft’s loss, up until now, has been Firefox’s gain, but over the last month roles have reversed.
Security fears concerning Mozilla and its browser product have recently emerged, coinciding with Microsoft’s high-profile trumpeting of its new safer browser product (IE 7), complete with glossy logo.
Experts at Net Applications said they were surprised at Firefox’s sudden retreat, saying they expected a slow down before any decline.
Yet they told CUK: “Whenever there may be problems with security, there always is a decline with users changing browsers.”
Data from the Web analytics company is based on 40,000 users, gleaned from their global internet operations, prompting some commentators to question the so-called ‘global decline’ in the Firefox market share.
The Counter.com reportedly finds that between June and July, Firefox actually increased its share by two points, and overtook IE5 for the first time ever.
The Web Standard Project suggests webmasters should treat data from web analysis providers with caution, before rushing to make service changes.
So what can we conclude?” asks the WSP, a grass roots project fighting for open access to web technologies.
“Not much: Mozilla-based browsers are probably used by just under 10% of the web audience and their share is growing slowly. IE5.x is probably used by somewhat less than that and its share is declining slowly. IE6 is roughly holding steady.”
Meanwhile, Spread Firefox, which measures actual download rates of the browser, reports that it took just one month for the Mozilla Foundation’s showpiece to reach 80 million downloads in August – from its July total of 70 million.
At the time of writing, Firefox had been downloaded 80701444 times, meaning adoption rates of over 10m occurred one month after Net Applications says Firefox bolted in light of the dominant IE.
I'm not endorsing Firefox, per se, but if you are using IE, you are definitely dealing with attacks , I no longer see.
Reports are that Microsoft's next full IE release (not a point release) will be for Vista only (hopefully that's old info and they've regained their sanity). If so, it's the best gift third-party browsers could ever ask for...
But why FireFox, when the full Mozilla loads faster?
Internet Exploder just blows - it's just a virus-transportation system, like that piece of crap Outlook.
I use Firefox, of course, like most intelligent folks, but anything is better than IE. Did I mention that IE blows?
Ping!
What attacks?
I also use the MSN Toolbar (http://toolbar.msn.com/) which has tabbed browsing. Still don't see what the big deal is about that though.
He asks as he posts from tab #2 of 4 currently open in his Firefox browser.....
IE blows, Hank.
lol
"falling from 8.7% to 8.1 % in July..." = "demise" ??
I don't think Mr. Bill is losing a whole lot of sleep over it yet, but a fractional drop like that hardly qualifies as a "demise". I just love reporters...
And nobody will give a spit.
The free version has the ad in the upper right and is not that annoying, but I finally bit the bullet and bought it. The license is good for Windows and Linux and on every computer you use. It has the tabbed browsing that Firefox users like, as well as "mouse gestures" that let you navigate almost intuitively.
One feature I appreciate is the magnified screen effect that's easier to accomplish than on IE.
IE7 will blow too.
Unless it sucks.
It could go either way.
I really like using FF been using it for over a year now. But my favorite is Thunderbird. i love getting RSS feeds. i check them out many times during the day and most of my favorite bloggers are right there in my email. if outlook has this feature ive never unlocked the secret to it.So I will stay with FF and Thunderbird. oh and im posting on tab #3
If you have no trouble with IE, that's great and maybe one day I will come back to it; but for right now, no way. My extremely secure system has been breeched too many times through IE.
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