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.
[NCLUG] virus de-alert
FOOT-AND-MOUTH BELIEVED TO BE FIRST VIRUS
UNABLE TO SPREAD THROUGH MICROSOFT OUTLOOK
Researchers Shocked to Finally Find Virus That Email App Doesn't Like
Atlanta, Ga. (SatireWire.com) - Scientists at the Centers for Disease
Control and Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center today confirmed that
foot-and-mouth disease cannot be spread by Microsoft's Outlook email
application, believed to be the first time the program has ever failed
to propagate a major virus.
"Frankly, we've never heard of a virus that couldn't spread through
Microsoft Outlook, so our findings were, to say the least, unexpected,"
said Clive Sarnow, director of the CDC's infectious disease unit.
The study was immediately hailed by British officials, who said it will
save millions of pounds and thousands of man hours. "Up until now we
have, quite naturally, assumed that both foot-and-mouth and mad cow were
spread by Microsoft Outlook," said Nick Brown, Britain's Agriculture
Minister. "By eliminating it, we can focus our resources elsewhere."
However, researchers in the Netherlands, where foot-and-mouth has
recently appeared, said they are not yet prepared to disqualify Outlook,
which has been the progenitor of viruses such as "I Love You,"
"Bubbleboy," "Anna Kournikova," and "Naked Wife," to name but a few.
Said Nils Overmars, director of the Molecular Virology Lab at Leiden
University: "It's not that we don't trust the research, it's just that
as scientists, we are trained to be skeptical of any finding that flies in
the face of established truth. And this one flies in the face like a
blind drunk sparrow."
Executives at Microsoft, meanwhile, were equally skeptical, insisting
that Outlook's patented Virus Transfer Protocol (VTP) has proven virtually
pervious to any virus. The company, however, will issue a free VTP patch
if it turns out the application is not vulnerable to foot-and-mouth.
Such an admission would be embarrassing for the software giant, but
Symantec virologist Ariel Kologne insisted that no one is more
humiliated by the study than she is. "Only last week, I had a reporter ask
if the foot-and-mouth virus spreads through Microsoft Outlook, and I told
him, 'Doesn't everything?'" she recalled. "Who would've thought?"
Copyright ) 2001, SatireWire.
I've hear vista and XP but Golden eagle has assured me despite the fact w2k has left mainstream MS support unpdate will continue as they have for the past 5 years..
Look again at what I have said. I will say, again, I am not espousing a browser, except that you do not use IE. This is not a hit on Microsoft, I use many of their products. I advise not using IE right now.
Sort of like General Motors.
The sound you hear is me not caring...
bwhahahah who's hijacking web standards? Pages designed correctly with w3c will render on Firefox, Opera, Safari, and ie... Come to think of the only web applications and site I have seen that will only work on one browser are ones tuned for ie... Microsoft has used market share to screw up standards..
I would prefer to see control over Web standards maintained by American commercial interests
And I would prefer that a single company (I don't care who it is) screw up existing web standards and in doing so destroy other products... but then again I'm not an MS fanboy..
Theres more written by you here tonight than anyone else . why not post like everybody else, and let people comment? Instead you copy a bedtime story here and make fun of everybody else who comment.
ah, using the golden eagle tactics to label open source as "commieware"
Yur pals at ms didn't seem to mind giving the chicoms access to the windows source code. And bill gates certainly gives plenty of money to left wing causes.
Hmmm...maybe you're a closet lefty here to spread lies to enrich your favorite causes...hmmm...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.