Firefox's market share climbs toward world domination

Firefox is set to top 20 percent global market share in July, continuing its steady trend toward world domination through, er, open-source liberation.

Unlike Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which relied on all sorts of tricks and tying to achieve its dominant status, Firefox's gains seem to be coming for two reasons:

1. It works better (Better security, better performance, better functionality).
2. It's much more customizable.

As ReadWriteWeb points out, the game is increasingly Firefox's to lose. Internet Explorer used to command 96 percent of the market. Now it's struggling to hold onto 80 percent, with Firefox chipping away, 1 percent at a time.

Better software doesn't always win. In today's market, in fact, the superior marketing budget generally wins.

But not in the IE versus Firefox war, for some reason. Firefox continues to gain market share. Perhaps this time "better" really will translate into market share.

[satish rao]

I had so many problems with Firefox.

Not because of any faults with Firefox, but with the websites not supporting the browser.

Even US Gov web sites(US Consulate in Mumbai), did not support firefox and since I was using FireFox, I was not even aware of certain functionality that i was trying desparately to find on the site. As soon as I switched to IE after hours of confusion, things were clear as a sunny day.

I do not want to be hassled by this just because FireFox is a better browser. It might be, but it caused me trouble. I just stopped using it after that.

Now, you might say, I am dumb, but the Majority of the web users are not tech geniuses, we want the browser to be an invisible thing. We want what it delivers and not interested in the great ness of the tool itself.

[sting7k]

When did you use FF? I had similar problems when FF was young, I still had to use IE sometimes. But these days it is very rare for me to go to a website that doesn't support FF or that doesn't render properly. Like the other guy said, it has come a long way and web designers have taken notice.

[Pishkado]

Maarek Stele is basically right. It's not Firefox. It's how developers create the site. However, it's not so much the tools as using IE-specific features in general (and perhaps not even being aware of it, since they may have only tested with IE). As long as IE was pretty much the only game in town that sort of worked. As FF gains market share, it won't, and we can expect this sort of thing to go away. In the final analysis, there isn't a thing you can't do on a Web site while still confirming to vendor-independent standards - if you want to!

[Reg Harris]

You realize that Firefox will has a plug-in that will allow you to view IE sites from within Firefox? Just go to the add-on site and search for IE. If you're running on windows and have IE installed, it will set up a connection so that you can choose to use IE when you're on IE only sites. Eventually the world will realize they've been duped by M$ Go FOX go!

[JCPayne]

To satish rao. Try going to http://www.GetFireFox.com/ and updating your copy.... It has come a long way--- since then....

[sting7k]

FF FTW! I'm glad to see FF is really making ground on IE. I have used FF for several years now and I absolutely cannot stand to use IE (any version). It barely even runs most of the time and if it does it crashes or slows down my computer within minutes. I've converted lots of my friends too and have gotten both my parents to even use it. I have been telling them not to use IE and have FF installed for them. It just works and all the add-ons you can get and themes are great. Bye Bye IE, I'm really excited for FF3 in the coming months.

[dburr13]

I've been using FF since '04...I liked it then because it was faster and more functional...I hate to wait!...Now i'm using FF3 RC1...Firefox just keeps getting better...And this is just the beginning...When FF3 is officially released the folks as Mozilla will already be working on the next Firefox...Continuous improvement has made all the difference.

[sal-magnone]

I've yet to see someone who is not either in technology, or closely related/associated to someone who is, running FF. Most desktop users don't know what FF is. So when you say MS used all sorts of tricks, I find that funny. Downloading FF and installing it on every machine and server you have in colo is certainly allot of installs but doesn't actually mean any level of commercial success. My guess is their allot more REAL users of Safari out there than FF.

[sal-magnone]

BTW: I just read STING7K's comment above - see what I mean?

[john55440]

I have both IE7 and FF2 installed on my system, but prefer/use IE7. Among other things, FF2 is notorious for memory leak problems, and has a clunky old-fashioned default interface. I hope that FF3 is significantly better than FF2.

[mastercko]

it is. been using it since beta 3. FF3 RC1 is world's better than FF2 in terms of memory and design.

[ericwiseway]

To John,

I think you should really try the ff3. It works great on my computer which runs a vista system.

But on vista, IE7 works also well, but ff3 better.

[Maarek Stele]

it's not the website, but rather the developers of the website using tools to create the page. It's a WASTE. Websites should be written from scratch, using a tool will create TONS of junk code that doesn't belong there and slow the processing time down. When creating a website with Frontpage, the page will generally work better with IE because that's what Microsoft put in the useless code that ends up on the page.

Here's a tip, write a simple page without font changes or different tables. Just use <DIR> tags and have a CSS script to move everything around. IT's ALOT EASIER!!

[mastercko]

One extension could solve your problems, my friend. It's called IETab. Use it to load IE specific pages with the IE rendering engine but in the FF window. You can then enjoy FF's improved surfing for the other 90% of the web.

[Reg Harris]

You realize that Firefox will has a plug-in that will allow you to view IE sites from within Firefox?

Just go to the add-on site and search for IE. If you're running on windows and have IE installed, it will set up a connection so that you can choose to use IE when you're on IE only sites.

Eventually the world will realize they've been duped by M$

Go FOX go!

[gisabun]

Oh you can tell Mr. Asay is anti-IE. "world domination" as a headline when Firefox may hit 20%? Talk about crappy reporting.

"Struggling" to hold onto 80%? Ya right....

[anton.vanwamelen]

I use 3 explorers: IE, FF & Avant...so when 1 doesn't do the job, I simply switch to the one that will...for example writing PDF files...

[jusben1369]

First off - I like Firefox and it's my primary browser on both Mac and PC machines. I think the extensions are tremendous.

Yet Firefox really is a business school case study in the abject failure of Open Source projects vs the success of them. At least, that's the more interesting paper to me. Here's why:

- Netscape was very cool and sexy (like Firefox is today)
- MSFT took the ENTIRE market in how long - 3 - 4years?
- Netscape was fighting tooth and nail during that entire time
- Firefox has had 5 years and gotten to a measly 20%
- MSFT isn't even putting up a fight
- Price isn't an issue
- Distribution is somewhat of an issue but hardly enough to explain 80/20

[luckylookey]

Quote "MSFT took the ENTIRE market in how long - 3 - 4years? - Netscape was fighting tooth and nail during that entire time - Firefox has had 5 years and gotten to a measly 20% - MSFT isn't even putting up a fight - Price isn't an issue - Distribution is somewhat of an issue but hardly enough to explain 80/20"

One word, bundling. The only reason IE triumphed is because it came bundled with Windows, the OS used by the vast majority of average users. For this group, there is no great incentive to switch browser. Add MS's antitrust policies to the mix, and it's clear why they won out.

However, the fact that FF has gained such market share so quickly at the expense of IE is a testament to how superior it is. If even average users are going out and downloading it, something is driving them to do so. Simply, quality.