Firefox draws 2.6 million surfers in March

The Firefox browser continues to be a beacon for many Internet users.

More than 2.6 million people visited the Firefox Web site in March to obtain more information about the open-source software and perhaps download it, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. That's up from 2.2 million in January and 1.6 million in February.

Firefox has come on like gangbusters since last year, and now holds approximately 5 percent of the browser market. That's a small share, but the arrival of the browser--which has garnered attention in part as an alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer--has coincided with IE's dominant market share dipping below 90 percent.

"Firefox gives Web surfers a simple tool that blocks unsolicited windows, is less susceptible to virus attacks, and offers a unique means of navigating multiple sites within a single browser," Ken Cassar, director of strategic analytics at Nielsen/NetRatings, said in a statement.

The Firefox site first met Nielsen/NetRatings' minimum reporting levels in June 2004, when 795,000 people visited the site.

The research company also said that Mozilla.org, the Web site of the Mozilla Foundation, which developed Firefox, registered 4.1 million unique visitors in March. That's an increase from 3.4 million in January and 3.1 million in February, and up considerably from 1.1 million in March 2004.

[Christopher Hall]

Does CNet have a stake in Mozilla?

To a casual observer, it always seems that CNet is very quick to extoll the wonders of Firefox and how it's the digital messiah. Even minor news seems to get top-grade treatment across the board and it just seems fishy.

Of course, this site is populated heavily by people who do the same, so I suppose it could be played off as playing to the crowd.

[NWLB]

Wow, does Microsoft give you a kickback for that?

The tone of your post makes it seem like you have a bone to pick with Firefox, more than you really dislike CNet's choice in news.

This isn't really a site most people go to, and those of us that do tend to know more about, or use computers a great deal more than the common Joe.

If CNet reports on Firefox a lot, so be it. If you want fair and balanced reporting, maybe they should start something like MSCnet, so they can report on the dailey flow of flaws in almost every major Microsoft program that exists.

Firefox is a browser, and the first one that is viable and well liked. It is a popular icon of sorts, with a strong and growing following. That is a first in the post Micropocalyptic era. If they post a lot on it, there is a demand for it.

NWLB
http://www.nwlbnet.blogspot.com