Alternative Web browsers Mozilla and Firefox experienced another month of growth at the expense of Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer, according to an online study.
The percentage of Americans using Mozilla and Firefox, two open-source browsers funded by the Mozilla Foundation, grew to 6 percent in October from 5.2 percent in September and 3.5 percent in June. That 6 percent was split evenly between the two browsers.
While Microsoft's IE continued as the overwhelming market leader, it witnessed another marginal decline, this time a dip of 0.8 percent. IE claimed 95.5 percent of users in June, 93.7 percent in September, and 92.9 percent last month. The Opera browser and Apple Computer's Safari combined reached just more than 1 percent of users.
Open-source browsers such as Firefox, as well as Apple Computer's Safari, seem to be stealing market share from Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer.
WebSideStory measures market share by embedding sensors on major Web sites for the Walt Disney Internet Group, Best Buy, Sony, DaimlerChrysler and Liz Claiborne. These sensors can tell which browsers visitors are using to view the sites.
In the big picture, Mozilla and Firefox are specks of dust compared with the near-ubiquity of Internet Explorer. But given IE's fifth consecutive month of decline and Mozilla/Firefox's fifth consecutive month of growth, analysts are beginning to wonder whether and when the shift will stop.
"What we're seeing is [Mozilla and Firefox] looking more like a vanguard than a flash in a pan," said Geoff Johnston, an analyst at WebSideStory.
The study comes just ahead of Firefox's official release on 9 November. The browser, based on Mozilla's open-source code, has experienced a surprising surge in popularity, reaching five million downloads two weeks ago, then later passing seven million.
Last weekend, the Mozilla Foundation said the project has raised more than $250,000 during its 10-day donation drive. The money will be spent to promote Firefox 1.0's release. Developers working on Firefox hope the software will reach 10 percent US penetration by the end of 2005.
Firefox may continue to show gains, but the software could reach a ceiling, according to WebSideStory's Johnston. Most of its users are technology-proficient early adopters rather than average Web surfers. "[Firefox] hasn't gotten to mainstream," he said.
Talkback
I've been using forefox for some time now. It's definitely much faster than IE and its pop up blocker is good though not as good as opera's. I don't know whether the speed is due to absence of spyware, I've already have antispy software installed, more than one and still firefox is speedier. Its extensions are another great thing about it, adds so much functionality. Few gripes, it doesn't support other languages in the sense that it displays gibberish if I go to a hindi or malayalam sit despite installing the relevant fonts. I tried changing the language properties and looking up mozilla forums to no avail, another is that some websites do not support it, so that perforce you have to use IE. I've begun to hate IE with a passion after I started using firefox and opera!
*All* of my FireFox users are mainstream. Some of them are dumber than rocks, some of them are geniuses, it doesn't seem to matter. Some tried it because MSIE was broken for them at the time and grew to love the tabs and blocking, others tried it for the features, others tried it for security reasons, all love it. Not one has reverted to MSIE as their primary browser, although most keep the blue e tucked away somewhere for sites that demand it.
Ditto for OpenOffice. Some don't notice the change, others are delighted by it. One (hi, Billy C) installed it to get around a broken copy of MS-Word and wound up not only switching (mainly because its Chinese input is much better, he says) but promoting it to his local Chamber of Commerce without any input ot hints from advcates.
Firefox whoops the arse off IE, remember to celebrate it LOUDLY at your MozParty ! :)
http://www.openforce.at/mozparty2/
I've been a FF user since first public downloads were available. While not perfect , It beats IE by a mile especially after you start playing around with customizing and extensions. Everyone soulld give it a try just to experience that there is much more than MSIE out there.
I think Firefox uses more system memory than IE. Try it yourself... Open this page in FireFox and IE and invoke the Task Manager....
I found exaclty the same. IE 6.0.28 on xp pro sp2 uses less memory than firefox.