Internet Explorer market share continues to slide, Firefox still climbing
According to data from market research firm Net Applications, Microsoft’s web browser market share has dropped below 70 percent in the month of November. Yes, 70 percent is still an overwhelming majority but considering Internet Explorer is said to have peaked with close to 95 percent of the market, this new data represents yet another area where the scales are continuing to level out. Is the era of the Redmond behemoth finally coming to an end? Not any time soon of course, but Microsoft is indeed having its fortress walls slowly chipped away in nearly every major area of its business. Windows OS market share, Microsoft’s bread and butter, is at a 15-year low and MSN / Microsoft Live Search usage is hovering between 5 and 8 percent of the market, depending on whose numbers you look at. Internet Explorer represents yet another area where Redmond is faltering and Microsoft is showing no signs of movement that might slow the burn. Conversely, Mozilla’s Firefox jumped above 20 percent in November – the first time it has maintained a share over 20 percent for a full month since Net Applications began tracking relevant data.
[Via Silicon Alley Insider]
Good! Competition has done nothing but help the browser market. IE has improved greatly since Firefox started to gain popularity and there are more viable mainstream choices than ever what with Firefox 3, IE 7/8, Chrome, and Opera.
Looks like Firefox isn’t losing too many users to Chrome after all.
Can’t wait to see how Google’s Chrome takes away market share from IE! Safari is up to 10% in some circles. Maybe soon we will have most websites following web standards.
the only people who use live search are m$ employees and people trying to get 20% off their ebay stuff.
gooooooooooooooo opera!
On my MAC I use Camino and Safari, used to use Opera and Flock
On my Wintel I use Chrome and Firefox. I NEVER use Opera, and only used IE to download another browser!
Personally I prefer Camino and Chrome features, but Firefox is the most stable, so its no wonder Mozilla is gaining some footing. Safari in newer computers is nice, but latest Safari 3 in OS 10.4.11 is CRAP!
To me the best one is safari but i think it’s missing some lipstick, Firefox & google Chrome are also pretty sweet if your a windows user, IE is the only one i don’t like, am not saying is bad but you really have to watch out what pages you visit with it cause it’s really a bug magnet, all it takes if for you to visit a porn site and your entire machine turns to crap.
As a web developer I wish all the IE6 users would upgrade to ANYTHING else
Good stuff – competition benefits the consumer. Another positive sign is Chrome didn’t make a dent in FireFox advancement.
To be fair, Microsoft is releasing Windows 7, and updating IE with it. Yeah, this should’ve been done a year or two ago, and MS needs to be scared to maintain progress, but you honestly cant say that they aren’t taking steps to slow their decline.
At my college (UIC), all of the computers in the school have Firefox as the default browser. Right now im using IE8 on my laptop and I guess the only reason why is because Im so used to it. I still havent checked out Chrome or Opera, and Ive used Safari but it doesnt to it for me. Like neodorian said, competition has done great things for IE.
I hope MS gets the message and improves performance in IE 8.
I.E.8 has made only minor changes from what I can see. Firefox continues to rule and will continue for some time. I build web sites and it is a total pain trying to get applets and animations to run and appear correctly on I.E. anymore. I’ve been telling everyone I know to go to ANYTHING else . . . and I mean ANYTHING!
I don’t know why anyone still uses IE. Other browsers are so much better.
Opera is a good browser, personally I haven’t tried Chrome, I don’t use Safari because i’m not on a Mac or iPhone, IE is pretty terrible and sluggish. Mozilla Firefox is the best IMO
Good! IE sucks. If every internet user was given firefox to use for a week not a single one would go back to crappy IE. Everything about Opera, firefox, or chrome is better then IE.
FireFox all the way. I only use IE for particular sites that are geared towards it or required to use it. And IE8 doesn’t bring anything to the table so far that I would call a wow factor.
Hurray for the fox!