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Chart: Firefox gains more ground on IE

By Todd Bishop on November 4, 2008 at 1:36 PM PST

Comments (8) | Permalink

Firefox | Internet Explorer | Google | Microsoft

Mozilla's Firefox browser has reached a new milestone, exceeding 20 percent worldwide market share for two weeks during October, according to data released by Net Applications. (Via VentureBeat.) During the past year, Microsoft's Internet Explorer has slipped from more than 78 percent of the market to less than 72 percent, according to the data.

The new numbers continue a trend that dates back to the period after the Internet Explorer 6 release. Microsoft, then with a comfortable lead in the market, let IE development go dormant -- opening the door for Firefox to make a big run. Microsoft has since released Internet Explorer 7, and it's now working on IE 8, but Firefox has made improvements of its own and has continued to chip away at IE's lead. Apple's Safari browser, now available on Windows in addition to Mac OS X, has also been gaining ground over the past year.

Google's Chrome browser, Netscape and Opera each have less than 1 percent of the market.

nono said:

on November 4, 2008 at 2:08 PM

I use ie for several reasons. I dont like the way pages load in firefox, and i dont want to become a slave to every tom dick and harry tech company that comes out with a new browser and everyone jumps on the bandwagon because they want to be thought of as an early adopter. IE works so until something comes out that just blows them out of the water, i will continue to do so.

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Cocoa said:

on November 4, 2008 at 2:16 PM

nono, are you still using your Sony Walkman cassette player for music?

How did you manage to come out of the woods?

Can you read? 20%...that's staggering consider IE had 95%.

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Matt S. said:

on November 4, 2008 at 2:30 PM

You know what browsing to Outlook Web Access, Windows Live, SharePoint, etc... are horrible in Firefox. So I don't blame you for sticking with IE :P

Sadly the above is a very small percentage of what's available on the WWW. If you need to run ActiveX then IE is your friend :)

Happy to see Firefox continue its growth. The rendering speed and compliance to web standards easily blows IE out of the water . . . at least until IE8 comes, until then we'll have to wait and see.

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Cocoa said:

on November 4, 2008 at 2:37 PM

Umm...isn't it obvious that MSFT Web Applications run better on IE?

What's your point, is that the argument why IE is better?

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nono said:

on November 4, 2008 at 4:11 PM

cocoa, why dont you concentrate on becoming a ceo of a successful company before you speak.

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Cocoa said:

on November 4, 2008 at 5:18 PM

Which one are you, Entellium?

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Chris Dawson said:

on November 4, 2008 at 6:26 PM

As long as the browsers differ in their page rendering and interpretation capabilities, web developers still have to develop and test against as many browsers as possible.

It doesn't matter if one browser is better than another, i have to use about 6 on a regular basis just to ensure the general public can surf 'in comfort' (and without having to upgrade their browsers in the process).

Bottom line, if you like FF, use it. If you like IE, use it. It's your choice! :)
As long as any browser exists significantly in the market someone out there will be using it to test that the sites actually work.

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YesYes said:

on November 5, 2008 at 12:02 PM

I use both, but IE only when I have to. Firefox has feature IE will never have.

BTW, the Entellium comment was hilarious.

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Todd Bishop's Biography

Todd Bishop is co-founder and managing editor of TechFlash. He has covered Microsoft and the technology industry for more than five years, most recently as a daily newspaper reporter and blogger based in Seattle. READ FULL BIOGRAPHY

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