Firefox Reaches 20% Market Share for First Time Ever
The good folks at Mozilla are trumpeting a new report by global analytics service Net Applications that documented a 20% global market share for two out of four weeks in October. It's a new high bar of popularity for the 2nd most popular browser in the world.
Firefox is safe, standards compliant, extensible...and not made by Microsoft. That's what most people like about it and the number of fans is growing. Can you guess what percentage of ReadWriteWeb visitors came here using Firefox last month?
As a non-default browser on Windows computers, Firefox use can also be used as a proxy for measuring increasing sophistication of aggregate web users. There are certainly sophisticated web users who use Internet Explorer, however.
We know that because 27% of our fabulously sophisticated readers came here using IE last month. That makes it the second most popular browser among our readers after Firefox at 55%. Our readers came in on 188 different browsers in October.
Innovation in browsers is continuing fast and furious. Just today "private browsing" was added to an official Firefox build and that's sure to be appealing to mainstream users and early adopters.
Congratulations are due to the Mozilla team and community. A web filled with Firefox users is a better web for us all.
Comments
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I hope they keep innovating. It is my favorite browser for some time now. I even find it much better than over hyped chrome browser. and yes congratulation to fire-fox team.
Posted by: Ninja | November 4, 2008 11:40 AM
Please remember what has been said for Chrome's launch http://tinyurl.com/633x4h
Posted by: stetoscope | November 4, 2008 11:42 AM
@stetoscope - thanks for highlighting my issue with TinyURL. It can potentially be used as a blog spam agent. Not saying that's what you're doing, but with TinyURL I have no way of knowing where I'm ending up. So if a comment leaves a TinyURL link I don't know if I should trust it or not.
Posted by: Amit | November 4, 2008 11:56 AM
Thanks for sharing this Marshall. Yesterday I posted our own stats and Firefox is at 66% here http://jobblogs.cc/forums/viewthread/177 (seemingly high at the time). Now I read yours I don't feel so out of place ;)
When you consider the pronounced evolution of the web (it's been well over a decade now) and large number of people who browse it, it's not so hard to get your head around the fact that the segment of people who use the web to collaborate understand they need a modern browser to get the most from these new services. They will obviously cluster around progressive and useful sites making digging deeper into the stats telling.
Posted by: Steve Ireland | November 4, 2008 12:18 PM
I had to be bullied into using Firefox, and now I can't imagine my life without it. I'm so glad I dated a gee.ky boy. I have five browsers installed but Firefox is the bestest.
@Amit: I never even thought of TinyURL like that. But I also prefer knowing where I end up.
Posted by: Joy-Mari Cloete
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November 4, 2008 12:21 PM
I love FireFox!
Posted by: www.love2wager.com | November 4, 2008 12:43 PM
That's not the current Firefox logo used in the article. Current press materials are available here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/press/images.html
Posted by: Annoying Dick | November 4, 2008 2:31 PM
Also, the fact that the IE usage is so high can probably somewhat be attributed to the fact that some workplaces and or schools require IE to be used.
Or maybe I just *want* to feel like nobody uses IE anymore ;)
Posted by: Colin | November 4, 2008 3:29 PM
There is still a long way to go to get back to anything like the market share that Netscape enjoyed in the late 90s (90% at one point) that had almost disappeared even before Mozilla 1.0 was released in June 2002
There are lots of old stats here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers
Posted by: Richard Cunningham | November 4, 2008 4:39 PM
It's still pitifully low.
Once Chrome has extensions, there will be a huge exodus. Chromium's code is much more compact and easier to work on than baroque code behind Firefox.
Posted by: Hmph | November 4, 2008 5:20 PM
20% ?
That isn't cr@p!
Posted by: steveballmer | November 4, 2008 5:31 PM
Not surprised, Firefox is the superior browser.
Jiff
www.anolite.echoz.com
Posted by: JohnDoe | November 4, 2008 6:23 PM
Just because you get a hit from IE doesn't mean it's the user's prefered browser; I'm posting this with IE from a school computer that has no Firefox, so there's something to consider.
Posted by: Casey Dwyer | November 4, 2008 6:37 PM
Firefox Owns!
I love it
Posted by: Umar | November 4, 2008 7:13 PM
Nice! Go Firefox!
Posted by: Matt Cutts | November 4, 2008 7:26 PM
Congrats to Mozilla. Now Microsoft should package Mozilla with Vista setup or may be there new windows 7. Its not Hitler world anymore. Now days are changed & world is going open. Microsoft should think about this - like Microsoft did with Online office.
Anyways cheers to Mozilla users ! Chrome is browser that Mozilla should watch for !
Posted by: Web Design
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November 4, 2008 10:12 PM
Firefox the best when compared to remaining browsers like IE,Chrome ,safari and Opera.Chrome is not handling flash content sites ,it just crashes.
Posted by: venkat | November 4, 2008 10:40 PM
There are certainly sophisticated web users who use Internet Explorer, however.
I love the way that had to be added at the end of the paragraph. It pained you though, didn't it? Right? ;-)
Posted by: Peter Cooper | November 4, 2008 10:45 PM
Too bad they choose the numbers that favor them and when thrown in context to the other four usage trackers it results the accumulated figures give a 74.38% for IE and a 17.62% for Firefox.
So.....i doubt that number is the real deal. i will go with my number made up from all numbers. going with the numbers from one single source = more than likely are not accurate.
Yeah, sorry. i know it is bad to rain on their parade but whatever. lets see how they fare once IE8 final is out and Chrome gets decent.
Posted by: Avatar | November 4, 2008 11:28 PM
@amit : I had not thought a tinyurl could be misleading but I understand your point. Nevertheless, my point (not really well expressed then) was to point out that Chrome is not a real navigator it is an integrated google and navigator whereas firefox is a real navigator designed by a community for the community. That could explain why some weeks after Chrome's launch that was supposed to be a tsunami firefox resistance seems good.
Posted by: stetoscope | November 5, 2008 12:13 AM
@ Peter Cooper: hahahahahaha... Oh, I bet it did!
I still don't see a market share of more than 10% for Firefox for all my websites. IE, even 5.5, is still way more popular. I think that once Chrome has some decent extensions and plug-ins that it will simply steal market share from Firefox. IE has a following that simply know it as "THE Internet"
I always was a fan of Netscape... but when IE could render more colours I knew its days were numbered. A pity. Now I'm a Flock user (yeah, I know it's still Mozilla).
Posted by: Robert | November 5, 2008 5:09 AM
FireFox best browser.
Scan your PC for free
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Posted by: tigran
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November 5, 2008 8:44 AM
Firefox is good software, more stable than IE.
Posted by: New gadgets | November 5, 2008 10:52 AM
Well, I've been happy so far, hopefully they get more than 20%...
Posted by: Diamonds | November 5, 2008 3:07 PM
yo firefox go on....more easyto use thn IE .......
Posted by: Rahul sharma | November 5, 2008 9:16 PM
How is Google Chrome going? Expect a big jump for it when the Android comes to live. There are more people with mobiles than people with computers. That will make the difference.
Posted by: Dating Software | November 6, 2008 6:39 AM
Firefox is also my favorite but i predict it will not go higher than 25% within the next 5 years.
If Windows 7 does not flop like Vista did, MS will preserve its OS-Market and it will not continue to lose customers to apple like it is the case now. If they manage that (and I think they will) IE will stay the far most used browser.
I guess Chrome will flop, but I'm not sure.
Posted by: Sebastian Gebhard | November 6, 2008 4:03 PM
firefox is the best..............
Posted by: wyldfyer | November 9, 2008 12:16 PM
In my opinion, firefox is the best browser. I feel more comfortable using it compare to others.
Posted by: MGA | November 18, 2008 3:38 PM