By Paul Festa, 11 May 2005 11:23
NEWS The Firefox browser continues to rack up incremental market share gains against Microsoft's Internet Explorer, but security concerns may be taking their toll as the growth rate continues to slip.
Website measurement and marketing firm WebSideStory said that as of April 29, IE fell a percentage point in domestic share to make up 88.9 per cent of browser usage, while the Mozilla Foundation's open-source Firefox browser rose just over a point to 6.8 per cent.
The single-point gain represents a second consecutive slowdown for Firefox. While the browser gained a half point of market share per month in the period after its test launch in June, and a whole point per month in the period after its 1.0 launch in November, it's now gaining just over one-third of a point per month.
WebSideStory analyst Geoff Johnston said: "The pace has slowed down again. We started to notice that trend in the last release."
The slackening of Firefox's growth could mean that the browser has converted a substantial proportion of its natural constituency, thought to be early adopters and the technically savvy. It could also show that the browser's widely publicised security flaws have begun to undermine the foundation's argument that people should switch from IE to be safer.
The Mozilla Foundation warned against assigning too much importance to falling growth rates, and said the Firefox security profile still bested the competition.
Chris Hofmann, Mozilla's director of engineering, said: "We've had a few security updates, but they've been for potential vulnerabilities, for staying ahead of the curve of potential problems that might come down the road. You don't have widespread reports that people are being exploited when they use Firefox. I'm not sure there's any evidence that people are migrating away from Firefox because they feel less secure."
On the contrary, Hofmann said, Mozilla has earned kudos from security-minded users for quickly turning around patches before holes are manifested in actual exploits.
Whatever its cause, the growth slowdown calls into question the viability of one of Mozilla's stated goals for the year: topping 10 per cent market share.
WebSideStory's Johnston said that Firefox could not allow its growth rate to fall any further if it expected to achieve that goal.
"It's going to take no erosion and maybe a little bit of an uptick to surpass that by the end of the year," said Johnston. "It may depend on what they come up with in a new version this summer."
Hofmann called the 10 per cent goal "aggressive" and said the foundation was doing what it could in terms of distribution deals and marketing campaigns.
Even as its numbers painted a troubling picture for Firefox's growth, WebSideStory called attention to the browser's overall success in penetrating the IE juggernaut.
The slowdown "can be looked at in a couple of ways", Johnston said. "One is that Firefox adoption is starting to slow, and another is that it continues to plug ahead. Last June, I would never have thought that Firefox would keep growing for a full year, because Microsoft had never moved backwards."
Late last month Firefox marked 50 million downloads of its browser since the Version 1.0 release in November.
Paul Festa writes for CNET News.com
Comments
There are 33 comments. Join the discussion
1. Ian Corper
I wonder why people are measuring the 'success' of Firefox by downloads, I for one downloaded a copy of Firefox, and used it a handful of times before going back to IE.
50 million downloads does not mean 50 million users.
The success must surely be measured in percentage of web site hits are using Firefox / IE or the many other browsers available.
2. Adrian Lee
Wow, what amazing journalism.... "Firefox growth rate sips again". Yeah, and? A 12 year old could predict and write about that, thank god for bloggers.....
3. Dr. Hfuhruhurr
Security is a wash - there are always going to be flaws in both/all browsers. It's inertia and ignorance that keeps the majority of people on IE. If only the 90% of IE people could enjoy the power of tabbed browsing. Try setting up a bookmark folder with say, all your favourite news sites and then "open in tabs". It changes the way you surf.
4. Johnny Marr
I agree with both the above
I downloaded Firefox, used it a couple of times, then actually forgot I had it, and went back to IE. My company's policy is IE, so why make it hard for myself by using one browser at work, and another one at home?
Re security - whatever. Despite all the hoohah, I never seem to have any problems. You're never gonna get a 100% secure bank, safe, house, or browser
Tabbed browsing sounds cool, but it's gonna be in the next IE, and it's not sufficient to make me switch.
5. Stephen Patrick Morrisey
Why bother?... are you nuts? don't you surf the Web?
You obviously don't know what you are missing, because *any* user I have shown Firefox... and its amazing extensions, has given up on IE completely, with no itention to ever go back!
Here's what you need to do:
1.) Download, and Install Firefox (if you haven't)
2.) Get the "Adblock", "all-In-One Gestures", "BugMeNot", "ScrapBook", and "Greasemonkey" Extensions (as a minimum)
3.) Learn how to use all the above!
By doing so, you will be able to surf the Web, with *NO* popups, *NO* ADVERTIZING (if you so choose), no Flashing logos, no "you have won!" crap, *NADA*
With Tabs, you will be able to surf logically... read what you want, and load up side-threads, links, in background tabs. For anyone that says they can live without tabs, obviously hasn't used them properly yet... it's like saying you could use a mouse, without a scroll wheel... try it, it will drive you nuts!
As for "your work standard, is IE", get yourself a USB Key, and download the portable version of Firefox, and run it from the Key... once your co-workers realize, how much better, much safer, more secure, more reliable, more Web Standard Compliant it is, they will urge your company to change it's "1990" policy.
I can tell you this... if a company told me, I couldn't use Firefox... I would quit. Why risk using the Swiss Cheese security Browser?
6. Joe
You can install Firefox without admin rights. You will be doing your company a favor. It's unfortunate they are unaware of the problems related to such an inferior browser.
7. anonymous
I've tried Firefox a number of times. It just doesn't work on a number of sites and I don't have the patience to do thinks like make it work with Real Player or Microsoft Media. I don't care who's fault that is, I just want it to work and I don't have enough time to figure out how to make that happen.
8. John Trevor
The security flaws have been fixed in 1.04. That would be in under a week. Hardly enough time to draw a statistical sample of web-users that is indicative of an actual trend. Besides, anyone who thinks they can *accurately* gauge marketshare in single digits with server logs needs a clue-by-four.
9. ramblin billy
I wonder if they count upgrades as 'converts' to Firefox? I know it took me three tries to download 1.0.4 today from the official dl page. The first two tries resulted in corrupted files of about 56K. The third time was the charm. I have now downloaded SOME version of Firefox six times. I wonder if that means six people have been converted from the devil tool IE on the Mozilla scoreboard? Looking around the net and reading quotes from the Mozilla powers-that-be I'm hearing statements that sound a lot like Redmond Lite. There may be MS fanatics out there, but I don't remember Bill Gates begging them to spread the gospel in the same way as Mozilla does on its website. I hope the OSS community doesn't wake up one day and realize their god of fire has feet of clay. It wouldn't be pretty. In the long run Firefox's main contribution may come down to pressure exerted on MS to improve IE. Not that that's a bad thing...
10. anonymous
Part of the problem is that people are trying to use Firefox & keep hitting sites which are optimised for IE so won't display properly. This is certainly my experience (& that of friends/colleagues)
11. James Jones
Re Ian Corper's comment: to get around stupidly-written web sites that refuse to work with browsers other than IE, browsers have typically had an option to lie about their identity...so what Mr. Corper suggests won't give an accurate notion of who's using what browser, either.
12. Stefaan Huysentruyt
My Bank is aware of it.
Before Firefox, telling my bank that their online services did not work with my browser, resulted in a "sorry, we don't support hoola woola browsers."
Now when I send complains to any "Internet Explore" Site (that's how I call this part of the Web) stating that I use another browser for security reasons, I almost immediately get a response that they are aware of the problem, and that they are expecting a solution in this or that timeframe....
Go figure! Firefox woke everyone up, especially the professionals!
Those who can think for themselves, and the smart will follow.
13. Tero Vaananen
I think there is a considerable amount of apathy and ignorance about web security around users.
People who think that there is no reason to look for alternatives for IE are such people. I am not saying you should use Firefox, but I am saying that IE is not good enough, period.
But I guess it is a condition of human nature. I can compare people who defend IE 'because it works with every site' with opressed housewifes who say they fell, when in reality their husband beat the crap out of them.
I think Firefox has done a lot of good work in opening people's eyes. And regardless of the adoption rates and such, it has gotten noticed - they got their foot in the door now.
The next wave of adoption will come from the corporate camp. Surprisingly enough, people consider open standards, and independence from companies like Microsoft a much much bigger deal than security.
14. anonymous
Are usage figures actually important? what's important is that there is a more secure alternative to IE. Choice is important.
As for problems with IE-specific sites - this is nothing new. Most sites were coded to be "optimised" for Netscape4 before IE took over. Most of the time, it's not the fault of browsers, more likely the site developers.
15. anonymous
Now that security updates seem to be a regular necessity for Firefox users, I see a serious problem for the continued use of this browser. I have NEVER been able to get any version of Firefox to update. Just today I tried to update veresions 1.0.2 and 1.0.3 to 1.0.4 on two machines. No luck. The update programs ran for more than 30 minutes with no result. Downloading 1.0.4 and installing over the previous versions did not work. It was necessary to uninstall the previous versions, download 1.0.4 (with internet explorer!), and do a clean install. One could lose patience with this.
16. www professional
This article strikes me as rather naive and misguided or even 'motivated'.
At least this article offers no real facts, nor data.
I suppose I wont need to comment on the nature of motives while the microsoft ad's keep running on the page...
17. billy bo
IE sucks. and if youre too slow to figure it out youre already behind the times.
18. Brett Chubb
I would love to know why some many people expect a brand NEW broswer like firefox to be perfect right off the bat. Id say firefox, with its open source strategy is making huge strides on IE in just its preliminary release. Firefox is already proven to be safer and less ad/spyware vulenerable than IE but of course im sure its not perfect. YET. even though ive found nothing to prove otherwise of it.
19. latcho
in reply to anonymous:
>" I've tried Firefox a numberof
>times. It just doesn't work on a
>number of sites and I don't have the >patience to do thinks like make it
The sites aren't working because they
develop for microsoft's IE, which drives more then a handfull of incompatible out-of-(W3C)-standard html and dom methods...
So do the silly owners of that site a favor and notice them about the incompatibilities instead of blaming FFox ;)
Secondly I give you a handy dandy avice: if a site looks like it isn't working/available/reachable on *IE*,
or it gives you a time out, then switch "for fun" to firefox, and be surprised.
www.freakbrothers.tv
20. latcho
"the site's aren't working..."
in reply to an anonymous whom wrote:
>" I've tried Firefox a numberof
>times. It just doesn't work on a
>number of sites and I don't have the >patience to do thinks like make it
The sites aren't working because they
develop for microsoft's IE, which drives more then a handfull of incompatible out-of-(W3C)-standard html and dom methods...
So do the silly owners of that site a favor and notice them about the incompatibilities instead of blaming FFox ;)
Secondly I give you a handy dandy avice: if a site isn't working/available/reachable on IE,
or it givs you a time out, then switch "for fun" to firefox, and be surprised.
http://www.freakbrothers.tv
21. anonymous
I agree tabbed browsing is not enough to make someone switch to Firefox. I've been using tabbed browsing with SlimBrowser and then Fifefox for about two years now. The reasons to switch to Firefox are the security and the extensions. If you gave Firefox any consideration at all you would realize it is much better than IE. Spyware is virtually a thing of the past with Firefox. Also, try installing a few extensions and playing arround with them. I highly recommend Adblock. It truely gives you an amazing web browsing experience. There are noflashing ads driving you crazy while you are reading an article and the decreased page load time is great, too. People need to stop being ignorant and give Firefox a shot. IE is a horrible browser in desperate need of an upgrade. People deserve much better than IE. It just goes to show you how much Microsoft cares for it's customers.
22. anonymous
I have not had a pop up,virus,or any other problems with the net since installing Firefox & stopped I/EXP.Before Firefox I was constantly plagued by I/E problems.
23. anonymous
I think everyone's really missing the point when it comes to browsers. The rest of the world, Non-Technical folks, do not and will never give a damn about what browser they are using. They only want it to work so they can finish there job and move on to something else. If the user is getting their work done with little or no hassles then that will be the browser of major choice. Us geeks may make the software and we certainly have our preferences, but our opinions are usually insignificant to that of the complaining user.
24. Peter Risdon
Er... so firefox is still gaining ground.
Another misleading Silicon.com headline. It's getting boring.
[Ed note: We clearly believe that the story here is about more than simple growth. The analyst quoted here focuses on the slowing growth rate, which is undeniably still growth, while Mozilla Foundation put forward the point of view that Firefox is a superior browser. The headline to this balanced article is in no way misleading, though we accept it wouldn't have been your choice.]
25. Peter Risdon
Er... so firefox is still gaining ground.
Another misleading Silicon.com headline. It's getting boring.
26. Peter Risdon
[Ed note: We clearly believe that the story here is about more than simple growth. The analyst quoted here focuses on the slowing growth rate, which is undeniably still growth, while Mozilla Foundation put forward the point of view that Firefox is a superior browser. The headline to this balanced article is in no way misleading, though we accept it wouldn't have been your choice.]
Perhaps, but my point is that there is a pattern here. Headlines consistently put negative spin on open source topics. Each one might be justifiable in isolation but there don't seem to be any counter examples.
This has been remarked on frequently by myself and other commentators. On the whole the articles ARE balanced, but the headlines are consistently negative.
27. anonymous
Firefox sucks. Always has. Security? That's hilarious. No alt tags? That's a security breach. Hold your mouse over a link. Do you have any idea where it takes you? Security breach. It has tabs that you keep "in your way" to go to sites faster. IE has had that for years. Odd that everyone will read everything about how to set this mess up but won't read about how to set up what they already have.
While IE is a security problem, firefox is even more so. Yes it loads faster. Why? It doesn't load everything on the page.
Designed by geeks who don't have a clue.
28. Koby
It is incompatible with many web sites (the sophisticated one) and does not handle other languages correctly. So there should not be a surprise on its adoption rate. It has to work well before we accept the bells and whistles
29. Keyjo
When you download FireFox you get a lean mean browser,which is great. But you have to customise it with plugins and extensions like java audio player etc, so it will display web pages. To some people this is a BIG thing, because they are not tech savy, and they do not know what to download or understand what some of the extension do. There fore the pages do not display right so they get ticked off and switch back to IE. When you install Foxfire if it had radio buttons to install what you wanted and some default sugestions that would installed in the origional installation It would make it a lot easier installion for the less computer savy person.
30. Johnny Marr
Firefox fine for you 733t hAXXorZ. Look how all the firefox users are programmers, web developers, software people etc. What does that say?
Nobody else cares.
I'm not saying that Firefox isn't better. I guess it may be. There's just no point in changing from IE. Why bother? It's good enough. I guess I could download some really gnarly...keyboard drivers that would be 'better' than the standard MS ones, but can you be bothered? Of course not. Although, I'm sure that somewhere out there on the interwebs there are fanboys arguing over open source vs. MS keyboard drivers.
And are you serious about running FF off a memory key? Are you serious about installing renegade software on my corporate PC? Uh?
31. Mike Perry
If one thing is broken, it is all broken
I don't care how many fabulous features it has - one of the things I do is post to a number of discussion fora powered by a variety of s/w packages, e.g. phpBB. But one thing all of these sites have in common - when I use FF I cannot select text and format it by clicking on a text attribute button to make it bold, italic, a quote, an inline image etc etc.
Yes, I can download an extension, and apply attributes by traversing 3 right-click context menus, but this is soooo clanky. I make *on average* 15-20 posts per day to various fora, so my peak figure will be in the several tens. Having to use context menus literally hundreds of times a day instead of being able to click a website button is absolutely unacceptable.
So my experiment with FF lasted a couple of hours, and I have now de-installed it. It's completely useless to me.
32. miche
that brett chubb character sounds really hot. prowww! oh yea, and firefox is the shit, so all you haters can go jump off a bridge into the detroit river.
-miche b.
33. kaan atakan
[quote]
Firefox sucks. Always has. Security? That's hilarious. No alt tags? That's a security breach. Hold your mouse over a link. Do you have any idea where it takes you? Security breach. It has tabs that you keep "in your way" to go to sites faster. IE has had that for years. Odd that everyone will read everything about how to set this mess up but won't read about how to set up what they already have.
While IE is a security problem, firefox is even more so. Yes it loads faster. Why? It doesn't load everything on the page.
Designed by geeks who don't have a clue.[quote]
What a fucking loser. First off you hover over a link and you get where it points to in the firefox status bar. simple as that. there is no such thing as an alt tag anyways as its an attribute. And the alt attribute is what the owner makes it, so they can be very misleading.
Secondly i have had absolutely no problems updating firefox. I just checked i am at 1.0.6. I installed back during 1.0.4 and I never even manually clicked update (well i did confirm the update).
Thirdly 98% of the sites I have visited have had no major problems displaying in firefox. I have had no problems with any media plugins on windows. On linux it can be difficult, but you have the same problem no matter what browser you use on linux due to software patents (and besides there is no ie on linux, thank god).
There are some differences in the way css is interpreted in the two browsers. Thats about it. I have recently designed 3 commercial websites with minor problems optimizing for both browsers.
Most webdesigners would be wise to design for both for the time being.