IE Usage Falls Again, Firefox Gains

Published on January 21, 2005 By Island Dog In Personal Computing

Use of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser has fallen for the seventh straight month, and the decline is beginning to accelerate, according to new data from research firm WebSideStory. Usage of IE stood at 90.3 percent, a one month decrease of 1.5 percent. Meanwhile, Firefox usage rose nearly a full percentage point to 5 percent of the market.

WebSideStory also showed gains in Apple's Safari browser and Opera Software's flagship browser. The original Mozilla browser showed some weakness, falling slightly since December.

Link

Comments

Phoon

on Jan 21, 2005

Here's my 2 cents worth, and I know A LOT of people will disagree...
Firefox is going to be just a passing fad...

It's a nice browser and all but it just doesn't work with some key apps.
( I have a helpdesk application which features a web interface for clients to submit support tickets. Won't work with Firefox. Nor windows update. Right now, it's very popular because it is fresh and new. Remember, with that rising popularity comes a price to pay.. there have already been a few vulnerabilities exposed. Every day it draws more attention to attackers and before long I think we will see it being attacked more and more.

I personaly use both IE and Firefox.

Essencay

on Jan 21, 2005

I have to agree with Phoon here....it will never dominate the browser market. MS will continue to tighten up things with IE and react to threats to the security of folk's PCs.

I've tried Firefox and I am currently trying out Maxthon, but still an IE user from way back.

Lantec

on Jan 21, 2005

I don't really expect it (Firefox) to make any more than maybe 10% market share. The thing is by using it we put pressure on MS to update IE which has really fallen behind since the big wars with netscape back in the 90's.
I'll probably migrate back when they do update. I currently switch to IE when I know I'll need it to view a certain page. Many of the government sites I use with my work will only function properly with IE. I don't do auto updates so it's not to much of a problem to start up IE if I'm going to check. Still if there were no other viable browsers we'd be stuck with this version of IE for many more years.

GhoS

on Jan 21, 2005

The main reason Firefox won't work in some cases such as Windows Update is usually due to ActiveX, since it isn't supported by FF. Guaranteed there are situations where IE is required, but that is more due to MS making it necessary by implementing their own "standards".
Anyway I don't really care about market share, I have always cared about using whatever programs worked for me. I had used programs such as Maxthon prior to my switch to FF. I just find FF to allow me to only load what I need. Most of the other alternatives require you to have it all whether you want it or not. Plus extensions in FF allow me to add features easily instead of having to wait for an update with the base program itself.
So far though it doesn't seem like the interest in FF is going to spark MS to do much about IE. They have said repeatedly that there will not be a stand alone release of IE in the future. Sure sounds to me like they think it isn't broken, despite the continued cries for it to at least add tabbed browsing. People don't often realise how nice a feature that is til they use it.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central

kona0197

on Jan 22, 2005

They have said repeatedly that there will not be a stand alone release of IE in the future. Sure sounds to me like they think it isn't broken, despite the continued cries for it to at least add tabbed browsing. People don't often realise how nice a feature that is til they use it.

I've used tabbed browsing. I don't care for it one bit.

As far as Firefox I think it's a passing trend as well. Sooner or later MS will get a new IE going.

Lantec

on Jan 22, 2005

For me the main attraction of tabbed browsing is I can set a folder full of links to all the pages at Wincustomize (or whichever site) that I like to browse and then open the entire folder as tabs in one click. now I can switch back and forth from the galleries to the forums to the articles without having to wait for the page to load each time. In IE to do the same I end up with 7 or 8 different windows open that I have to access through the taskbar and there is a delay as XP shuffles memory. Whether Firefox survives or not tabbed browsing will remain unitl something better comes along (maybe tiled browsing - say eight windows open, all visible and active at the same time)

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