IE under 70 percent, Firefox above 20 percent

[Slimy]

With Google entering the browser war, everyone is scrutinizing the browser market all the more closely. IE and Firefox continue to battle at the top, with less than 50 percent difference between them now. However, Firefox is feeling the downside for this growth. Meanwhile, Opera and Chrome continue to battle for fourth place, and Safari remains long out of reach. IE and Opera have dropped in November, while the other three browsers gained.

Between October and November, Internet Explorer dropped by a percent and a half (from 71.27 percent to 69.77) while Firefox jumped by 0.81 percent (from 19.97 percent to 20.78 percent). Safari rebounded 0.56 percent (from 6.57 percent to 7.13 percent). Opera and Chrome switched spots again: the former dropped 0.04 percent (0.75 percent to 0.71) whiles the latter gained 0.09 percent (from 0.74 percent to 0.83 percent). The market share pie for November 2008, according to Net Applications, looks like this:

Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft....bove-20-percent

[Guest ID2]

Which just goes to provide further evidence that the quality of the browser is not at all related to its popularity.

[WigglesTheFish]

i am pleased to see further progress into IE's lead... glad that firefox is going strong... kind of interesting to see chrome beating out opera, which has been around a while in comparison...

[brandmantra]

From the past 2years I have been using Firefox. I think most of the people in the very beginning or at a learning stage or internet start with IE and I am not an exception. But very soon to mozilla as it has started the multiple tab and different add-on facilities.

Yes, IE7 also provides multiple tabs but firefox is much faster than IE. That?s why I prefer. The latest browser chrome is also good.

[Ajapi]

I'm surprised Chrome usage is above Opera's, given how new it is.

[joeblogg]

microsoft just needs to spend more time on IE7. microsoft has huge potential with IE if they spent more than 5 seconds designing it. they need to make people like it. if people really like it why will they be screwed to download a different one?

and chrome is very new while opera has been around for a little while so that shows that google chrome is growing way faster so opera will be gone soon enough. mac users just like safari and can't be stuffed to change so i think that things will stay similar to how they are currently in future apart from the chrome/opera placings.

[spenser.d]

From the past 2years I have been using Firefox. I think most of the people in the very beginning or at a learning stage or internet start with IE and I am not an exception. But very soon to mozilla as it has started the multiple tab and different add-on facilities.

Yes, IE7 also provides multiple tabs but firefox is much faster than IE. That?s why I prefer. The latest browser chrome is also good.

Right. I went from IE6 to FF2 and stayed with FF religiously for about two years and then went to IE7 and now IE8. I think it's a perfectly fine browser.

Honestly though I'm not sure why people emphasize the brower wars so much. 95% of the people that are switching to FF are probably doing it on Windows machines so MS has made money off of them anyways. All these browsers are provided for free so it's not as big an impact on the company no matter which way it goes.

-Spenser

[+Mystic MVC]

Started using Chrome even on my laptop as it is quite old and Firefox just runs very sluggish on it.

[Raa]

I love it how all the Firefox peeps are all over this one. It's just a browser. Having said that, i'm quite liking Chrome myself. But Maxthon's totally my preferred browser of choice. (I realise it's an IE shell)

[Steve]

I work in a corporate environment as a client side designer. As nice as these stats are, my clients generally all use Internet Explorer, with a major chunk still in IE6. It hurts...

[wellofsouls]

i am pleased to see further progress into IE's lead... glad that firefox is going strong... kind of interesting to see chrome beating out opera, which has been around a while in comparison...

well, Opera has been around since the beginning. It has been around for 14 years already, which makes it the oldest and currently still active GUI browser.

I'm surprised Chrome usage is above Opera's, given how new it is.

well, compared to Opera, Firefox and Safari are also very very new.

[Denholm]

I run Google Chrome on my PC and Safari on the iMac. (Y)

:laugh: IE will loose more browser share with the release of IE 8, unless Microsoft suddenly fix dozens of annoyances and slim the browser right down.

If Microsoft was forced to strip IE from Windows Vista and Windows 7, the market share for IE would not be nearly as high as it is.

[Guest ID2]

?I have been using Firefox. ?

?. . mozilas it has started the multiple tab/u> and . . .

No, it hasn't.

[t0mbi]

i use to use IE but now that i got Vista, i use Firefox and am never going back!

[LTD]

Some more very telling Net Application figures:

http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/19252/

The ebb and flow of the browser wars seems to be reproduced here, to some degree.

[Gaius]

Once Chrome gets extensions, you'll see it become Number 2 on that pie chart.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Chrome's nothing special, brings nothing new, etc. But it is good to see more competition for IE (Firefox got MS to start working on IE7, Safari, Firefox, Opera, etc. got them to focus on IE8 and finally make IE more compliant)

well, Opera has been around since the beginning. It has been around for 14 years already, which makes it the oldest and currently still active GUI browser.

well, compared to Opera, Firefox and Safari are also very very new.

Firefox, while being a new browser, is a direct descendent of Netscape, same guys, same engine, same code, etc., Just a different name and a redesign.

[PL_ Veteran]

Slimy broke his silence! :o

Good news for the Mozilla Foundation (Y) And I doubt the Chrome market share will last long...I reckon it's still just the novelty factor.

Chrome's nothing special, brings nothing new, etc.

What? I think the V8 engine and tabs as separate processes are pretty new.

[Gaius]

Chrome's nothing special, brings nothing new, etc.

Ummm...running tabs as separate processes isn't something new?

[devHead]

i use to use IE but now that i got Vista, i use Firefox and am never going back!

I'm in the same camp. For me, the primary draw for Firefox over IE are the add-ons. There is nothing like Adblock Plus, NoScript, DownThemAll for Internet Explorer. I was with a friend of mine and I showed him a site I visit frequently. He looked it up on IE and I was horrified at all the advertisements! It was just awful! I forgot how much I've gotten used to browsing without ads blinking and flashing everywhere. If more people saw what these addons for Firefox could do for them, I think more would switch to it and away from IE. Just with those three addons, I can see no compelling reason to ever going back to IE, unless they make allow something similar (and for free!). Especially when it comes to Adblock Plus and NoScript.

Once Chrome gets extensions, you'll see it become Number 2 on that pie chart.

I disagree; like everything else coming out from Google, it'll be in Beta until 2037. Maybe after that it'll get 2nd spot. But I can't see it beating out Firefox anytime soon.

[callummr]

If Microsoft was forced to strip IE from Windows Vista and Windows 7, the market share for IE would not be nearly as high as it is.

Only one problem: how do people then find and download their browser of choice?

[Denholm]

Only one problem: how do people then find and download their browser of choice?

Include a basic wizard that runs through an option install:

- Click to Install Firefox

- Click to Install Google Chrome

- Click to Install Opera

Easy as that! Or include the option during install when Windows is being installed.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

...

What? I think the V8 engine and tabs as separate processes are pretty new.

V8 is a new engine, but it's only claim to fame is that it was faster than other engines, it's not any more.

And a separate process for each tab is a great idea, but I don't think it's as important as it's made out to be (I'd take a nice session restore over a method that increases overhead)

[jason13524]

Ummm...running tabs as separate processes isn't something new?

No its not new IE8 did it first.

[Slimy]

Ummm...running tabs as separate processes isn't something new?

No its not new IE8 did it first.

Correct. Both are still beta products, but IE8 Beta 1 and Beta 2 were released before Chrome and both had this feature. Still, nowadays browsers take features from each other all the time, it's really no big deal who has it first.