Browser Market Share
Remember when we used to focus on Netscape vs Internet Explorer market share? Back in the mid-90s, that was a big deal. Slowly, but surely, Microsoft took the market away from Netscape. That led to the anti-trust suits which ended up giving Microsoft a wrist slap.
Most of us in the technology business felt that the market would, in the end, have a more powerful impact on Microsoft than legal efforts. And that's turning out to be true, driven by open source.
Linux is having an impact on Windows market share.
And Firefox is starting to accumulate some real browser market share.
Here's a chart from Technology Futurist, a great site on technology and trends. It shows the share of browsers that visit his site.
Clearly, Technology Futurist's readers are more techy and more likely to use Firefox than the average user, but this is a trend. Microsoft's got competition in the browser market again.
If you want to download Firefox, you can get it for free here.
Why anyone would want to use Firefox is beyond me - honestly. Just because it's free? Well, Firefox has made some inroads into actually being useful, but anyone seriously using the Web for work cannot go past Opera. This little marvel has so many useful features that I'm long gone to the beach playing volleyball while the rest is still trying to load pages. They are so inefficient it's not funny anymore, but it appears that some really get a mental orgasm with FireFox. Oh well... poor things. ;-)
Li'l bit of nostalgia: I had great fun back in 98/99 when I was still working for Opera Software. Every morning I turned on my PC and counted my orders (from Germany). While IE and Netscape gave their stuff away for free (you get what you pay for, I guess), I sold the stuff by the truckload. Extremely rewarding task it was.
Times have changed since, but Opera has IMO remained the only browser for the professional. In fact, I feel sorry for everyone having to use something else. I don't have time to waste, so IE and FF are not an option for me, no matter how much esp. FF is being pushed.
Posted by: Helmar | November 07, 2004 at 02:07 PM
A VC browser share -- clearly A VC readers are more techy than Technology Futurist readers!
Posted by: Ken | November 12, 2004 at 10:41 AM
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Posted by: illusions d optique | October 17, 2005 at 02:17 PM