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Firefox Continues Gains against IE

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the second-f-is-lower-case-on-my-version-but-not-cnet's dept.

kurtz_tan writes "News.com reports that the popularity of alternative Web browser Firefox continues to rise at the expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, according to a new study by WestSideStory. The study measured market share by embedding sensors on major web sites such as those of Walt Disney, Best Buy, Sony and Liz Claiborne. WebSideStory retrieves data from 30 million internet users a day passing through its monitored sites. The company then takes a snapshot of two days and compares the growth. Since beginning its measurements last summer, WebSideStory has been cautious to draw any broad conclusions about Firefox's popularity. This time around, the company said many people are not only downloading Firefox, they're sticking with it and using it."

8 of 585 comments (clear)

  1. It's WEBSideStory , not WestSideStory by EnronHaliburton2004 · · Score: 5, Funny

    according to a new study by WestSideStory.

    It's WEBSideStory , not WestSideStory

    I feel pretty, oh so pretty...

    --
    94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
  2. .88%? by Peyna · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not much, could probably be explained away by pure error.

    Also, the websites they use probably skew the results as well; Disney, Best Buy, Sony, and Liz Claiborne?

    If they want accuracy they should try throwing a few porn sites in, or maybe popular search engines.

    I imagine if you had a more accurate sample that Firefox's share might be a little higher.

    --
    What?
    1. Re:.88%? by jusdisgi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Also, the websites they use probably skew the results as well...

      If they want accuracy they should try throwing a few porn sites in, or maybe popular search engines.

      Granted, their method isn't perfect...that probably isn't possible. But it's a lot better than your idea. These guys want a picture of normal, actual internet users that they can count. Neither search engines nor porn will provide that.

      In the porno case, you just hand everything to IE, as all those hits from the popup windows roll in. Also, the control in those situations is passed mostly from the user to the site, which isn't ideal for these tests either. And search engines are visited by scripts a lot, most of which misidentify themselves as one browser or another. So, either way you're adding a lot to your inaccuracies.

      Choosing high-traffic sites from major providers does sound like favoritism (or at least just corporate whoring), but it's really probably about as accurate a picture as we can get of how people browse.

      --
      Given a choice between free speech and free beer, most people will take the beer.
  3. Yes, but what is happening to opera? by cavetroll · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Figures I have seen on w3cshools show a falling usage rate for opera, from 2.3% to 1.9% - almost a 20% drop. If this is a trend is across the entire userbase, then might firefox end up killing opera rather than (as well as?) IE?

  4. Internet Explorer technologies for UNIX by anandpur · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do not know why MS discontinued IE for Unix. I can see thay can expand there.

    http://www.microsoft.com/unix/ie/default.asp/

  5. Microsoft might be stubborn by DOS-5 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think Firefox will continue to be popular if Microsoft makes new additions to IE mainly because I don't see them removing any of the insecurities (ActiveX) or bloat or integration into the OS that made people switch to Firefox in the first place. Since when was the last time Microsoft removed a so called "useful" and "major" feature despite its obvious downsides?

  6. You knew *this* post was inevitable... by captainClassLoader · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...Netcraft confirms it. IE is dying.

    --
    "The plural of anecdote is not data" -- Bruce Schneier
  7. Re:Meaningful Figure by Seumas · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have a popular auction site that is along the lines of what you're mentioning. It's very Liz Claiborne (people shopping for Lip Service, Hot Topic, custom jewelry, used CDs, crafts, custom fashions) and not at all "ThinkGeek or something".

    I've been very critical of this "Firefox is making a difference" bandwagon for a long time. However, I've been observing my own site's statistics over the last few months and the numbers are, indeed, surprising.

    Until recently, my site has been 95% MSIE, just like it has been for almost five years. Viewing just the most recent stats shows that out of 40,000 unique visitors:

    77.2% are using MSIE
    18.5% are using Firefox, Mozilla or Netscape
    2.3% are using Safari
    1.1% are using Opera

    The reason I take these statistics seriously is that my site is not at all a technical site. It's an auction site with 95% females between the ages of 15 and 50. A lot of AOL users. While there are some very technically savvy people on the site, the majority of them are extremely novice to average. So if a lot of them are moving away from MSIE, it is a significant indication of where the general web population is also going.