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Firefox Continues to Bite into IE Usage

Posted by Zonk on from the watch-out-for-the-dew-claw dept.

InformationSage writes "According to Information Week, Firefox usage is now over 6 percent, pulling Internet Explorer usage down below 90 percent. 'Firefox is currently the only browser that is increasing market share on a monthly basis, and it is growing at the direct expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer'"

5 of 521 comments (clear)

  1. First post? by Nuclear+Elephant · · Score: 0, Troll

    Then it's only suitable that the first post should be with firefox.

  2. Watch for MS to make an announcement... by MtViewGuy · · Score: 0, Troll

    ...That they may license the technology from either the Avant browser or the Maxthon "shell" for IE that will become part of Internet Explorer 7.0.

    This could be especially bad news for Firefox if IE 7.0 incorporates MySoft Technology's Maxthon code. I've been running Maxthon for over a month (I started with Version 1.12.00 and recently updated to 1.2.00) and believe me, once you're used to Maxthon it's hard to go back to the "stripped down" Firefox. Not only does Maxthon have tabbed browsing, but also true mouse gestures and the very powerful AD Hunter function, which can block out many online ads that slow down the computer and/or install spyware/adware without your knowledge in addition to blocking out most pop-up ad windows.

    1. Re:Watch for MS to make an announcement... by MtViewGuy · · Score: 0, Troll

      While I do agree that you could use third-party tools to tweak Firefox to stamp out most banner ads, many of these tools does take some experience in setting them up properly. :(

      What's nice about AD Hunter in Maxthon is that all the ad-filtering and pop-up filtering settings are in one menu location, and you can update the blocked site lists to provide updated banner ad/pop-up window ad blocking, too. It's one of the reasons why I hope Microsoft actually considers licensing the Maxthon code so it could be incorporated into Internet Explorer 7.0.

    2. Re:Watch for MS to make an announcement... by MtViewGuy · · Score: 0, Troll

      However, you do have to download a program to get Firefox to do mouse gestures. The current version of Maxthon has them built-in; I'm a little surprised that Firefox didn't include them as standard.

    3. Re:Watch for MS to make an announcement... by MtViewGuy · · Score: 0, Troll

      While I do agree that IE 6.01 SP1 is still vulnerable (especially if you haven't bothered to patch the program regularly), I'm sure that when IE 7.0 arrives these issues will be addressed, especially now given Microsoft's new emphasis on Internet security (note that in the last few security update cycles MS has addressed the big IE security issues discovered by companies such as Secunia).

      But I still stick up for Maxthon because its AD Hunter feature blocks up a lot of the banner ads and pop-up ads that can slow the system down (especially Flash banner ads--I detest those!) and frequently load adware/spyware unknowingly to the user. Ever since I switched to Maxthon from plain IE 6.01 SP1 whenever I run SpyBot S&D 1.3.1 I notice dramatically less tracking cookies installed and very rarely the loading of spyware from Alexa and Gator.