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Firefox Slides, IE Gains?
limber writes "InformationWeek is reporting that a Dutch Web metrics company is stating that Microsoft's Internet Explorer has gained market share, contrary to other recent studies, while Firefox has lost market share, during the last two months. 'People are not switching so often to Firefox as before,' said Niels Brinkman, co-founder of OneStat."
What I'm interested in is the CAUSE of such numbers. Why do people switch to Firefox or, like in this case, favor Internet Explorer? Is it the new Internet Explorer 7.0 beta? Maybe it's just that important governmental issues are coming up which allow people to check out sites about them that only work with Internet Explorer. Are there any known reasons out there?
...which means that all those new computer sold to students are using IE. Not all those students are migrating to FF.
Every new computer that runs Windows is a new IE user. Not so for Firefox or any other browser. Nothing to see here. Move on.
But I'll admit I've slowed down on my evangelism.. Honestly, Firefox seems to perform worse now for me than it did at .9 (or so). It's getting to be fairly regular that I see the "Firefox is already running - go kill the process" dialog. It's getting to be fairly regular that I see All-In-One Gestures in wacky mode where it's building a huge string while I don't have the button down (and then usually crashing). It's a little annoying, too, that the association with QuickTime (for playing .WAVs or .MP3s) doesn't ever "just work". I was thinking about writing a little game based on the Canvas object - but when it came to adding sound in a manner that was going to work for people I just gave up.
Maybe I've just had bad luck, but Firefox seems bigger, slower and less stable than it did a year ago - and I can't think of any added feature that I've cared about during that same period.
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
To track visitors you have to implement a small piece of javascript in your HTML pages.
So, if I use Adblocker to block the javascript - which I do for most ad sites unless it's a poll or something I need - then they aren't counting you AT ALL when you use Firefox, since you blocked their ads and their popups.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
1) Its faster,
2) Tabbed browsing,
3) Adblock,
4) More secure.
Items 1 & 4 are difficult to present to new users. Item 2 is also in IE7. Item 3 does not come standard with Firefox.
In addition to Adblock, there are several other really great extensions that make Firefox the browser for me. I use other extensions to sync my bookmarks between computers, provide thumbnails of all open tabs (available in IE7), and to more tightly lock-down pop-ups and javascript.
What Firefox needs is a bundle that includes several "essential" extensions pre-installed. As MS plays catch-up with where Firefox was a year ago, the Mozilla Foundation could stay way ahead bundling these great tools. The average user is not going to go out and find these free additions on their own. By adding only a couple of MBs for the initial download, I bet you could bundle several great extensions and market the additional functionality.
Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds. - Albert Einstein
if anything, I'm an old school netscape fanboy. My first browser was Lynx, then I eventually jumped on the bandwagon and got netscape 3, then eventually moved on to long lasting netscape 4.x series. Netscape 6 sucked so I stayed with netscape 4.x during that time. I eventually starting using the Mozilla suite pre 1.0 after stumbling upon it. The lack of AOL branding at the time was a major reason for my jump from Netscape proper. Since then I've been using Mozilla, then Phoneix, then Firebird, then eventually Firefox. When 1.5 came out, it really sucked major ass for me. FF1.5 would crash at least 7 to 10 times per day. I'm fairly computer savy and I followed explicit instructions on making sure it was a clean install. I was browsing with hardly any extensions at all, which sucked.
There have been other major changes behind the scenes that might not be so apparent to the average user. In my attempts to create an extension for FF1.5 extension contest I came accross a shitload of bugs. Very simple XUL markup could make the browser disappear by simply clicking on a hyperlink. And by disappear I mean as in invisibile, except for plain text. And there are others, but my attempts at using Bugzilla have sucked. I've reported bugs in the past only to have them recently deleted because no one want's to fix them.
OSS is fine, but it seems to foster a mentality that if a developer can't reproduce a bug then the end user must be stupid. That's annoying, especially for a company that's marketing its browser to everyone, including urging people that don't know what a browser even is to upgrade.
The feeling I've gotten from this open source netscape project is that I'm using a product, such that if it ever gives me serious problems, I'm left with no recourse since there is no focused method for attaining a definitive solution or fix for something. It's like the bystander effect when it comes to fixing or even acknowleding problems.
Of course, my solution is that if sites are spewing popups, they're not worth my time. If they won't work properly (or at least well enough) in FF, screw it. If they make their popup code so intrusive that it can get around Adblock, I'm certainly not only not coming back but giving them a +1 on the shitlist. Any sites with those intro ad pages are a no-no. Streaming video where I have to watch commercials first? Why the hell do you think I stopped watching TV? We all know damn well that the only reason popups are still around are because you get that .1% of dickheads that still click on them. I think it's safe to assume that the population of firefox users who intentionally click on popup ads is zero (it's entirely why I switched, though certainly not entirely why I stayed). While advertisers know that the only people they need to code for are IE users, it makes my web browsing experience better.
The wording seemed a bit questionable too. Slower growth != decline. The article mentions both, but considering I'd really think that browswer penetration can't be accurately measured, I'd take changes of a couple tenths of a percent of change with a grain of salt.
And of course, it was the same when FF first came out. Huge boom of everyone wanting to try it out. Some loved it and stayed. Some (somehow, imo) didn't, and went back. Huge increase at first, slower increase later as people told their friends or whatever. I'd imagine it's exactly the same with the IE7 stuffs as of recent. Come back in a month and see how the numbers look. Better yet, come back when people realize that sites that can't be bothered code in a way that accounts for a good percentage of their userbase aren't worth going to. Perhaps with Internet2 or IPv6 or something, there'll be something where "if isfuckedup($site.code) { hide($site); }" in the new protocols or whatever. I honestly don't even check my sites for IE compatibility - I code to standards, and if the most dominant browswer won't adhere to them, then it certainly shouldn't be the most dominant browser.
Just ponder what the percentages would look like if IE wasn't preinstalled, let alone integrated into the damned shell of the operating system. If it wasn't "well, it's already here, I'll use this one," I'd honestly expect IE to only have 30% market share at max, most of which is from "it's by the same people that made windows, it has to be good!"
How are sites slashdotted when nobody reads TFAs?
Firefox used to be around 8% for my site, it is now 19.6%.
This is for a music related website.
Phase 2: Right click FF icon --> properties --> change icon --> select IE icon
Phase 3: Delete old IE Icon from desktop
Phase 4: Rename Mozilla Firefox icon to Internet Explorer
Before you mod this funny, I have done this to at least half a dozen people's computers. They arn't smart enough to realize the difference (all they need is an address bar and bookmarks), so FF stays. Their computers get less spyware, they see less popups, I get less "OMG HELP ME" calls. Which brings me to Phase 5, which is profit.
Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
The girlfriend was concerned when I used "Internet Explorer" to do windows update. "That's not the internet, I'm with AOL"
Patiently explained that the browser wasn't the internet, just used to view it and browse it. Hence being called a browser.
Haven't tried explaining why Firefox should be used instead. Something along the lines of "well, whenever you use IE, likely as not a load of hackers can look at what you're doing"
"So why do you use IE for windowsupdate"
erm...
You raise a good point. I hate to say it (no, really, I do), but Firefox - and Mozilla in general - is a piece of crap. I'm using the monolithic Mozilla suite (tried Firefox, but didn't like it), and it crashes or locks up on my pretty much daily; and when it doesn't, it typically eats about 200 to 300 MB of RAM, unless I close it every day (which is possible, of course, but inconvenient).
I have filed bugs in the past for crashes, too - those few cases where I could actually work out a consistent trigger condition. Nothing ever happened, though; the bugs were auto-closed in the end since no developer had ever done even so much as acknowledge them. I do understand that the developers are swamped, of course, but don't CRASHES deserve a bit more attention?
I'm seriously considering switching to Opera. About the only things that still holds me back are AdBlock, and the fact that I'm used to Mozilla and generally find Opera a bit unwieldy.
Maybe I should give Sleipnir a try...
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
after going through yet another marathon spyware cleaning yesterday and today.
Goddam Spystrike and a dozen or two other trojans...
The Spystrike bitch is just that - people everywhere, according to various spyware Web sites, are having one hell of a time getting rid of that one. New variants every other day and almost no antispyware or antivirus vendor is up to speed on it yet; estimates are it's infecting 2,500 PCs an hour. Rides in on various conventional trojans, then is extremely hard to get rid of without specific knowledge of how - and even then.
I had to use a special removal tool, plus a-squared, Ewido, SpybotS&D, spywareblaster, Windows antispyware, a repair install, SFC, and one hell of a lot of reboots to get rid of this fucker.
Somebody find the fuckwads who put this one out - I got something for their asses - and Bill's.
OTOH, I made some money out of it, so maybe I love those guys...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
By Xiti
Regards.
I am not Remy Mouton, unfortunately: http://remy.mouton.free.fr/art/