4 ms·

Why is Firefox marketshare so low?

pomian 5y ago
Maybe it is not as low as it appears. Since most of the privacy settings are the default, installs and usage isn't counted?
- deadbunny 5y ago
  I'm pretty sure browser share is done by useragent, which will report Firefox if you're using Firefox. Unless of course you change your useragent but the number of people doing that will be vanishingly small.
  - dont__panic 5y ago
    To be fair, one of the very few add-ons available for Firefox on Android is an add-on that does exactly this on Google properties so Google won't degrade your experience for using FireFox. So maybe it is more popular than we think. Very hard to know for sure.
mixmastamyk 5y ago
Android happened and combined with a popular desktop Chrome, well the rest is history.
- tomComb 5y ago
  Not sure you can really blame android, when Android allows Firefox as a first class replacement for Chrome and with ease for the user, whereas iOS doesn't even allow the real Firefox. iOS is a very important platform for Firefox, so apples anti-competitive behavior in this regard really undermines firefox's future. I'm very sad that this issue has not come up in all of the debate about the app store.
  - mixmastamyk 5y ago
    ~98% of Androids use the default browser, which is an incredible amount of people, like in the billions. We tend to forget iOS is a minority worldwide.
    - tomComb 5y ago
      But Mozilla is big in the same markets where iOS is big.
  - dralley 5y ago
    >Not sure you can really blame android, when Android allows Firefox as a first class replacement for Chrome It's still the default, and defaults matter.
    - tomComb 5y ago
      Not sure it's reasonable to ask a for-profit company to do more than make it easily and fully changeable. Neither Microsoft nor Apple come close to that.
      - fomine3 5y ago
        It was a thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu
deadbunny 5y ago
my experience with HN usage is that "its not as fast as chrome" or "the dev tools arent as good as chrome". My experience with "normal" people; we the nerds told them to install chrome 10 years ago and now they are used to it. Personally I use Firefox and have done since it came out as it's fast enough for me and I'm not a front-end dev so the dev tools suit my limited use.
random_ind_dude 5y ago
Mostly because of a multi-billion dollar ad campaign by a megacorp whose name rhymes with Moogle.
notriddle 5y ago
Because the reasons why its market share ever got as high as it did to begin with no longer apply. Firefox isn't basically competing with a piece of abandonware that happens to ship with Windows any more.
DelightOne 5y ago
Dark patterns from Microsoft and Google. They nag users to set their own applications as the default. You can't expect users who don't know any better to to always say no, they get tired and then say yes.

Maybe it is not as low as it appears. Since most of the privacy settings are the default, installs and usage isn't counted?

deadbunny 5y ago
I'm pretty sure browser share is done by useragent, which will report Firefox if you're using Firefox. Unless of course you change your useragent but the number of people doing that will be vanishingly small.
- dont__panic 5y ago
  To be fair, one of the very few add-ons available for Firefox on Android is an add-on that does exactly this on Google properties so Google won't degrade your experience for using FireFox. So maybe it is more popular than we think. Very hard to know for sure.

mixmastamyk 5y ago

Android happened and combined with a popular desktop Chrome, well the rest is history.

tomComb 5y ago
Not sure you can really blame android, when Android allows Firefox as a first class replacement for Chrome and with ease for the user, whereas iOS doesn't even allow the real Firefox. iOS is a very important platform for Firefox, so apples anti-competitive behavior in this regard really undermines firefox's future. I'm very sad that this issue has not come up in all of the debate about the app store.
- mixmastamyk 5y ago
  ~98% of Androids use the default browser, which is an incredible amount of people, like in the billions. We tend to forget iOS is a minority worldwide.
  - tomComb 5y ago
    But Mozilla is big in the same markets where iOS is big.
- dralley 5y ago
  >Not sure you can really blame android, when Android allows Firefox as a first class replacement for Chrome It's still the default, and defaults matter.
  - tomComb 5y ago
    Not sure it's reasonable to ask a for-profit company to do more than make it easily and fully changeable. Neither Microsoft nor Apple come close to that.
    - fomine3 5y ago
      It was a thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu

deadbunny 5y ago

my experience with HN usage is that "its not as fast as chrome" or "the dev tools arent as good as chrome". My experience with "normal" people; we the nerds told them to install chrome 10 years ago and now they are used to it. Personally I use Firefox and have done since it came out as it's fast enough for me and I'm not a front-end dev so the dev tools suit my limited use.

random_ind_dude 5y ago

Mostly because of a multi-billion dollar ad campaign by a megacorp whose name rhymes with Moogle.

notriddle 5y ago

Because the reasons why its market share ever got as high as it did to begin with no longer apply. Firefox isn't basically competing with a piece of abandonware that happens to ship with Windows any more.

DelightOne 5y ago

Dark patterns from Microsoft and Google. They nag users to set their own applications as the default. You can't expect users who don't know any better to to always say no, they get tired and then say yes.