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http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp Firefox is currently the most popular, yes, but Chrom
by zimbabwe 17y ago
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
Firefox is currently the most popular, yes, but Chrome's been growing (slightly) faster and it's still in beta, not to mention it has the full support of Google behind it. How profitable would Mozilla be if it wasn't being paid by Google? (That's not snark, that's a genuine question that I don't know the answer to.)
You can't offer Firefox as a counterargument when his point is that soon Firefox will begin to slip. Right now, it's arguably at its peak. It's competing with two browsers that really are seen as experimental among Windows users: Chrome is still in beta and doesn't support several things; Safari really only got production-ready on Windows with its latest version, and Apple hasn't focused much on promoting it yet. Firefox, meanwhile, has 6 years' community behind it, and inertia alone states that it'll spread as Internet Explorer disappears, and IE seems to be quickly dwindling.
The real thing to check is what the early adapters are using: Not the pure experimentalists but the people who are "browser enthusiasts", the people who recommend browsers to other people. Three years ago they were all recommending Firefox, myself included, and now we see Firefox is the dominant browser. Now, however, all the adapters love Chrome, and the elitist Mac snobs have shifted from loving Firefox to praising the much more native Safari 4, and for good reason. If we assume "a while from now" means 5 years, his argument is correct: Mozilla can't afford to compete with a company as talented, merciless, and rich as Google.
- calvin 17y agoThese statistics do not show Firefox is the most popular browser as they are specific only to W3Schools which is primarily a developer/designer-trafficked site. The statistics above are extracted from W3Schools' log-files I'd recommend looking at StatCounter's chart of current browser stats (for the US) as of July 2009 (found this earlier today via TechCrunch): http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-US-monthly-200807-200907 http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-US-monthly-200807...
- zimbabwe 17y agoThank you very much for the link! I'd just Google'd "web browser usage" and took the w3 link.
- scott_s 17y agoThat Firefox's market share will soon slip isn't a point, it's a prediction. His prediction has an argument behind it, but it's an argument with many assumptions; it's based on belief and prejudice. Which is fine, as long as everyone recognizes it as such. His prediction and reasons for it may turn out to be true, but there's no way now to know if that's the case.