My fav browser surges ahead

Firefox gains hints browser wars may heat up

Washington – The Internet browser wars, dormant for several years, shows signs of heating up again as a result of gains from a new program called Firefox, a research report showed on Monday.

Use of Firefox, created by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, has grown by more than a third over the past month, research firm WebSideStory.

In the period from November 5 to December 3, Firefox’s online usage share grew from 3,03 percent to 4,06 percent, following a 13 percent gain during the previous month.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer retains its overwhelming dominance with 91,8 percent of the market, the report showed. But that has slipped from over 93 percent two months ago.

Some Web users are concerned about the security of Internet Explorer

Microsoft, by integrating the browser into its Windows operating system crushed Netscape Navigator, which had been the dominant browser in the late 1990s, effectively ending the browser wars at the time.

But some Web users are concerned about the security of Internet Explorer and have been using alternatives.

“Since June 4, when IE’s usage share first began to drop due to security concerns, IE has lost a total of 3,68 percentage points,” WebSideStory said.

“Firefox’s gains are clearly accelerating,” said Rand Schulman, WebSideStory’s chief marketing officer. “Much of it has to do with the release of Firefox’s version 1.0 on November 9, after several months of offering a preview version. Firefox’s stated goal of gaining 10 percent of the market over the next year no longer seems unattainable.”

Netscape, which is now a part of Time Warner’s America Online unit, held a 2,83 percent market share in early December, down from 3,05 percent two months earlier.

Netscape shares some of the same origins of Firefox

Netscape shares some of the same origins of Firefox, and includes some of the same features including “tabbed” browsing to allow several pages to be contained within a single window, accessibility to search engines and pop-up blocking. – Sapa-AFP

Published on the Web by IOL on 2004-12-13 18:15:03