The current browsers wars will be on topic for this week’s Tech Wars Software feature but I wanted to preface with this weekend’s Firefox milestone. The newest version of Firefox reached 104 million downloads over the weekend, a milestone that was achieved in just over a month. Firefox has held onto its #2 spot in the browser wars for over 4 years but the speed with which the general populous upgraded to the newest version is quite remarkable.
According to the analytics firm Net Applications, Firefox holds onto a 21.8% market share, less than half of Internet Explorers 55.92% but far ahead of both Chrome at 11.57% and Safari at 6.61%. Firefox 4 represents the first “full” redevelopment the browser has seen in three years and totes a number of new features and performance updates. What is amusing is that many of the toted new features have been taken almost directly from Google Chrome (Something we will cover on Friday).
Firefox’s claim to fame has always been the efficiency of the browser and generally heightened security over Internet Explorer. With the newest release Firefox takes this further with a new Content Security Policy designed to stop both XSS attacks and malicious code deployment.
Firefox has a fine lead over much of the competition but faces a difficult future as Chromes fan base seems to be doubling about every 6 months and the popularity of Apple products has redoubled exposure to Safari. The pertinent question here, however, is who will be the first competitor to take down Internet Explorer?
– Richard Keene
IT Computer Support of New York
Design and Optimization Department
