Among the younger generations of web viewers the Firefox browser developed by Mozilla has already overtaken the market. In an effort to continue this trend Mozilla has announced that it will be looking towards the community of the release of its next generation. Firefox already has a high degree of open source functionality but by putting a call out to the community directly they plan to extend their service even further.

Ultimately the importance of this comes back to web development in general. For years Microsoft Internet Explorer has remained unchallenged in the world internet browsing; to this day they make up 51% of the market. The problem with this is that despite its overall user base Internet Explorer has long been regarded as the worst browser and by far the least friendly system to design web content for. The logic behind how this is even possible comes from the fact that for these years Microsoft has been able to monopolize the market. Every Windows computer ships with Internet Explorer preinstalled and so it’s what the common public uses. When you already have the market cornered there is little need to improve your service. But all this looks to change in the near future.

In the last year Firefox usage on the web has increased from 31.0% to 42%. If this trend continues Microsoft may finally find themselves with no choice but evolve. If Internet Explorer is bought up to the standards of Firefox numerous new design possibilities will arise. Designers will no longer be bottlenecked by an inferior browser. What this means for consumers is a better stronger web environment for everyone.

– Richard Keene
IT Computer Support of New York
Design and Optimization Department