Internet Explorer rapidly loosing ground

There is a new web brower war going on, as the Microsoft Internet Explorer is rapidly loosing ground to the Mozilla Firefox browser.

(December 23 2004) In the mid 90's Microsoft pushed the Netscape web browser into the valley of death by giving away its Internet Explorer for free. Until recently the Explorer had a market share above 95% -- a virtual monopoly.

However, Microsoft stopped developing the Explorer browser. The present version -- version 6 -- is old, and a new one is not expected until 2006.

Microsoft has probably reckoned that the fact that IE is bundled with windows would stop most users from downloading alternatives.

No such luck. According to Onestat.com, Explorer usage has now dropped below 90%.

The rise of Mozilla

The winner is the Mozilla browser in its various incarnations.

Mozilla now has more than 7%, out of which the Mozilla Firefox browser has some 4,6%. This is ironic, as the open source Mozilla project is closely related to Netscape.

Microsoft's loss may actually be larger. The Norwegian Opera browser (1,3% according to Onestat) normally identify itself as Internet Explorer in order to make banking sites and others work. Hence its real influence is unknown.

Power users switching to Firefox

If Microsoft does not loose sleep over these figures,there are other that should cause consern.

Remember that the rise of Google was heralded by power users flocking to the new search engine. A soon as the Internet savvy had discovered the qualities of the new search engine, they started a rumor mill that made most searchers bookmark the new site.

The same i happening now. Firefox is no longer a brand known to the in-crowd only. FireFox 1.0 was released on November 9. Within one month 10 million copies of the browser were downloaded.

A large number of sites that cater to power users report a large increase in the number of Mozilla users. We can use Pandia as an example:

Only 52% of Pandia's readers now use the Internet Explorer, 27% use Mozilla (including Firefox). Netscape is at 2%, Opera and Apple's Safari around 1% each.

Search Engine commentator Jeremy Zawodny reports reports that 48% of his readers use the Explorer, 30% Mozilla including Firefox (21%). Other blogs have reported similar or even lower figures for Microsoft.

Web browser innovation

There are several reasons for Firefox' popularity. It is fast. It has -- like Opera -- a great system of tabs for webpages, leaving all pages in the same window.

It can include RSS headlines in its bookmark menu, and there is a large number of plug-ins delivering additional features.

Moreover, it has advanced security and privacy controls that stop spyware, worms, viruses, pop-ups and other unwanted "guests".

Both Firefox and Opera are available for the major platforms, Windows, Linux and Mac.

Browsers and searching

Given that searching is becoming an integrated part of all browsers, search engine usage may also be influenced by the increasing popularity of Firefox.

Microsoft's strategy has been to use the Explorer as a gateway to their own search site.

Firefox' default home page now includes a Google search form. There is also a search form in the top bar, giving direct access to Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, Creative Commons, Ebay and Dictionary.com.

None of the popular search toolbars for Explorer (Google, MSN, Yahoo!) are available for Opera, Firefox and Mozilla.

However, a large number of enthusiasts constantly brings out relevant plug-ins for Firefox. You may even get plug-ins that show you the Google Page Rank of web pages.

Opera has an integrated search window, and also lets you use shortcuts in the URL window to seach (enter for instance g opera browser to search Google for information about Opera).

The future of Explorer

Will the Internet Explorer go the way of Netscape and the dodo?

Hardly. The fact that is an integrated part of Windows, will always give it a large audience.

Moreover, Microsoft has an uncanny ability to catch up when the company sees that it has made mistake. We would not be surprised to see Microsoft launch a new version of the Explorer earlier than expected.

However, the area of the Microsoft browser monopoly seems to be over, and that's good for innovation.

Further reading:

• New York Times: The Fox Is in Microsoft's Henhouse (and Salivating)
• Earth Times: FireFox Burns Internet Explorer’s Market Share
• Webmaster World discussion: IE Rapidly Losing Market Share

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