Monday, January 10, 2005

Firefox on the Ascendency

I've been using Firefox a lot lately, and have switched over to it on my main workstation as my primary browser. It does NOT handle all sites perfectly, but these are few enough that I don't mind. I like the extra features that I get with Firefox and the plugs ins. When I get a suitable supply of tuits, I shall pepare a more detailed look.

It looks like I'm not the only one who is switching. For some weeks now, I've been noticing an interesting upswing web hits based on Firefox. Usage is on the upswing, based on a highly unscientific survey, aka a quick look at two websites (this blog and The WUS Wiki Site). In both cases, the stats come from Site Meter as I have their free counters running on these two sites which track (IIRC) just the last 1000 connections.

If you look at the WUS Wiki Browser Share stats, Firefox has a 22.22% share, IE 6.X 74.75%, IE 5.X 1.01%, Netscape 3.x 1.01% and Opera 7.X 1.01%.

Looking at the stats on this blog, the stats are: Firefox 26%, IE 6.X 69%, IE 5.X 3%, Netscape 4.X 1% Opera 6.x 1%.

So roughly, IE's market share is down to around 75%, with Firefox at around 20%, with the others making up the numbers.

You can't read a great deal into these numbers as they change regularly over time - I regularly see huge swings in percentages, e.g. the other morning, IE had a 90% share on my personal blog. But they are certainly an indication that usage of Firefox is growing, and in places has grown to a a resptibly healthy healthy level.

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