Firefox Reaches 25%

**DRP** · 06-02-2007, 06:15 PM

http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats...ate=2007-05-20

People are switching to Firefox as fast as ever, whilst IE's share drops every day!

**stOx** · 06-02-2007, 06:58 PM

someone sent me that link earlier, i was just about to blog about it.

While it's good to see FF (or any open source) usage climbing i doubt we will ever see it overtake IE.. Unless MS start shipping vista with FF preinstalled, And i think theres more chance of me growing another arm than that happening.

**Learning Newbie** · 06-02-2007, 11:28 PM

There's a pill that will grow you another arm, but if it doesn't vanish after a few hours you have to call your doctor.

But you're right about Windows never coming with FF preloaded, unless the Euros force it. But I wonder, IE 7 cost millions, probably tens of millions to make, and it's free. What do they get out of that, other than MSN as a home page by default, with plenty of people who'll never change that?

On the other hand, you can get paid when people download FireFox + Google's Toolbar through your site. And Google is rising up against Microsoft. It would be a serious uphill battle to get 51 % share, but it's not impossible.

**ADAM Web Design** · 06-03-2007, 02:37 AM

That's a very misleading statistic. What it doesn't take into account is the large number of people who have downloaded Firefox just because they hate Microsoft, and it doesn't mention what types of sites they are.

It also doesn't mention the sites that are being measured, and from the looks of AWIO's site (the company who created W3counter.com), it's a network of webmaster-specific sites which will artificially inflate the Firefox percentages. (Side note: AWIO has some of the spammiest crap imaginable...so any stats they publish should be taken with a grain of salt.)

**stOx** · 06-03-2007, 11:45 AM

Quote:

What it doesn't take into account is the large number of people who have downloaded Firefox just because they hate Microsoft, and it doesn't mention what types of sites they are.

While I agree that the types of sites that these statistics are gathered from does have an effect, I disagree that people using firefox because they hate microsoft makes the stats misleading.

There has to be a reason people are using firefox, And if that reason is that they don't want to use microsoft products thats as good a reason as any isn't it?

**ADAM Web Design** · 06-03-2007, 12:02 PM

I'm not saying the reason isn't good. I'm saying that the reason creates a certain geek skew. The average user generally has no issue with Microsoft products.

That's the problem with this particular statistic...it doesn't factor in geek skew, nor does it factor in the increased number of net users, nor does it factor in the nature of the sites visited (which is by far the most important stat of all.)

My blog stats indicate approx. 30% of users are Firefox users, but my blog also has a distinct webmaster feel to it, so those numbers are bound to be higher than average.

The statistic is meaningless by itself.

**stOx** · 06-03-2007, 01:44 PM

These statistics were taken from 31 million uniques to 4,500 sites, It's likely that those sites would have varied themes. So while some of those sites will have a high amount of tech savvy users which would inflate firefox usage statistics, Other sites will have a low amount of tech savvy users which would inflate IE usage statistics.

I could use the same argument and claim that the sites used to gather these statistics have a low amount of tech savvy users and that firefox usage is actually higher than 25%. I'm not going to say that, But you get my point.

I think if anything it shows that firefox, and hopefully open source, Is losing it's exclusively geek feel and is appealing to general internet users as well.