The Browser Wars Heat Up

Posted by in Technology


Image by toprankonlinemarketing via Flickr
Google Chrome gains market share over Firefox.

It is well known to those who read my blogs, but last year I broke up with Mozilla's Firefox. Even though I replaced it with Google's Chrome, I can't in all honesty say that I haven't had the need to use Firefox. Still, for the most part, my browser of choice is Chrome.

As many in who work in the tech industry know, the browser wars have been going on for several years. It used to be that not using Microsoft's Internet Explorer was rare, but these days, people are much more willing to change to a different browser.

Over the past couple of years, Firefox has been taking market share from IE and steadily rising to become the top competitor. However, things they are a-changing. A few months ago, I reported that Tech sites like Tech Crunch were seeing an increase in the number of people who were accessing their site with Google Chrome. In fact, Chrome was the browser of choice for their audience.

However, last month was the first time that Chrome surpassed Firefox in total market share. The browser by Google had 25.69 percent of the global market share in November. Firefox grabbed 25.23 percent. Of course, Internet Explorer still has the largest share of the market, coming in with 40.63.

It's important to note that these statistics reflect actual usage not just downloads of the browser.
Chrome had been growing fast and people have been adopting it much more quickly than its rivals, Firefox and Apple's Safari. Firefox launched in 2004, Safari in 2003 and Chrome in 2008.

One of the reasons for this is because Chrome is super fast and offers a large selection of extensions in their Chrome App Store. It also offers a private browser option and merges seamlessly with other Google products.

It remains to be seen how the market will change, but right now, it looks as though Firefox needs to come out with a better product if they don't want to be eclipsed by Chrome.

What browser do you prefer? Please share your thoughts in the comments.

By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer for TechCareersBlog and Nexxt. Along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.

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