OK, so One More :)
This post is about web browsers and who actually has the market. What is a web browser? If you are looking at this, you are looking at a web browser. It is a program that does just as its name implies, allows you to browse the World Wide Web. So, which web browser do most people use? These stats from W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) should shed some light on the topic:
Browser Statistics Month by Month
| 2007 | IE7 | IE6 | IE5 | Fx | Moz | S | O |
| May | 19.2% | 38.1% | 1.5% | 33.7% | 1.3% | 1.5% | 1.6% |
| April | 19.1% | 38.4% | 1.7% | 32.9% | 1.3% | 1.7% | 1.6% |
| March | 18.0% | 38.7% | 2.0% | 31.8% | 1.3% | 1.7% | 1.6% |
| February | 16.4% | 39.8% | 2.5% | 31.2% | 1.4% | 1.7% | 1.5% |
| January | 13.3% | 42.3% | 3.0% | 31.0% | 1.5% | 1.7% | 1.5% |
| 2006 | IE7 | IE6 | IE5 | Fx | Moz | N7/8 | O |
| December | 10.7% | 45.3% | 3.4% | 30.3% | 2.6% | 0.2% | 1.5% |
| November | 7.1% | 49.9% | 3.6% | 29.9% | 2.5% | 0.2% | 1.5% |
| October | 3.1% | 54.5% | 3.8% | 28.8% | 2.4% | 0.3% | 1.4% |
| September | 2.5% | 55.6% | 4.0% | 27.3% | 2.3% | 0.4% | 1.6% |
| August | 2.0% | 56.2% | 4.1% | 27.1% | 2.3% | 0.3% | 1.6% |
| July | 1.9% | 56.3% | 4.2% | 25.5% | 2.3% | 0.4% | 1.4% |
| June | 1.6% | 58.2% | 4.3% | 24.9% | 2.2% | 0.3% | 1.4% |
| May | 1.1% | 57.4% | 4.5% | 25.7% | 2.3% | 0.3% | 1.5% |
| April | 0.7% | 58.0% | 5.0% | 25.2% | 2.5% | 0.4% | 1.5% |
| March | 0.6% | 58.8% | 5.3% | 24.5% | 2.4% | 0.5% | 1.5% |
| February | 0.5% | 59.5% | 5.7% | 25.1% | 2.9% | 0.4% | 1.5% |
| January | 0.2% | 60.3% | 5.5% | 25.0% | 3.1% | 0.5% | 1.6% |
| 2005 | IE6 | IE5 | Fx | Moz | N7 | O8 | O7 |
| November | 62.7% | 6.2% | 23.6% | 2.8% | 0.4% | 1.3% | 0.2% |
| September | 69.8% | 5.7% | 18.0% | 2.5% | 0.4% | 1.0% | 0.2% |
| July | 67.9% | 5.9% | 19.8% | 2.6% | 0.5% | 0.8% | 0.4% |
| May | 64.8% | 6.8% | 21.0% | 3.1% | 0.7% | 0.7% | 0.6% |
| March | 63.6% | 8.9% | 18.9% | 3.3% | 1.0% | 0.3% | 1.6% |
| January | 64.8% | 9.7% | 16.6% | 3.4% | 1.1% | 1.9% | |
| 2004 | IE6 | IE5 | Moz | N3 | N7 | N4 | O7 |
| November | 66.0% | 10.2% | 16.5% | 0.2% | 1.2% | 0.3% | 1.6% |
| September | 67.8% | 11.2% | 13.7% | 0.3% | 1.4% | 0.3% | 1.7% |
| July | 67.2% | 13.2% | 12.6% | 0.4% | 1.4% | 0.4% | 1.6% |
| May | 68.1% | 13.8% | 9.5% | 0.6% | 1.4% | 0.4% | 1.6% |
| March | 68.2% | 14.6% | 7.9% | 0.8% | 1.4% | 0.6% | 1.4% |
| January | 68.9% | 15.8% | 5.5% | 0.4% | 1.5% | 0.5% | 1.5% |
| 2003 | IE6 | IE5 | Moz | N3 | N7 | N4 | O7 |
| November | 71.2% | 13.7% | 7.2% | 0.5% | 1.6% | 0.5% | 1.9% |
| September | 69.7% | 16.9% | 6.2% | 0.6% | 1.5% | 0.6% | 1.8% |
| July | 66.9% | 20.3% | 5.7% | 0.6% | 1.5% | 0.6% | 1.7% |
| May | 65.0% | 22.7% | 4.6% | 1.0% | 1.4% | 0.9% | 1.4% |
| March | 63.4% | 24.6% | 4.2% | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1.1% | 1.2% |
| January | 55.3% | 29.3% | 4.0% | 1.2% | 1.1% | 1.7% | |
| 2002 | IE6 | IE5 | AOL | N3 | N5 | N4 | IE4 |
| November | 53.5% | 29.9% | 5.2% | 1.1% | 4.9% | 2.0% | |
| September | 49.1% | 34.4% | 4.5% | 1.3% | 4.5% | 2.2% | |
| July | 44.4% | 40.1% | 3.5% | 1.2% | 3.5% | 2.6% | 0.5% |
| May | 40.7% | 46.0% | 2.8% | 1.2% | 2.7% | 3.4% | 0.7% |
| March | 36.7% | 49.4% | 3.0% | 1.2% | 2.4% | 4.1% | 0.7% |
| January | 30.1% | 55.7% | 2.8% | 1.3% | 2.2% | 4.4% | 1.0% |
| IE | Internet Explorer |
| Fx | Firefox (identified as Mozilla before 2005) |
| Moz | The Mozilla Suite (Safari, Konqueror, Gecko, Netscape) |
| S | Safari (identified as Mozilla before 2007) |
| O | Opera |
| N | Netscape (identified as Mozilla after 2006) |
| AOL | America Online (based on both Internet Explorer and Mozilla) |
OK, so let’s interpret this. Way back in ‘02, people used Internet Explorer 6. This is most likely because it was packaged with Windows XP, and it was the most secure of its time. In ‘03, Mozilla comes into the market and by November, 7.2% of the market was using the new browser. This continued until ‘05 where Firefox came into the ring and took most of Mozilla’s thunder as it was made by the same group. It had 23.6% of the market the first year that Firefox was separate from Mozilla. Firefox’s Steady Growth caused a steady decay of Internet Explorer users, even with the release of the new Internet Explorer 7. Now, in May of ‘07, firefox has 33.7% of the market which is second only to Internet Explorer 6, and only by less than five percent.
June 15th, 2007 at 9:34 am
Very interesting! As a web developer, the still-widespread use of IE6 is a constant frustration, as it stubbornly lacks support for some of the features that the industry has come to depend on with IE7 and Fx. From looking at browser stats for monroenews.com and our other web sites, much of Monroe is still using IE6, but for anyone married to Microsoft, I’d recommend upgrading to version 7. Otherwise, my global recommendation goes to Firefox for its W3C friendliness and its marvelous ‘addon’ system.
June 15th, 2007 at 10:24 am
I do love how customizable the add-on system. It can do anything, within reason. I’ll be happy when someone writes an add-on to do the dishes :).