RSSStatistics: Firefox 3.5 surpassed IE7 in global usage share last week
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published December 21, 2009, 3:55 PM
At some time during the middle of last week -- quite possibly, on the very day that Microsoft announced its settlement with the European Commission -- Web analytics firm StatCounter registered more Web site hits coming from Web browsers announcing themselves as Mozilla Firefox 3.5 than from either Internet Explorer 7.0 or IE8.
According to the fairest interpretation of StatCounter's data, that means Firefox 3.5-branded browsers are more actively used, on all platforms including Linux, than any single version of any other browser, including IE. As of Monday morning, FF 3.5 was responsible for 21.93% of HTTP requests tracked by StatCounter, versus 21.2% of requests from IE7, 20.33% from IE8 (buoyed recently by Windows 7's success), and 13.89% from IE6.
Calling this a "market share" assessment is a stretch, since markets are typically comprised of users, not their transactions. Arguably, Firefox users are more active on the Web, thus it may not follow that there are more Firefox 3.5 users than IE7 users, nor that there are more Firefox 3.5 installed browsers than IE7 browsers. Nonetheless, it's another significant threshold for the leading alternative browser on the Windows platform, and the leading browser for Linux.
When you combine version numbers together, Internet Explorer still comprises 55.42% of Web traffic that StatCounter tracks, versus 30.94% for Firefox 3.5 and 3.0 browsers combined. Firefox 2.0 browsers have dropped off the chart.
StatCounter's statistics are not backed up by NetApplications, however, which strangely tells an opposite story. After having jumped over the 25% last week, all collective versions of Firefox dipped back to 24.72% usage share in the NetApplications count for this week. IE6 remains the most used browser tracked by that firm, with 22.08%; IE8 has 19.34%, jumping over IE7 with 16.86%. Firefox 3.5 has just 15.16% usage by NetApplications' count. It's believed that NetApplications tracks more "corporate" users.
It's just marvellous to live to see the day.
Now users, let's load the next torpedo.
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|A question about your screen shot - why does it show 'opera 10' when the URL I have has 'opera 9.6' ??? I do hope it was not fiddled...
http://gs.statcounter.co...ww-weekly-200827-201000
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|All that matters is that MS IE6 fall below 1%. I would prefer that Opera and Chrome gain more users so we can see the market as a 4+ browser choice. We will then finally get to a situation where people code for standards rather than for specific browsers and browser versions.
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|Scott Fulton III likes statistics, no matter how meaningless they are. These are like saying GM sells more vehicles than Toyota does Camrys.
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|IE7?? people still use it..
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|Pretty amusing stats there! Now if you just add IE7 and IE8 together you get the real picture. I don't see anyone seperating the different FireFox, Safari or other versions, so these stats dont hold much water.
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|(Revision to last post) Dont split out the versions, only mention the app not the version. Then you get the real story, as most people choose the application not the version. The general public is cluless about what version they are using.
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|I think IE9 will be the best IE yet for alot of reasons, but so far FF is king imo!
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|This would be somewhat meaningful, if Firefox had jumped ahead of IE7 and IE8, since IE8 was replacing IE7 for a lot of people.
Firefox hasn't really done that but 21+ % is quite a good deal since a lot of people will likely never give up IE6.
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|statistics is most the scentific way of lying...
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|only about 63% of the time
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|Aaah the prophecy is slowly revealing itself - It's game over for Internet Explorer...slowly but surely!
No seriously, Chrome and Firefox are the only two browsers I use now. Safari on the Mac is great but the Windows version is terrible. I like Opera 10 too. Aaarh this browser war is giving me a headache.
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|firefox on mac is pretty sweet, give that a try.
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|Just be glad we've gone beyond Spyglass Mosaic.
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|Yeah for sure, I forgot to point that out thanks, Firefox is the default on all my computers ;)
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|IE7 IE8 still lets the user go to sites that will let it get infected. What year is this?
Firefox and Chrome will not. I got fed up with IE8 and the machine crashing silverlight
and have totally switched to Firefox. I'm done with the BS Microsoft.
I love the speed of Firefox, the support, the plugins.
Everything works and works very well. Count me in the Firefox stats.
Chrome is cool but has a lot of application support issues still that keeps me going
right back to Firefox.
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|So, we should see more spyware targeted at Firefox from now on... Let's see if it happens in 2010, I personally do not think it will be like that, but... Any reliable source for malware infection method, specifically browser exploit used)?
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|Most exploits these days are in Flash or PDF and the payload is targeted at Windows so the browser does not matter so much. I saw sites trying to install rogue Firefox extensions a long time ago (in the 1.0 days) so I would not be surprised if there is some of that going on too.
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|How about "not listening to Windows 7 feedback at all but very successfully creating an illusion that they did"?
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|lol
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|I'm running Firefox 3.6 and Chrome 4, so I don't make the stats. I wonder if this means more people are just switching to Firefox rather than upgrading to Windows 7? Its free and easy and gives a much better browsing experience.
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|"switching to Firefox (a browser) rather than upgrading to Windows 7 (an OS)" - huh?
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|Sure, who needs the trouble. You can get a better web experience and not bother with all the other trouble. I know its not the same thing, but if you want to improve your computer, this is by far easier.
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|Upgrading the web browser instead of the OS? That's like slapping new tires on an '82 Subaru Brat
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|Two inaccuracies in the article:
1. Since the statistic quoted is a week average, there was no specific day when Firefox 3.5 overtook IE7. If you look at day-to-day numbers, you'll see that Firefox always increases over the weekends and IE increases during the week days.
2. Since when did market share equal users? Car sales list the number of cars sold, right? Not the numbers of buyers for each brand. I'd say usage is very much the equivalent of market share when talking about browsers.
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|Thank you for your comment, naylor83. Actually, the weekly average I quoted does break down to a day-by-day, so the first part actually is accurate. As to "usage share," I get the same question every time I cite these numbers, for several years now. A browser could put forth between 0 and infinite transactions per day. Both analytics firms track only the transactions that come from those browsers. Since there's no way to create a formula that presumes the number of people or computers behind those browsers, we really can't call it "market share," because markets are always comprised of customers.
-SF3
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|What's the opposite of "FUD"? Someone should come up with an acronym that means something like "hopeful musing of the open-source fanboys"
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|FactsAreLies(TM) or LiesAreFacts(TM)
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|wow, and I didn't realize IE6, IE7 and IE8 were developed by different organizations - what a worthless piece of "news".
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|Agreed. I will consider this news when IE is surpassed by Firefox, not one of its variants.
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|To be fair, note that they've tallied Firefox 3.5 and 3.0 separately too, and Firefox < v3 is not even shown.
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|True - but why? does it really matter?
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|It does to web developers. When IE6 gets to the Opera line web developers everywhere will celebrate.
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|Statistics are largely useless. At least, that's what I've heard from 96.8% of the people I have polled....
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|I love it. Would you mind if I borrowed it sometimes?
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|Feel free. I hereby offer free and unlimited use of my above post for any reason, and without notice or attribution of any kind. *grin*
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