This political blog I frequent posted a screenshot of the very first congressional website. It belonged to Senator Edward Kennedy. Old Ted was on the web in 1993. The screenshot was from 1994 and the browser was Netscape Navigator. Ahh, memories.
| "The browser usage outlook is radically different than it was just a year ago. Don’t miss out on your chance to reach as many surfers as you possibly can. Get a copy of Firefox..." |
I got my first PC in 1995. Netscape Navigator was my browser. Call me sentimental but I will always be a fan of the people that first allowed me to see the Internet in graphical interface. When Internet Explorer steam-rolled over Navigator, I was broken hearted. My resentment towards the MS browser has never left me. I admit, it was foolish of Netscape to charge for using their software in the early days but the moment they decided to give it away (it was free, then it wasn’t) I downloaded a copy and fired it up. All through the 90’s I stubbornly surfed the net with all the Netscape incarnations. I would only use IE when I had to. When Netscape was sold to AOL, I mourned. When I read that part of terms of the sale involved a non-profit browser engine development project, I waited and waited for it to be released. As I waited for this almost mythical release, Internet Explored cemented itself in the machines of millions. It got to a point where so many sites were designed for IE users that my stubborn dependence on Netscape was detrimental. As a website builder, I had to use IE. By the time the first release of Firefox (called Firebird) hit the scene, my hopes for the resurgence of my beloved browser seem all but lost.
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That was a while ago. For a good few years it looked like Firefox/Mozilla would never gain any measurable amount of marketshare. I’ve endured a lot of eye rolls and impatient sighs because of my support for Firefox/Mozilla. I’ve been told time and again, Firefox/Mozilla don’t matter. "Why build sites for that browser? Nobody uses it!" I kept to my faith and as time went by hackers and spyware fucks targeted IE to the point of obsession. Microsoft would practically refuse to admit to the insecurities in their browser and after too much time, begrudgingly release a security patch. The more people realized the IE was bloated and insecure, the more they started to download Firefox/Mozilla. At first, it was the IT crowd but eventually, even the average Joes and Janes realized that their surfing experience was better without IE.
Today, according to a cross-section average provided by Wikipedia, Firefox/Mozilla usage is just over 25%. One quarter of Internet surfers worldwide. Wikipedia took the stats from six different sources W3C had Firefox/Mozilla at 31.04%, OneStat ranked Firefox/Mozilla at 15.59%. A substantial number of people surfing on the web user Firefox/Mozilla as their browser. While 25% isn’t a majority, that percentage represents close to two billion people.
In other words, if you haven’t started to create sites that render in Firefox/Mozilla, you’re missing out on a whole hell of a lot of potential customers. There’s a lot of anti-MS sentiment among computer users and it doesn’t look like that resentment is fading. Microsoft may be able to restore it’s reputation with the public release of its new Windows 7 Operating System but IE is still going to be the favorite target of hackers and spyware goons. Not to mention that IE 8 is as slow if not slower than IE 7. In addition, Google is coming up fast with its Chrome browser and considering that vast amount of surfers already using Google tools, software and Gmail, Chrome is going to become a serious contender in the browser wars.
Go ahead and build your sites for IE but make the extra effort to insure that those sites render properly in Firefox/Mozilla. No King rules forever. Two billion people is nothing to sniff at. I’m not saying that Firefox/Mozilla will end up at the top of the heap. All I’m saying is that the tide has turned. The browser usage outlook is radically different than it was just a year ago. Don’t miss out on your chance to reach as many surfers as you possibly can. Get a copy of Firefox or the whole Mozilla suite!
You won’t be sorry.