Latest Browser Stats

[Lemur]

Thanks to blog analytics, I’ve been able to track trends in browser usage among my readers over time, both here and at my personal site. I was especially eager to see the stats for the month of October. That’s the first full month that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 beta has been available to the general public. I saw plenty of enthusiasm when Microsoft unveiled the beta in mid-September, but has that enthusiasm been able to sustain itself? Can Microsoft stop the steady erosion in usage of Internet Explorer? And what does the future hold for Firefox, Chrome, and Safari?

Latest browser stats: Chrome, IE9 up, Firefox suffers enthusiasm gap | ZDNet

 

[z3r010]

And just for comparison here are our browser stats for the last month.

 

[Lemur]

Very interesting! What web log analyzer do you use (out of curiosity)?

I need a better analyzer...

 

[z3r010]

Google analytics.

 

[wilywombat]

I think maybe the folks can't be bothered chasing beta release after beta release so this is affecting the FF4 numbers. It's likely the figures are a big blip during the beta testing and we will have to wait till mid next year till things have settled down and the final releases are out. Anyone I know that has tried the FF betas has found it faster than FF3.xx so there is no big reason why they should drift to chrome or ie9 come release date.

 

[Colonel Travis]

Wily, this is from the article:

Firefox users are abandoning it in droves. Overall, Firefox usage has dropped precipitously in the past two months. Back in 2007, it looked like a sure thing that Firefox usage would pass that of Internet Explorer within a matter of months. That didn’t happen. Firefox usage crossed 40% briefly in August 2008, but it has been under that level ever since. The share of visitors to this site who used Firefox dropped in the past two months to roughly 33%, which is a return to levels I last saw in 2005 and 2006. It’s a trend I first spotted back in March, and it hasn’t slowed. The alarming statistic for anyone in Mozilla management is the complete lack of enthusiasm for Firefox 4. Only 1.06% of visitors to this site are using the Firefox 4 beta.

Count me among the droves. I'll load FF4 when it's done, but that browser took a big hit when Chrome came out.

 

[OneSerious]

I like me some Chrome. Used to use FF but jumped to Chrome on release. If IE9 continues to improve I will probably jump over to it on it's final.

 

[jsquareg]

The only fault I find with Chrome is the lack of a 'Print Preview' function. It still is not in 8.0.552.11.

 

[Skulblaka]

I've noticed that IE9 starts and is faster than FF4, at least for me.

 

[SevenNerd]

Chrome WILL sometime in the future take over both firefox and IE if you ask me.
It's the fastest growing browser to date and the support community is HUGE. IE9 will be good on release but chrome will always have the advantage for fast new release builds.

 

[alfranatic]

Chrome WILL sometime in the future take over both firefox and IE if you ask me.
It's the fastest growing browser to date and the support community is HUGE. IE9 will be good on release but chrome will always have the advantage for fast new release builds.

If google would respect our privacy,i would maybe agree.
But for now,i don't think so.

 

[wilywombat]

Does anyone get the feeling that we are being led like lambs to the slaughter by the likes of MS and Google? Use our browser, use our operating system, use our apps and store everything in our cloud..you can trust us ..honestly!!! Yeah right...

 

[si8mon]

Wily, this is from the article:

Firefox users are abandoning it in droves. Overall, Firefox usage has dropped precipitously in the past two months. Back in 2007, it looked like a sure thing that Firefox usage would pass that of Internet Explorer within a matter of months. That didn’t happen. Firefox usage crossed 40% briefly in August 2008, but it has been under that level ever since. The share of visitors to this site who used Firefox dropped in the past two months to roughly 33%, which is a return to levels I last saw in 2005 and 2006. It’s a trend I first spotted back in March, and it hasn’t slowed. The alarming statistic for anyone in Mozilla management is the complete lack of enthusiasm for Firefox 4. Only 1.06% of visitors to this site are using the Firefox 4 beta.

Count me among the droves. I'll load FF4 when it's done, but that browser took a big hit when Chrome came out.

Yeah I agree, ever since chrome has come out Firefox has felt slow and outdated. Mozilla is banking everything on Firefox 4 and that browser (all beta glitches aside) certainly has the ability to challenge chrome.

 

[BlueBear]

Using chrome and firefox, chrome 'feels' way faster than firefox

 

[Irene]

The only fault I find with Chrome is the lack of a 'Print Preview' function. It still is not in 8.0.552.11.

My sentiments entirely when I tried it.

I thought that the rest was fine, but 'Print Preview' was a serious omission for me.

 

[Barman58]

Print preview isn't an issue for me as I use the preview in the print driver as a final check before print .

Not all drivers will have the option but I think a lot do, although it's often buried deep in the options menu

 

[SledgeDG]

I can't argue with alfranatic's post. And I agree with BlueBear about chrome being faster than FF (which in time will change as more extensions become available, IMHO

As for PrintPreview
If you need it so bad, just get the extension IETab for Chrome, open the page you'd like to print in IETab, right-click and there is your Print Preview
Like this:

which leads to this:


-DG

 

[Lemur]

For my own tests, using SunSpider, FF pre 8 was 3x faster than 3.6.12, with accelerator enabled. Not quite as fast with accelerator disabled. Chome 8 beta was better by 100ms than pre8. And I don't have Opera installed to test. I don't care what browser you use, we all win when they compete head-on.

**EDIT** Oh, and I tested pre-9 with no add ons, same for Chrome.

 

[Horatio]

Just one point, as far as I.E.9 is concerned:-

As far as I know, the "main competition", Firefox and Chrome, is available for all Windows, Mac and Linux.
Safari is available for all Windows(?) and for Macs of course.
My understanding is that Internet Explorer 9 is available only for Vista and Windows 7, which at the moment is about 30% of all users.

Obviously, Microsoft know their own business best, but to me this seems to be a possible restriction on IE9 adoption.

 

[si8mon]

My understanding is that Internet Explorer 9 is available only for Vista and Windows 7, which at the moment is about 30% of all users.

Obviously, Microsoft know their own business best, but to me this seems to be a possible restriction on IE9 adoption.

It's all part of Microsoft's plan to kill off Xp. The old software dinosaur, which was developed way back in the '90s, that has over 60% of the PC Market Share.

This is a huge problem for Microsoft as they always want PCs to be upgraded to the latest version of Windows (in this case Windows 7), so they can get a steady (and big) money revenue stream.

Part of the plan to move everybody off XP is to stop distributing Microsoft's popular free software to XP. This is why Windows Live Essentials 2011 and IE 9 can only be used on Vista or 7. I'm sure in the future other Microsoft program will become Vista/7 only.