Digital Journal — Any market leader should be looking over the shoulder to see who’s catching up. In the case of the Web browser war, the fast-rising rookie is making small gains every month, looking more impressive every passing month.
Mozilla’s Firefox gained half a percentage point in market share in August, at the expense of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, according to Web metrics firm Net Applications. Firefox, the nascent open-source browser, owns 11.8 per cent of the global browser market, compared to July’s 11.3 per cent. Internet Explorer accounts for 83 per cent of browsers, down from July’s 83.5 per cent.
Half a percentage point sounds like no big deal, right? Not in the lucrative Web browser market, where Mozilla and Microsoft are battling not only for user numbers but reputation. Firefox has earned street cred for its innovative interface, which includes tabbed browsing, live bookmarks and extension mechanisms. The browser reached 200 million downloads as of August 2006, and Firefox 2.0 is due to be released in the coming months.
Meanwhile, Microsoft debuted a beta version of Internet Explorer 7 recently, and plans to release the full Windows XP-compliant version by the end of the year. Among the new browser’s bells and whistles is tabbed windows, a popular function in Firefox (and very difficult to live without).
If Microsoft starts to imitate its way-behind rival, expect the chattering masses to start whispering “copy-cat” when the new Internet Explorer descends on Windows PCs worldwide. There’s something fishy going on when the market leader begins to regard its competitor as a worthwhile opponent, going so far as to lift functions and features. Guess Firefox is doing something right.
