How to kill a Firefox, Google's way
- By: Qwaider
- On:Sunday, September 07, 2008 11:49:10 AM
- In:Science & Technology
- Viewed: (7771) times
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Microsoft, killed Netscape navigator. Eight years later, Google is doing exactly the same thing to the popular browser, Firefox. This time using their own browser -er, excuse me, Application Shell. Relying on it's dominance of the search and services market.
According to recent amazing statistics from StatCounter, based on 250 Million page views globally, Chrome, is killing Firefox, Safari and Opera.
Surpassing Safari and Opera in it's first day, and going after Firefox next. Snatching a precious 4% of Firefox's market share in 3 days.
Surprisingly, IE's share grew 4% also, at who's expense do you think?
Update 9/17
As predicted, 10 days after the release of Chrome, it has snatched 1.02% of the global Market, 0.96% in the US, and 1.01 in the UK. While IE's share rose 4.4% in the US. This all came at the expense of Firefox and Safari, both lost 3.95 and 0.78 respectively in favor of IE and Chrome
As I predicted earlier, Chrome is going to annihilate Firefox and the rest of the extremely fragmented "alternate" browser market, while it gears for the biggest battle of all, Chrome vs IE sometime in 2010. The outcome depends on future releases of Chrome and IE. But as it stands, IE6, IE7 don't stand a chance. While IE8 lacks the speed and the optimized futuristic interface to propel it into the next generation browser. So, it will depend on what Microsoft is going to do about IE8, and IE9 in the next couple of years.
There's no doubt in my mind that Chrome will continue to gain grounds. I've tried it, and LOVED IT since it really provided me with a browser that is worth my while. With Google's name behind it, I feel more secure than Mozilla. This thing is here to stay, no matter what the rest of the world is going to say.
Now with that said, I still expect Google to play dirty. See your Google Analytics? Google has confirmed that it has been filtering out Chrome hits before it's release date. Which makes you wonder, what else is Google hiding? Or what will they hide next. But most importantly, are they going to be biased towards their own browser when comparing it to others in Analytics? You bet!
The infamous DOJ vs Microsoft was one moment in computer history that ushered in the "you're not too smart for the system" era. I am almost certain that Mozilla might pull another Netscape on Google. Maybe that will be the humbling blow to Google's over inflated ego (and stock price?), only time will tell
The interesting part is that with the added madness and increased fragmentation in this specific sector, many users prefer to flee back to the comfort of something familiar and known (Aka boring, slow and outdated) so they ran back to IE
In the meantime, Chrome continues to shine on my desktop.
Memories....
In any case I like Chrome really. It has issues with some blogs and font sizes, as I am sure you have experienced. But I use it frequently - more frequently than FF actually sometimes! It's slick and it won me over its looks.
Now if only we get an adblock plugin so I don't have to see the ads on pages :D cough
Chrome comes with 2 new features: fast javascript and independent tab-processes. Firefox 3.1 already has the 10-100x javascript enhancement. I think firefox will adopt the other tab-processes feature soon.
Chrome lacks a lot in usability, rendering standards, and differentiation. Chrome is almost a bare-bones browser made to demonstrate some technical features (and that's what Google is saying so far). I can't see how the masses will ever adopt it.
keep in mind, google is #1 only in search. they have a proven record of unprofitable business adventures.
but that's just my opinion... it'll be interesting to see.
# jeanray Says:
September 4th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
As part of our development process, we check our websites on ALL major browsers, and we guarantee them to work there.
Of course, Chrome is not yet in our list, and probably will NOT be for a long time: 6 of our latests sites, full AJAX, Web2.0 design, DON’T show up correctly - if they even work! - on Chrome!!!
But, again, Chrome is based on Webkit (MAC), an browser engine that does not comply with any standards.
Unless Chrome improves, it is not going to last very long…
Out of our lists, anyway…
anyway, its about time for Google to have one of its own.
Chrome is now like a lite meal,it gets through the day but when it comes to dinner you need to eat well..I am still a microsoft fan,i cannot break the habit and i find myslef clicking on IE without even thinking.
Anyhoo this Yamli thing pops up right in my face every time I enter anything in any field (name or email or comment box etc)... is there a way not to have it draw attention to itself please? :)
i installed it once, crashed on me 10 times half the day, i was using their own Google Docs!!! IE8 has got a lot of issues but it needs to be given the right attention to by designers... amma firefox, it is a space eater, and its not friendly, i use it because its more stable than IE8 for now, but im sure i will get back to IE soon
etzakkaret joke: Coca cola wanted once to promote itself in tafeeleh, so came in with ads and posters and a lot of free cokes for the people and stayed a whole day then left, a tafeeli who was out of town came back to see a hell lot of red posters and shabar a7mar w yeyy yeyy, so he asks someone what was going on? he said: donno, some people came in, handed out pepsi for free and went home! thats gonna happen with browsers one day, does it have IE on it? :)