History
The first version of Internet Explorer (IE) was released in August 1995, a time when Netscape had a near monopoly in the browser market. IE was bundled together with the dominant Windows operating system and by 2001 had a monopoly market share of over 90%.
9 Reasons why Mozilla Firefox is better than Internet Explorer Firefox, one of the largest used browsers by webmasters and normal users worldwide, is the favorite browsers for most of the internet users due to a lot of reasons, the reason might vary depending on the user, as it has some advantages for normal users and some other for webmasters. I have to say I still firmly believe I'm safer using Firefox than IE, and that's not just because I'm principally a Mac user. I believe Firefox is a more secure choice for the average user.
Dave Hyatt and Blake Ross began working on the Firefox project as an experimental branch of the Mozilla project. They believed the commercial requirements of Netscape's sponsorship and developer-driven feature creep compromised the utility of the Mozilla browser. To combat what they saw as the Mozilla Suite's software bloat, they created a stand-alone browser, with which they intended to replace the Mozilla Suite. On April 3, 2003, the Mozilla Organization announced that they planned to change their focus from the Mozilla Suite to Firefox and Thunderbird.
Market Share
From 2005 to 2010, Firefox had been steadily gaining market share from Internet Explorer. Wikipedia states that IE's market share in 2007 was 78.6% and around 75% in Jan 2008. [1] This includes all versions of IE. Firefox had close to 20% share in 2008. By June 2010, Firefox share was 31% and IE was down to 50%. In August 2011, Firefox share was around 23% and IE's share was around 38%.
In June 2012, the desktop browser market share of Internet Explorer and Firefox relative to other browsers was as follows[2]:
| Source | Google Chrome | Internet Explorer | Firefox | Safari | Opera |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| StatCounter | 32.76 % | 32.31% | 24.56 % | 7.00 % | 1.77 % |
| W3Counter | 28.1% | 29.9% | 23.1% | 6.5% | 2.4% |
| Wikimedia | 33.24% | 29.4% | 24.16% | 5.89 % | 3.99% |
| Median value | 32.76% | 29.9% | 24.16% | 6.5% | 2.4% |
| Diffen.com (includes mobile) | 23.4% | 27.2% | 17.6% | 21.6% | 2.5% |
Market Share
From 2005 to 2010, Firefox had been steadily gaining market share from Internet Explorer. Wikipedia states that IE's market share in 2007 was 78.6% and around 75% in Jan 2008. [1] This includes all versions of IE. Firefox had close to 20% share in 2008. By June 2010, Firefox share was 31% and IE was down to 50%. In August 2011, Firefox share was around 23% and IE's share was around 38%.
In June 2012, the desktop browser market share of Internet Explorer and Firefox relative to other browsers was as follows[2]:
| Source | Google Chrome | Internet Explorer | Firefox | Safari | Opera |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| StatCounter | 32.76 % | 32.31% | 24.56 % | 7.00 % | 1.77 % |
| W3Counter | 28.1% | 29.9% | 23.1% | 6.5% | 2.4% |
| Wikimedia | 33.24% | 29.4% | 24.16% | 5.89 % | 3.99% |
| Median value | 32.76% | 29.9% | 24.16% | 6.5% | 2.4% |
| Diffen.com (includes mobile) | 23.4% | 27.2% | 17.6% | 21.6% | 2.5% |
References
Best free internet browser. Or so it seems.
According to the 'Dirty Dozen' applications list (which is basically a collection/report of the most discovered software flaws that require security updates), when it comes to vulnerabilities, Google Chrome is the no. 1 application to get.
Furthermore, same report claims that Internet Explorer has far less security flaws than Safari or Firefox web browsers.
Good news for Opera users, as this browser had the lowest number of discovered vulnerabilities.
Statistics (application, number of security flaws found)
1. Google Chrome — 76
2. Apple Safari — 60
3. Microsoft Office – 57
4. Adobe Acrobat — 54
5. Mozilla Firefox — 51
6. Sun JDK — 36
7. Adobe Shockwave Player — 35
8. Microsoft Internet Explorer — 32
9. RealNetworks RealPlayer — 14
10. Apple Webkit — 9
11. Adobe Flash Player — 8
12. Apple Quicktime and the Opera Web browser (tied) — 6
One seems to wonder, if Google's and Mozilla's generous wages for discovering security vulnerabilities 'improved' those browsers stats.
Mozilla Explorer Firefox
Thanks, Anonimus.
