Firefox 3 Gains Market Share!

Firefox Market Share

Firefox is still gaining in popularity versus Internet Explorer. IE is bundled with Windows which is why most people are still using either IE6 or IE 7. However, take a look at IE8--the new Internet Explorer--versus Firefox 3--the newest Firefox.


Firefox 3 has many, many more users than Internet Explorer 8 and since IE8 isn't bundled with Windows Vista (or Windows XP on netbooks). Firefox usually needs to be downloaded. Since it's new, so does IE8. Firefox is by far the most popular browser for "people who care" and people who download their own browsers. IE8, however, since it comes with Windows, will always retain a certain popularity.

Download Google Chrome Users

Below is a chart showing how other downloadable browsers--Opera and Google's Chrome--don't stack up to Firefox. Opera has been around for 10 years and Chrome for about one year. They are both great browsers--better than IE--yet still, they aren't popular.

(Image provided by arstechnica)

Internet Explorer 8 Download (IE8 Download) Users

For virus protection, Firefox is very, very strong. However, due to its popularity, there are more backdoors being found by more and more hackers as Firefox is now the subject of many attacks. However, Firefox users--those who care and download stuff for their computer--are more likely to have updated virus and spyware programs on their computers. IE users, however, don't care as much on average.

Which do we use? Firefox, of course! IE is backup on all Windows computers, but we'd recommend the Google Chrome or Opera browsers at Firefox backups. IE is just too vulnerable to attacks--even IE8.