Firefox is Losing The Web Browser War

After 4 years, it looks like Firefox may no longer be the leader in web browsers. According to a recent report over at TechCrunch, Firefox has finally lost its edge among the visitors to their site. TechCruch has been keeping track of the browsers that people use to access their sites since 2006 and for the month of November, more people have been using Chrome, the browser by Google, than have been using Mozilla's Firefox browser. Chrome barely surpassed Firefox with 27.80 percent compared to Mozilla's 27.67 percent.

For the past four years, Firefox has been the clear leader for accessing TechCrunch. Although Internet Explorer is still the number one browser overall, the people who access tech websites and blogs tend to be more tech-savvy and use alternative web browsers. The breakdown looks like this:

But, even after gaining the lead, Chrome isn't in the clear. The browser that is gaining the most traction is Apple's Safari. The primary reason for this is that many visitors to the site are using mobile devices like iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. It stands to reason that as more people start accessing the mobile web, Safari's market share will grow even more.

Some of the regular readers here might remember my breakup with Firefox, and it seems like I am not the only one. Not that there is anything wrong with Firefox, in fact, the beta testing for Firefox 4.0 is showing great promise. The folks at Mozilla are looking for ways to regain the users it has lost. The new release is slated to be launched in the early part of next year and the reviews suggest that it is going to be a big improvement in both speed and functionality. The new social browser add-on feature F1 is sure to bring some former Firefox users back to the fold.

Not to be outdone, Chrome has been doing some updating of their own. Google has plans to open the Chrome Web store that will feature innovative web apps that can be downloaded through Chrome and should work in any “modern browser” (which means anything but IE). In addition to the browser, Google is planning on launching Chrome OS by the end of the year, which will let you ditch Windows entirely.

I am not sure if I will reconcile with Firefox. It is still like that ex-boyfriend that I hang out with from time to time and miss a lot, even though I am happy with my new situation. But, it is exciting to see what the new year will bring to the Tech world.

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