Chrome to Finally Pull Ahead of Firefox in November
Google Chrome goes number two.
Market share data released by StatCounter indicate that Chrome this month will pass Firefox in market share for the first time.
During the first half of this month, Chrome closely matched Firefox's market share with 25.45 percent versus 25.47 percent. In this period, Chrome gained 0.46 points over the October period, while Firefox lost 0.92 points. IE gained 0.48, most likely because of a recently launched advertising campaign.
Firefox has been caught in a downward spiral for some time now and Mozilla will have to get much more aggressive about addressing this trend. Over the past six months, Firefox lost 13.04 percent of its market share (IE: -7.29 percent; Chrome: +31.46 percent) and Firefox is, for the first time, losing market share faster than IE does (-3.82 points over the past six months versus -3.20 points).
It will be critical for Mozilla to deliver key features to Firefox without hiccups if it wants to reverse the current trend. Among those features are silent updates, which were originally planned to arrive with version 10, but may be delayed until version 11. Also Mozilla needs to integrate Chrome history and bookmark migration features rather sooner than later - right now, it appears that those may not arrive until version 11 or 12.
Given the fact that feature and strategy changes in browsers usually take half a year to show impact on market shares, Mozilla could be in for a rough ride and a turnaround may not not happen until Q2 or Q3 of next year.
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Wolfgang Gruener is an experienced professional in digital strategy and content, specializing in web strategy, content architecture, user experience, and applying AI in content operations within the insurtech industry. His previous roles include Director, Digital Strategy and Content Experience at American Eagle, Managing Editor at TG Daily, and contributing to publications like Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware.
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resetrsx At the rate IE is losing and Google is gaining market share, if this keeps up, Google will be #1 by the end of next year.Reply -
resetrsx Out of curiosity, what browsers are you guys using?Reply
I mainly use Chrome unless I'm having a problem with a particular site, which I usually assume is optimized for IE, so I use IE 9 as a backup.
I also have Firefox, but it got annoying keeping up with all of the updates breaking my plugins constantly, so I don't use it as much anymore. -
tearsana I use both Chrome and Firefox, but I use Firefox more simply because of the master password option. I don't feel secure having my browser save my passwords but no master password to unlock them. Call me paranoid, but security is at the top of required features. Having a master password is better than having no master password at all.Reply -
Goldengoose resetrsxAt the rate IE is losing and Google is gaining market share, if this keeps up, Google will be #1 by the end of next year.Reply
It will take a long time to knock IE off their top spot - majority of businesses still use IE and they aren't in a hurry to change. -
bygbyron3 I love Chrome but keep an updated version of IE with limited security and no add-ons for compatibility with primitive programs such as Battlelog, thanks Origin!Reply -
zanny I pretty much exclusively use firefox nightly. If it ever breaks on a nightly basis, I just use Firefox 9. It keeps the settings. If that doesn't work, chrome is a backup.Reply
I always hear people talking about memory issues or slow loads or what have you. I must be the most corner case there is, because sunspider in firefox 11 is about 15% faster than the current release chrome to me, with 20 tabs I have a 550 mb footprint, and even running the nightly it crashes once a month. So I've just been on the FF wagon since 2000 and have had no reason to get off.