According to the latest statistics from Market Share, 68% of you are likely using Internet Explorer (IE) to browse the web – and read this blog. My browser of choice (Firefox) has increased its share of users to almost 22%. Safari (Apple), and Chrome (the new browser from Google) round out the top four at 8% and 1% respectively.

The trends however are not in Microsoft’s favor: IE has lost 7% of its market share in less than a year, with Firefox and Safari making up most of that difference. Google’s Chrome (introduced in September 2008) has also taken a sliver of the market.

Quick Background:

Internet Explorer is the browser that comes pre-installed on all Windows operating systems. Since Windows also has almost 90% market share for Operating Systems, its dominance in the browser market is not surprising. Detractors of IE have many complaints including: security vulnerabilities, non-adherence to interoperability standards, and general performance issues.

Safari is the most common browser on Apple computers. Apple has recently ported Safari to run on Windows operating systems, and even included the installation download for users of its popular iTunes software (whether you wanted it or not).

Google Chrome is a very new player in the browser market. Google outfitted its browser with an extremely fast engine for running java applications – a feature that IE and Firefox have quickly rushed to copy.

And, last-but-not-least is Firefox: the browser from the Open Source organization known as Mozilla. I like to think as Firefox as the phoenix that rose from the ashes of Netscape – the browser that enjoyed up to 90% market share during most of the 1990s.

Why should I care?

I think the two most important attributes for a browser are security and performance. I’ve chosen Firefox because it is superior to IE in both.

Security – One can find dozens of articles discussing the security of the various browsers. Unfortunately, no browser is perfect; and since IE holds the biggest market share it is also has the largest payoff for the types of people who try to take advantage of security vulnerabilities.

Where the difference lies is in the number of vulnerabilities – and the time it takes to patch the vulnerability. I think this issue is best contrasted by two articles: one by Brian Krebs discussing how IE was unsafe for 284 days in 2006 – compared to 9 days for Firefox in the same period.

Almost two years after Mr. Krebs’ article was published, Jeff Jones (A Microsoft employee) wrote an article trying to debunk those claims. Unfortunately, Mr. Jones’ use of statistics reminds me of an amusing quote: “He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts – for support rather than illumination.” Andrew Lang

Mr. Jones had to include all vulnerabilities to make the browsers seem equal; Mr. Krebs based his research on only the most dangerous vulnerabilities. The whole situation reminds me of those Mac vs. PC commercials.
Performance – For Javascript speed, Chrome is actually the best browser currently available. I tend to be a late adopter; and with Chrome only a few months old I’m just keeping my eye on it for now. However, for other aspects of performance Firefox 3 is either the best, or very close to the best browser available. IE pretty much comes in dead last in all the benchmark performance tests.

Conclusion:
Most of the detailed data on the web shows that Firefox has somewhere between 50% and 75% adoption by technical people. So, for you techies – this article probably hasn’t told you anything you didn’t already know. There has even been discussion on the web about the reasons behind a less than 100% adoption by techies – I blame extra-terrestrials.

If you’re a non-technical person, and you’re still reading this: wow – I’m impressed. Why don’t you do yourself a favor and download Firefox now?