posted by Karl Ribas on Thursday, September 06, 2007
Bossman dropped off the latest issue of "Maximum PC" at my desk early last week (the October 2007 issue or Volume 12 Number 10 for those of you keeping track at home). Between he and I, we manage to put in our fair share of reading in a single month... at least in terms of search marketing, general marketing, web design, graphic design, Internet, and technology related blogs, magazines, and books.
In this issue I came across a tiny clipping titled "Firefox Closes in on IE". I've always had an interest in the "browser wars", as it's commonly referred to as, and have often wondered if Firefox would be the browser that would ultimately knock IE off its throne... or at least give it a run for its money (and we're talking Bill Gate's Microsoft IE so you know that's going to be a hell of a jog). The clipping stated:
"Nowhere is Internet Explorer's weakening hold on the browser market apparent than in Europe. French research firm XiTi Monitor reports that 28 percent of the continent's web surfers now use Firefox, up from 21 percent last year. In some countries - Slovenia, Slovakia, and Finland - use of the alternative web browser exceeds 40 percent."
In the short amount of time that Firefox has been available for free download; it's been able to do what no other browser has been able to do... compete head-to head and toe-to-toe with the Microsoft's IE. Think about that for a second. Firefox owns 30% to 40% of the European browser market... what a truly remarkable feet. I'm not exactly sure what Firefox's current share is in the US market, but I'd imagine those numbers have also risen in recent months.
So... what does this mean to you website owners, designers, and marketers? Well as Firefox's popularity and overall public usage continues to grow, you'll all be responsible for ensuring that your work remains in perspective with your Internet audience... even if that means developing and optimizing websites with the Firefox browser in mind.
Just for kicks, I gave my website's stats a once over and found some pretty interesting details about my visitors and their choice of browsers. Near 45% of my website's visitors use Firefox. Granted, I blog in a technology-based industry where using Firefox is widely more accepted and common, but I still think that's a good representation of the kind of numbers we can expect to see in coming years from Firefox and other industries.
Is your website optimized for the Firefox browser? What percentage of visitors / readers / leads / clients / customers are you loosing on the account that its not?
Labels: browsers
posted by Karl Ribas on Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Those of you who are regular readers of my Blog are well aware that my girlfriend's hard-drive had crashed several weeks ago, and that just recently I was given the task of extracting some of her more important documents and files before reformatting the drive. Well, if you were lucky enough to have followed the comments associated with that post than you've already read the conversation I had with Kid Disco regarding GSpace. And if you didn't... shame on you, but thank you lucky socks that I've decided to Blog about it today.
For those of you without out a clue, GSpace is a special FireFox add-on that is set to interact with a designated Google Gmail (email) account. The outcome is a free 2 Gig easy-to-use and easy-to-manage mobile storage solution... more than capable of storing all of your important documents and files.
After chatting with Disco, I went ahead and downloaded the necessary FireFox add-on, opened a new Gmail account, and began playing around with GSpace. To my surprise, the GSpace interface is very similar to an FTP program, where once a user is logged into Gmail they can highlight and move any file from their hard-drive to GSpace. Files are then stored as attachments within your Gmail account.
One of my favorite reasons to use GSpace is that its 100% mobile. Because files are saved within the confines of a Gmail account (as an attachment), users can access their stored items from any computer that has the FireFox browser and the GSpace add-on. I enjoy being able to transfer files from the office to my home or to my hotel room (when I'm away at a conference) and back again without a single worry or problem. Also, as Disco highlights, GSpace is a great place to back-up some of your more important digital information in the case that your hard-drive should someday crash.
If you're interested... here is the set-up process:
1) You must have the FireFox Internet Browser. If you don't, download the latest version here.
2) Create a Gmail account. If you already have one, you might want to consider creating a new one specifically for this project. I was advised to do so, and so I'm advising you to do the same. I'm guessing that the reason is because the stuff you upload will become intertwined with your actual email files... and that's not a good thing.
Gmail is still in beta and so one cannot just go to their site and sign up. What you'll need to do is track someone down who already has an account and ask them to send you an invitation to join. If by chance you don't know of anyone (or don't want to take the time to think about it) just shoot me an email and I'll hook you up.
3) Download the GSpace add-on here:
4) Once GSpace has been downloaded and installed, open up your FireFox browser and click on "Tools" on the top menu and then select "GSpace" from the drop-down menu. Doing so will bring up the GSpace interface.
If you already use GSpace or know of another really cool FireFox add-on that's worth downloading please feel free to share.
Enjoy!
Labels: browsers, tools
posted by Karl Ribas on Friday, April 15, 2005
Yahoo! has confirmed plans to allow Firefox users to access all of the portal giant's products and services, many of which are currently only available through Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.
In February, Yahoo! launched a search toolbar for Firefox, but users of the open-source browser were forced to revert back to IE to access some of Yahoo!'s well known features. For example, Yahoo! Messenger users still could not use Firefox to customize their online avatar and have to revert back to IE. However, a Yahoo! representative late last month said the company will not launch any new products or services in the future without ensuring that they work on both IE and Firefox.
This makes complete sense in my mind as the fire that is Firefox has greatly spread since my last entry and now holds approximately 5% of the browser market. That's a small share, but the arrival of the browser has dropped IE's dominant market share below 90% (Opera, Netscape and other browsers making up the rest). Firefox has received most of its attention as being an alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer and due to this explosive popularity, Firefox will now be added to Yahoo!'s suite of browsers to test their products against... meaning that all current and new products that Yahoo! develops will be tested with Firefox prior to release.
More than 2.6 million Internet users visited the Firefox website in March to obtain more information about the open-source software... and perhaps download it. That's up from 1.6 million in February and 2.2 million in January. So what is it that keeps the Firefox flame ablaze? Well as I have mentioned before, users are jumping ship to take advantage of what seems to be 3 simple features; features that as of today Microsoft has failed to address.
1) Firefox gives Web surfers a simple tool that blocks unsolicited windows.
2) Firefox is less susceptible to virus attacks.
3) Firefox offers a unique means of navigating multiple sites within a single browser.
As Firefox's popularity and overall public usage continues to grow, both website designers and search engine marketing specialists will need to ensure that they remain in tune with the Internet audience, even if it means developing "search engine friendly" websites with the Firefox browser in mind. I, for one have already added Firefox optimization techniques and usability strategies into my daily routines and would suggest that you do as well. It won't be much longer before Firefox has taken a greater portion of this Microsoft dominated industry and its always better to be prepared for situations such as this.
As I see it, it all comes down to the users needs. Whichever browser is able to provide and continue to provide the top-notch features that general Internet users desire, this time around it just happens to be pop-ups, virus attacks, and a comfortable navigation system, will no doubt take the lead and maybe win what is becoming known as the "browser wars".
Labels: browsers, yahoo
posted by Karl Ribas on Friday, February 25, 2005
Firefox, the Mozilla Foundation's new Internet browser, has just topped 25 million downloads since its release 100 days ago, indicating that the open-source browser continues to pursue a positive presence in a Microsoft dominated market.
My guess is that security concerns have been a major reason for why consumers are choosing to leave behind their easily accessible Internet Explorer browser to find alternative browsers, with Firefox benefiting the most. According to Jupiter Research, IE's market share had fallen to 92.7%, while Firefox's share had risen to 4.8% and other browsers, such as Netscape and Opera, accounted for the rest.
As Firefox's popularity and overall public usage continues to grow both website designers and search engine marketing specialists will need to ensure that they remain in perspective with the Internet audience, even if it means developing "search engine friendly" websites with the Firefox browser in mind.
I personally am 1 of the 25 million who downloaded Firefox and I find it to be a great alternative to Internet Explorer. A couple of my favorite features are the "Smarter Search" and the "Tabbed Browsing" tools, not to mention the extra pop-up blocking and security attributes, which IE currently lacks.
The "Smarter Search" option, much like a standard search engine toolbar, allows the user to search their favorite search engine without actually going to the search engine website. Currently I have Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Ask Jeeves, AltaVista, EBay, and Amazon installed in my search bar with plenty more options to choose from.
The "Tabbed Browsing" option allows user to create a separate tab, much like a new window, for each additional website. Unlike IE, which creates another window, Firefox creates a stationary tab which resides at the top of the browser where the user can easily navigate through multiple websites at one time. If you are a Windows XP user, you will enjoy this feature very much, as you are able to view multiple websites without cluttering the bottom menu-bar.
I expect Firefox to be very successful this coming year which will hopefully help to dethrone Microsoft from its current position as the ruler of the "browser kingdom." If not, then maybe Firefox will pressure Microsoft just enough to where they quickly find the solutions needed to fix the many security problems that Internet Explorer has. Best of luck Firefox... your going to need it.
Download a free version of the Mozilla Firefox.Labels: browsers
