Posts from Firefox

Browser Loyalty (or not)

I guess this weekend will be google analytics weekend, given my post yesterday and today. In light of the rumors that Facebook may purchase the Opera browser, I got to thinking about how quickly browser market shares move. If the AVC blog audience is a good sample, then the answer is pretty quickly.

Here's the breakout of browser market share on AVC in the month of May 2006:

Browser share 2006
IE was dominant with over 60% of the AVC audience using it in May 2006. Firefox was coming on strong and Safari was tiny with about 5% of the users.

In just two years, the landscape had shifted rapidly.

Browser share may 2008
In May 2008, Firefox was ascendant and over half of AVC readers used it. IE was still popular and Safari had doubled its share among AVC readers.

Two years later, in May 2010, the market was shifting again.

Browswer share 2010
Firefox was still on top but was falling and Chrome was taking share from it. Safari had doubled again, and IE usage was in freefall.

And fast forward to today, we see a different story again.

Browser share 2012
Chrome is by far the most popular browser among AVC readers. Safari and Firefox usage has declined a bit. And IE contnues its decline.

All of this share shifting has happened in the relatively short timeframe of six years. There is apparently very low loyalty to browsers in the AVC community. I suspect our crew here is more likely to try something new and shift than the broader Internet, but even so, this is something to think about if owning a browser is part of your lockin strategy. Apparently that doesn't work too well.

UPDATE:

There was a question about OS market share. This is what the current OS market share on AVC looks like:

OS market share 2012

#Web/Tech

How A Little Hack Can Be Lifechanging

One of the things I love about mobile browsers is they recognize phone numbers and activate them. You search for a store on your mobile phone, you find the phone number, you click on it, and you place the call.

I've always wanted to work like that at home, but I really don't like calling on my laptop. I love the ability to roam around my home or office with my mobile phone or cordless phone and as much as I love my laptop, it makes a lousy phone.

On Thursday I posted about voice in the cloud and SIP phones. And Ken Berger left this comment letting us know about a Firefox extension for OnSip.

I installed the Firefox extension on my laptop yesterday morning and now every phone number I come across in Firefox is activated just like in my mobile browser. When I click on the number, my wireless SIP phone rings, I pick up the call, and I am connected. I can walk around my home and do the call just like I was on my cell phone.

This is a little hack. It wasn't a huge amount of effort for OnSip to build this extension and the extension has only been downloaded 902 times as of this morning at the Firefox add on service. So in the grand scheme of things, this isn't a big game changing web service.

But it is a lifechanger for me. It simplifies making calls and makes the wired experience mimic the mobile one.

All of this is possible when your phone becomes a device on your network and the Internet just like your computer. As I said yesterday, this convergence is a big deal.

As Ken said in another comment, "Fones are finally fun."

Enhanced by Zemanta
#Web/Tech