W3schools has updated their website browser statistics, and the good news is that Firefox has jumped up another 2% in the past month to just a tiny bit less then 24 percent of their overall visitors. The 2% seems to have primarily come at the cost of Internet Explorer 5 and 6. At HTMLfixIT we have shown a similar increase in Firefox usage in the past month, which in our case brings Firefox up to 38.68% and Internet Explorer 5 and 6 down to 49.8%. Internet Explorer still has the lead, but it is closing rapidly. Of course both of these websites are targeted to tech related subjects, so naturally these percentages would be much lower for the general population, but it is still significant growth and indicative that the reports of Firefox only being used by early adopters is false logic. (especially when you consider that Firefox itself has been downloaded 40 million times now.) Even if you don’t use Firefox and have no plans to try, you should consider this a good thing because if there is only one browser, there is only one choice, and the Internet standards would then be at the whim of a convicted monopolist. Choice is a good thing, we should encourage it, particularly as web developers. (To see HTMLfixIt’s browser statistics, look down the right hand side of the page you are reading.)
INSERT: As of today (12th April) Firefox is just a tad under 45 million downloads. Further proof that this isn’t just a gimmick but true sustainable growth.
