Fri

Apr 29
2005

Tim O'Reilly

Tim O'Reilly

Firefox vs. IE in O'Reilly Network Logs

This morning, I received email from Paul Graham in response to a press release we'd just sent out about our new book on switching to Firefox, called Don't Click On the Blue E!. Paul wrote:

Here's a statistic that might interest you. Of the visitors to ycombinator.com, who are mainly young hackers, the breakdown in browsers is: Firefox 47.7%, MSIE 23.2%. So in this audience Firefox is already more than twice as popular as Explorer.
Paul's comment made me wonder what the latest Firefox vs. IE stats were on O'Reilly web properties. While these properties appeal to hackers, we also have a large enterprise and mainstream audience, so I expect them to lag ycombinator a bit, but still to show strong gains for Firefox. Here's what I found out. (Stats are from the first quarter of 2005, from www.oreilly.com, www.oreillynet.com, and other sites we manage such as xml.com, onjava.com, and www.perl.com.)
Internet Explorer: 54.66%
Firefox: 35.08%
Safari: 3.85%
Mozilla 1.7: 2.70%
Netscape: 1.26%
Compare these numbers to the first quarter a year ago:
Internet Explorer: 75.53%
Netscape: 19.89%
Safari: 3.48%
Other: 3.10%
In short, during the past year, Firefox has basically wiped out the Netscape browser, and has taken 20 points of share from IE. Safari browser has grown fractionally, but given the rise in Apple's market share, these numbers would suggest that a good percentage of Apple users are switching to Firefox as well.

Meanwhile, Janco reports that Firefox share in the broader market has surged past 10%.

All of this is nice validation of the premise of Watching the Alpha Geeks, namely that hackers are a good predictor of certain types of technology adoption. By the time O'Reilly is publishing books on a topic, that topic is already well on its way to becoming mainstream. (We start developing books and other properties a year or more in advance of their public debut, which is why watching O'Reilly from the outside only gets you half the way towards watching the alpha geeks :-) Radar.oreilly.com gets you a bit closer to the front lines.

P.S. Jessica Boyd, the advertising coordinator for the O'Reilly Network, who dug up these stats for me, just sent a followup message, as follows:

Looks like the switch flipped in October of last year. The "Other" category started by bumping Netscape then taking away from MS after that.
 

Sept. 2004:

MS: 62%
Netscape: 29%
Other: 9% - Firefox was 36% of that. (i.e. 3.24% of total)

Oct. 2004

MS: 63%
Other: 35% - Firefox was 67% of that (i.e. 23% of total)
Netscape: 2.11%

By Dec. 2004

MS: 59%
Other: 39% - Firefox, 75% of that (i.e. 29% of total)
Netscape: 2%


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Comments: 13

  Harpreet [04.29.05 06:47 PM]

I am regular vistor of *.oreilly.com and sister sites. From office I do not have choice so I use IE and from home I connect via Firefox. So actual FF number will be little bit higher and many IE users are forced users.

  Marc Hedlund [04.29.05 06:57 PM]

For the record, on O'Reilly's CodeZoo site, Firefox makes up 56.65% of the traffic.

  blufive [05.01.05 12:42 PM]

Looking at the "follow-up post" from Jessica Boyd, my instinct is that yes, something changed from september to october 2004, but it was probably your browser detection. 29% "Netscape" in September 2004 is HUGE, and completely out of step with other tech sites in the same period. A swing from (29% Netscape/4% Firefox) to (2% netscape/23% firefox) in one month is similarly incredible. That's 20% of the visitors changing browsers in one month, which just sounds crazy.

Unless that "Netscape" is mostly mis-identified mozilla-family browsers, and the browser detection was corrected in the October figures.

  Ted Rheingold [05.02.05 05:48 PM]

I run some sites called Dogster.com and Catster.com. Our Firefox usage is up, but nothing compared to these or BoingBoing's numbers. We get about 500,000 visits a month from very run of the mill users.


In April '05 these visitors used on average:
* 85% IE
* 10.5% FF/NS/Moz
* 3.5% Safari.


I think I'll add a footer link to FF ;>

  Jessica Boyd [05.03.05 09:36 PM]

I wanted to respond in person to the comment that the big swing to Firefox in October of 2004 could have been mis-identified Mozilla browsers. (Hey, it's my reputation, after all.) :-)

Given the fact that other analytical tools I've used don't effectively separate out - or even list - all browsers, that's a very valid question. However, the program we use not only separates out Netscape and Firefox, but also Mozilla versions 1.7, 1.6, etc., even prior to October.


That being said, that is a large swing for a one-month period so I went back to see what happened in or around October of 2004. Seems that Firefox moved out of beta in mid-September 2004. That may have had something to do with it. ;-)

  randall [05.13.05 02:49 PM]

An open letter to Firefox users/developers/evangelists:

Please consider loading the "User Agent Switcher" extension and set it to "Internet Explorer 6 (Windows XP)". Developers: Make this the default?

On the one year anniversary of the release of Firefox 1.0, either manually or programatically reset the user-agent to Firefox. Imagine the impact of an overnight spike in Firefox browser share of 40% or more... the media goes nuts... Microsoft calls (yet another) emergency meeting... Firefox coders diligently polish the 2.0 release ;)

  randall [05.13.05 02:50 PM]

An open letter to Firefox users/developers/evangelists:

Please consider loading the "User Agent Switcher" extension and set it to "Internet Explorer 6 (Windows XP)". Developers: Make this the default?

On the one year anniversary of the release of Firefox 1.0, either manually or programatically reset the user-agent to Firefox. Imagine the impact of an overnight spike in Firefox browser share of 40% or more... the media goes nuts... Microsoft calls yet another emergency meeting... Firefox coders diligently polish the 2.0 release ;)

  Stephen [02.22.06 02:31 PM]

Listen... The only reason that IE is more used than FF, is because IE is already on the computer. Most adults just use the internet for communication, checking stocks, and typing documents. They wouldn't need to switch from IE to FF! But AFTER they get hit by spyware or a virus, they have to! I am a CLASSIC example of this! Before I had FF, IE would crash my computer! (and no, I was not looking at inappropriate sites) But, I love FF now! And the cool thing is, with the new IE Tab extension you can get for FF, you can open the sites that require IE! Take it from an experienced net veteran, SWITCH TO FIREFOX!

  Philipp [07.03.07 01:39 PM]

Hello Tim... I am wondering how your stats are looking for 2007?

  Paul [07.03.07 03:07 PM]

Yeah. What are the stats for 2007? I am sure a few people are interested.

  stevo [11.20.07 04:08 PM]

a couple of years ago i used only IE, and than came Firefox with the thousens of useful extensions. the statistic is not wondering me but i fell MS will lose this fight

  bibeto [11.28.07 07:58 AM]

a couple of weeks ago MS released the IE7 to everybody :) they have fear of firefox

  pepie [12.28.07 02:05 PM]

My personal site statistics are definately on the side of IE. Not for long I hope

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