The rise of Firefox

This post is mostly aimed at those of you with a general interest in tech, and those with your own websites.

Most of the visitors I have are Firefox users. 64% for the last week, and that's typical - often up to 75%. The total number of web users are certainly not, but it seems logical in hindsight:

The average user likely buys their software shrink-wrapped or it arrives with the computer. They use the browser that came with the operating system and they've heard that viruses get onto your computer from downloading software.

The type of people who end up looking at this site seem to be early adopters. They know where to look for software and know a dodgy setup when the see one. They decide which browser to use.

Brief story:

A long time ago, in a galaxy with terrible connectivity, I used to work for an ISP. We had to test anything that was web-oriented in IE 2 and 3, and in Netscape 2 and 3. (Yeah, that long ago!) Some things would break in Netscape, and others in IE.

For the last few years that problem has been reduced because Internet Explorer has had such significant market share that many web developers didn't have to worry about the weirdos using Netscape or Opera.

But those days are back. Firefox is doing okay worldwide, and in some countries it's doing really well. Funnily enough, the U.S. Firefox use isn't one of the highest but in the case of Tudumo visitors it's as high or higher. Again, early adopters.

So the take-home here is: if you have a website that plays in the realm of technology or forward-thinkers, don't just test under the default browser, test for the early adopters. Not only are those the people most likely to be using best-of-breed software, they're more likely to be receptive to using your best-of-breed software or reading your bleeding-edge news. Again, if Tudumo's website did silly things in Firefox, I'd be irritating two out of every three people that looked at it. That's huge.

With all of that, the Tudumo website needs a good whipping! But at least it works on Firefox. Unlike my banks' online "offering", which is more like a burnt offering than a way to increase the confidence of their users.