For the first time since we began tracking, the Firefox browser has exceeded 20% share for a full month.  Mozilla's CEO, John Lilly, gives credit to the Mozilla community and shared his thoughts with us on this accomplishment:

"Reaching 20 percent worldwide market share is a significant milestone for Firefox and Mozilla.  It's a huge achievement by the global Mozilla community, one that just a few years ago most would have considered impossible.  The open web is more vibrant than ever, and the thousands of Mozilla contributors around the world have played a major role in making it that way."

Firefox share jumped about eight tenths of a percent in November, which is much higher than average.  Why the big jump?  In addition to the steady gains Firefox has shown over the years, our analysis shows three other major reasons:

 First, the U.S. election.  Firefox usage share increased significantly in the days surrounding November 4th (especially in some non-U.S. countries, like Japan), then held roughly steady until:

 Second, the Thanksgiving holiday.  Firefox share jumped starting on Wednesday the 26th until the end of the month.

 Third, extra weekend days.  The average 30-day month has 8.57 weekend days.  November had 10.

All three reasons increase Firefox share since Firefox has a much larger residential share than corporate share (to be detailed in a future analysis).  So, all the above factors led to increased residential browsing and a higher Firefox share.

Even considering these factors, Firefox's share trend is pointing to above 20% share for December and beyond.

Google Chrome Share Back on the Rise

Google Chrome share has started to rise again after leveling off prior to November.  It now has bumped up to 1% for the first time since the days immediately following its launch.  One cause of this rise is that Google is leveraging its dominant search engine by intermittently placing a nine-word link on their home page advertising Chrome.  This comes after Google initially refused to place a one-word privacy link on their home page claiming a 28-word limit for the page.

Google Search Engine Share Continues to Climb

Google's search engine share continues to climb, now exceeding 81% in our network of sites (weighted with ecommerce sites).  The gains are coming mostly from Yahoo!, which continues to rapidly drop market share.

In a sign of increasing domination, starting in October, Google U.K. now surpasses Yahoo's search traffic from its main site.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Can Mac Share Trends in Swing States Predict the Election?

There is a correlation between Mac usage and party affiliation. Mac users are more likely to be democrats, as shown in January.

So how are the swing states trending for Mac share?  Overall, U.S. Mac share has increased 4.91% since January (which is the earliest we have state by state data).  The state by state breakdown is as follows:

State	Mac Share Change Since January
Colorado	14.93%
Florida	7.29%
Indiana	-1.14%
Missouri	-2.13%
North Carolina	7.99%
New Hampshire	17.59%
New Mexico	9.72%
Nevada	4.68%
Ohio	1.30%
Pennsylvania	4.09%
Virginia	-15.73%

Firefox Hits 20% Share for 2 Weeks in October

Mozilla has reached an important milestone.  Firefox usage share has topped 20% during two separate weeks in October.

Week of	Firefox Share
10/05/08	20.00%
10/12/08	19.90%
10/19/08	19.89%
10/26/08	20.06%

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Google Chrome Usage Share Drops After Initial Surge

Google Chrome usage share has been dropping since its launch, but has stabilized at about .7%.

51% of Firefox 2.0 Users Upgrade to 3.0 Since August 25th

Since August 25th, 51% of Firefox 2.0 users upgraded to version 3.0. This is the result of an update released by Mozilla. This update was offered to all 2.0 users.

Cuil OFF!

Cuil has continued to lose their small remaining usage share, actually rounding down to 0.00% at the end of September (thanks to Joe Vizzaccaro for yet another double entendre aimed at Cuil).

Monday, September 01, 2008

iPhone Web Browsing Usage Share Increases 58% in One Month

With the continued rollout of the iPhone 3G version, web browsing usage share increased 58% from July to August.

Cuil Whipped!

Cuil goes cold. Cuil assumes room temperature. Cuil not so hot. Cuil cools off. This is the article where the headline writes itself (thanks to Jason White for the winning suggestion).

In the few short weeks of its existence, the highly-promoted new search engine Cuil has dropped to almost zero usage share. The share drop comes amidst massive criticism of Cuil's search results, where reports of unrelated results to what was being searched were common.

Internet Explorer 8.0 Usage Share Takes Off with Beta 2

With the release of beta 2 on August 27th, Internet Explorer 8.0 usage share has started to jump. Within three days of its release, usage share was already 500% above the peak beta 1 usage share.

Since beta 1 was primarily a developer's preview, beta 2 is the first release to have the new features intended for the final release. These features include a much improved address bar, private mode browsing, better tabs and improved navigation.

Friday, August 01, 2008

iPhone Resumes Large Usage Share Increases With Release of 3G Version

The release of the iPhone 3G has brought large gains in web browsing share. Prior to the launch iPhone usage share had leveled off, but has since resumed its upward trend.

Cuil Stumbles on Launch, but Beats Google in Key Relevancy Metric

Cuil (pronounced cool) is a new search engine created by former Google engineers (http://www.cuil.com). It was released to the public on 7/28. We have usage share numbers starting the next day. Cuil was able to reach .26% share on the first day we started tracking. However, there have been widespread reports of outages and problems with its search results.

Even with the initial problems, Cuil was able to beat Google in a key metric that measures relevancy of search results, which is the amount of time a user spends on a site after being referred by a search engine. Here are the results for the last three days of July:

Search Engine	Avg. Minutes on Site
Cuil	9.65
Google	9.37
Yahoo	8.57

Sunday, June 01, 2008

Browser Wars - Battle Tactics Escalate

Last month, we showed the effect of Apple pushing Safari via software updates.  This month, Mozilla has implemented a change in Firefox 3.0 RC1 where the installation now has a checkbox that defaults to making Firefox your default browser.  The option is clearly displayed and labeled, unlike Safari, which misleadingly labeled the Safari install as an 'update' (since correctly changed to an 'install').  However, this practice is a break from the traditional practice browsers employed of defaulting this option to off.  Prior to this change, Firefox 3.0 was already rapidly gaining usage share, so it will be difficult to measure the effect of this change.

iPhone Usage Share Leveling Off Prior to 2.0 Release

Apple has confirmed that its online inventories for the original version of the iPhone are sold out in the U.S. and U.K.  Apple appears to be clearing out its inventories in preparation for the iPhone 2.0 release.  This, in conjunction with customers holding off purchasing until 2.0 is released has temporarily leveled off the iPhone usage share.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Apple's Gamble: Push Safari to Windows Users via Software Updates. Did it Work?

On March 18th, Apple released the Safari 3.1 web browser for Windows and the Mac.  With the release, Apple also included Safari 3.1 with Apple's Software Update service on Windows.  It was labeled as an update with the option to install pre-selected.  The update has been pushed to millions of Windows users of Apple's other software products, like iTunes.  Normally, Apple's Software Update service is not used for delivery of new products.  Clearly, this is a calculated risk by Apple that has annoyed and/or alienated some users.

However, the question is, did it work?  Did Apple gain browser market share on Windows based on this move?  The answer is yes.

Safari 3.0 on Windows never gained much market share, peaking at .07%.  However, Safari 3.1 on Windows is rapidly gaining market share, already tripling Safari 3.0's peak.

Note: As of April 18th, Apple's update now lists Safari as 'new' software if not already installed.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Yahoo and Microsoft Both Lose Market Share to Google

In March, Yahoo lost .17% of total market share, MSN lost .26% and Microsoft Live Search lost .09%.  The losses went primarily to Google, which increased its share in March by .43%.

Firefox 3.0 BETA Gaining Market Share

The beta version of Firefox 3.0 registered 0.28% total share in March and is climbing rapidly.  This indicates that the beta is stable and is being used as a primary browser.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Browser Wars - On the Mac

The browser battle on the Mac is between Safari and Firefox.  Safari dominates, but Firefox has a much larger share on the Mac than Windows.  However, Firefox share has been relatively stable, gaining .56% of total market share since November, 2007.

Stan Loves Opera

We always knew that the Opera browser has a very large browser market share in Russia, Eastern European and Central Asian countries.  However, they seem to have a consistently large market share in the countries that end in 'stan', as this report shows.  Is nice?

The Sun Never Sets on Google U.K.

One interesting way to use the data is to view travel and emigration patterns by viewing which localized version of a search engine visitors use outside the country it is in.  Not surprisingly, the U.K. seems to have the most visitors outside its borders using Google U.K.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

iPhone Tops Windows Mobile Devices

We've been tracking iPhone usage since its launch.  Total web browsing on the iPhone has topped the web browsing on all Windows Mobile devices combined, as this report shows.  This report is a listing of the top operating system versions in use.  It is not a measure of units sold, but the share of users browsing the internet with the devices.  The iPhone has had a dramatic rise in usage share in its short time on the market  Is this due to a better user interface?  Larger screen?

Democrats Vote for the Mac?

One of the first things we did with our latest upgrade was to get a view of Apple's market share by measuring the usage share of all Macintosh operating systems.  This map jumped out at us as having a striking resemblance to the U.S. red/blue election map from 2004.

Apple's Awesome Market Share Gains

Apple's market share gains in December for the Mac and iPhone are impressive. For the last days of December, the numbers are nothing short of spectacular.

iPhones Without Borders

We've heard the rumors that many iPhones are being used outside the officially sanctioned countries.  So, we decided to check it out and surprise, surprise, it's true.  The iPhone has a presence in almost every country on earth.  Here is a list of countries and the overall web-browsing usage share of the iPhone for the country.