What’s Next For Firefox

What’s Next For Firefox

Frederic Lardinois:

When historians look at the history of the Web ten or twenty years from now, chances are they will point to Firefox as one of the most important products of the last ten years. But right now, it’s hard not to look at Firefox and worry a little bit about its future.

At the height of its success, around 2010/11, Firefox owned more than a quarter of the browser market in the U.S. and almost a third in Europe. Today, those numbers are much lower in most regions (though Germans still love Firefox more than any other browser). The exact numbers always depend on who you ask, but the trend is the same everywhere — and it’s not looking good for Mozilla’s browser.

I remember when Firefox was a revelation. In roughly 2005, I was using a Dell tower with a Celeron processor and it was brutally slow. I suffered for over year before I discovered that other browsers existed and Firefox was top of the heap. It wasn’t long until I realized that it was (and still is) miles better than Internet Explorer.

Firefox is still a good browser, but so is Chrome. On my Mac with Yosemite, I’m hooked on the redesigned Safari. Still, I hope Firefox stays alive for all those Windows users looking for a decent way to surf the internet.