« Yahoo! Desktop Search Beta | Main | A Defense Against Comment Spam »

January 14, 2005

A Foxy Browser Scores in Search

When I first started working at Yahoo! seven years ago, Netscape was the browser. The tools we used weren't even developed to work with IE. Ah, 1998. Netscape was just beginning to see the bloom wither, and as the years passed most users (and fellow employees) migrated over to IE. Begrudgingly, I joined the crowd and gave up on Netscape's browser a couple years back after crashes and much gnashing of teeth.

But wait! There's a player on the scene that started attracting buzz in the hardcore webhead community in early 2004. Interest in the Mozilla-developed Firefox has spread to the point where the browser consistently ranks in our top 500 searches. Searches on the alternative browser are up 7% over the past week and a graph of queries over the past year shows a rather envious trend line:

The spike in November corresponds with a splashy Firefox ad in the New York Times. Following a seasonal dip when holidays took precedence over browsers, the alternative browser rebounded and looks to keep gaining in search share as 2005 wears on.

Jeremy posted some interesting numbers and graphs on his blog in mid-December about Firefox's growing popularity. The search numbers serve as confirmation that the open-source browser is starting to infiltrate the mainstream.

Top Firefox searches over the past week

Re-ignited browser wars? Stay tuned...

Erik Gunther
Yahoo! Buzz Index Editor

Permalink | Bookmark | del.icio.us | digg | Filed In: Misc

Comments

I've been using Firefox for awhile now, and I'm glad to see Yahoo! take notice of its gaining market share.

That said, I would ask that Yahoo! do two things ASAP for us Firefox users:

-Release a official version of the Yahoo! toolbar for Firefox with things like highlight search and new mail notification

-Fix Yahoo! Mail so that users of Firefox can send rich text or HTML formatted mail. I hate plain text.

Thanks!

Posted by: Scott-O-Rama | January 14, 2005 03:14 PM

There's a free javascript rich-text-input thing called "FreeTextBox" at www.freetextbox.com
Might be just what the doctor ordered for rich mail

Posted by: Maurits | January 14, 2005 04:21 PM

Awesome! I love firefox! Haha... I test nightlys (nightly versions of the browser) and it is so great... I would really like to see an official y! toolbar. A9 (Amazon's search engine, powered by google) is the only big name to have a firefox toolbar. C'mon guys! It's not too hard! Anyone can make an extention, easy!

Posted by: Joey | January 14, 2005 06:33 PM

Firefox rules!
Keep the good work and get the browser dominance.

Posted by: Jansen | January 14, 2005 09:50 PM

*cough*YahooLAUNCH*cough*

I'm sorry, its just that I really like the service but hate having to start up Internet Explorer. I feel dirty afterwards.

Posted by: LinkTiger | January 14, 2005 10:15 PM

It would certainly be nice if Yahoo! Mail enabled firefox users to send HTML mail. In the meantime, I'm using the " eWebMail - Color and Graphics" extension to enable it.
http://patsis.brownhost.com/extxpi.html
Seems to work quite well.

Posted by: miles clark | January 15, 2005 10:25 AM

Launch Videos can be viewed with an active-x hack which only alows WMP controls coupled with browser spoofing.

NOTHING so far will get Yahoo Plus premium content to play.

I PAY to be forced to use IE to access yahoo!

Posted by: Michael Joseph Arcement, II | January 15, 2005 07:36 PM

the scrapbook extension in firefox has turned my workstation into a tabletpc

The Indian Blogger
http://labnol.blogspot.com

Posted by: amit agarwal | January 16, 2005 03:17 AM

I have to agree with the others. While I appreciate you taking into consideration FIrefox growing wave, I too am a Yahoo Plus customer and a great user of LaunchCast Plus. I play Launchcast thru the messenger but I can't just use FF for the videos
besdides the current FF toolbar keeps this bug: the notification for new email is still on and one can't click on it...the refresh process does nothing.
Put FF in your pocket and developp as much tools as you can, this will certainly be a great advantage over MSN

Posted by: Guillaume | January 16, 2005 08:16 AM

I've been advicing people for years to use Firefox and Opera for browser. And now it's starting to take. Thanks you for your input. The more that speak to trying other browsers the better. But please talk of Opera too. The way it handle cookies is so great, and that you can start the next day right where you left off is great as well. Any time I have to go to a website that I don't know I use Opera. And Opera is my default broswer because of it cookie handling feature.

Posted by: D | January 17, 2005 12:08 AM

It would be interesting if Yahoo! could post stats on the number of visitors reaching Yahoo! with a Firefox browser.

Thanks!

Andres
http://snit.blogspot.com

Posted by: Andres | January 17, 2005 06:24 AM

Paying customers should request Firefox support for Yahoo! Plus and Yahoo! Launch. Also please keep in mind that Yahoo! Messenger and Yahoo! Musicmatch should have the independent ability to play this content very very soon.

If you do e-mail Yahoo, be sure to include a link to mozdevgroup.com, a group that does for-pay independent contract work for companies interested in Firefox solutions.

You can get Yahoo! Companion for Mozilla at:
http://companion.mozdev.org
(Please be advised that it is not a Firefox extension, and will not be accessible from the Extensions manager.)

--Sam

--Sam

Posted by: Sam Katz | January 21, 2005 12:15 PM

Iv'e been using and recommending Firefox since early in .8 release. Fast, resistant to pop-ups. no ads and remembers login info for all my surfing regulars.

In a way I hate to see it get popular as I know things will change. Go Firefox.

Posted by: Rob C "Dr. Duck" | January 25, 2005 07:43 AM

I just downloaded FireFox and Love it now just wish that Yahoo would make it where I could work on my website using FireFox!!! Keep up the great work.. I am telling all my friends about this browser!!

Posted by: Pam | January 25, 2005 11:07 AM

Firefox

IE displays my website in a shorter version than Firefox which seems to take up more vertical space. Why is this, I wonder? No big deal either way, Firefox rules.

Posted by: Jim | January 25, 2005 05:27 PM

I've checked Jeremy's page and the links from sources he cited. I noticed that those sites do not check to see if the ones who identified as MSIE are actually Opera-spoofing-IE. Opera spoofs IE "out of the box," and you would have to change the settings for it to identify as Opera itself. Others may even choose to spoof Mozilla. This will have an effect of inflating IE (and perhaps various flavors of Moz) hit counts while lowering Opera's.

The Opera team may know how to make a great browser, but they sure need a lesson in marketing.

Posted by: Danny | January 27, 2005 10:35 AM

I love launchcast, want to subscribe for it but it doesn't support firefox. I contacted launch customer service but got a very vague response... will you support firefox anytime soon?

Posted by: M | February 10, 2005 11:16 AM

YAY!!!

As a fan of Yahoo and a fan of Firefox, I am overjoyed to see more recognition for Firefox from Yahoo. =D Thanks!

Posted by: Marie | February 10, 2005 02:15 PM

Im an avid firefox and lauchcast plus user. Unfortuantely, like everyone else, I am forced to use IE or Yahoo messenger to listen. Is this too complex an issue to solve? Firefoxes marketshare will soon grow to 25%!! Lets make things compatible please...

Posted by: Jeff | February 17, 2005 07:10 PM

I believe you are wrong about the first spike:

It corresponds to the Firefox 1.0 release. The NYT ad was mid December.

Posted by: David Naylor | February 19, 2005 02:19 AM

I've been using Firefox for like 4 months and is way better than IE.. however, I'd like to watch Yahoo!Launch and also get Yahoo!Mail fixed as the other guys mentioned.thanks!!

Posted by: Felipe So | March 23, 2005 11:23 AM