The Browser Choices We Make

By Miguel Helft

TechCrunch noted Thursday that Mozilla was about to celebrate its 500 millionth download of Firefox, the open source browser that has made inroads into Microsoft’s dominant market share. By this morning, the official Spread Firefox site was claiming an additional 340,000 downloads, putting it over the half billion mark.

That’s an impressive download rate — one that has given Firefox an approximately 17 percent share of the browser market. Looking at visitors to NYTimes.com, a much larger share of our online readers, about 28 percent in February, were Firefox users. The bulk of our online readers use various versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (about 60 percent) and Apple’s Safari (about 10 percent).

But we also noticed that tens of thousands of our visitors use various versions of Netscape Navigator, the nearly defunct browser owned by AOL, as well as a variety of other, more obscure browsers. It made us wonder why people choose the browsers they choose. Let us know about what’s behind your choice in the comments section.

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Jeff February 22, 2008 · 1:31 pm

I didn’t choose, Microsoft chose for me.

Lak February 22, 2008 · 1:37 pm

I use Firefox, because I can use it on my Linux workstation an on my Windows laptop. Easier to remember all the shortcuts on one program, than on two.

jeffk February 22, 2008 · 1:41 pm

I switched from PC to Mac a few weeks after Leopard hit, and I just wasn’t happy with Firefox’s performance – it was the only browser I would use when I was still running Windows, but under OS X, it seemed to bog down and crash far too often. Safari just never felt right to me, so that was out. One day I read a blog post that mentioned Camino, saying it was more stable than Firefox and faster than Safari. I found that to be true, and although I sill miss some of the features I enjoyed with Firefox, I’ll have a hard time going back now.

tom February 22, 2008 · 1:41 pm

i like opera for its bittorrent client, speed dial and great history searching features… reminds me of when i first got firefox for tabs! i still use FF, especially for IE tabs, that render pages faster than IE does…

JD February 22, 2008 · 1:43 pm

As a general answer, functionality. Cost is irrelevant for browsers, so the questions are what can it do, how well does it do it, and how easy is it to use?

My first browser was IE. I switched to Navigator for a while, during a period when it was faster and more functional than IE. Then IE became faster, so I switched back. Now I’m using Firefox, which has the same performance, but better usability and security. IE development has been extremely slow, I’m not sure why, for example look at how long it took IE to handle transparent PNG files correctly.

Firefox also wins out because of all the plug-ins available. Everyone has different preferences for how a browser works. Being able to customize it exactly to my standards is a big plus. I have 14 add-ons currently, ranging from ad blockers (especially blocking those animated flash movie ads – I hate those and now I don’t have to see them unless I want to) to bookmark upgrades to the ability to enlarge annoyingly small textboxes like this one.

(The built-in spellchecking is pretty nice, too. I wish everyone was forced to use a browser with spellchecking!)

Minger February 22, 2008 · 1:55 pm

I run both Firefox and IE7. Anybody who opens too many windows often finds their browser getting sluggish, so distributing the load between two browsers helps. Also, Firefox for a some strange reason doesn’t deliver Flash audio. And IE7 doesn’t have special add-ins for Gmail.

Zachary Taylor February 22, 2008 · 2:10 pm

The internet browser I choose is a matter of what works and what doesn’t. The new Internet Explorer worked for a while, but Active X is just… just too annoying to justify. Firefox though doesn’t have that. Plus IE just seems to copy Firefox, so I figure I’ll stay ahead and use the Fox.

Lawrence Zeitlin February 22, 2008 · 2:14 pm

I’m just lazy. I use a Mac and Safari 3 is the normal browser. It comes with the system and is integrated with the Mac Mail program. However I also have Firefox and Opera, each of which has advantages with some types of sites. I also have Explorer which has not been updated for the Mac in years and is almost useless. The biggest problem that I have is the variety of video formats. There are awkward work arounds but its certainly time to standardize.

I use the NY Times as my home page and am very happy with it.

riggs in boston February 22, 2008 · 2:16 pm

Why Mozilla’s browser? Originally, because I was trying to using something—anything—wasn’t a M$ product. I was fed up with IE crashing, hogging system resources, and very real security issues.

I installed a Firefox beta about four years ago and was sold in twenty minutes.

I’ve been a happy Mozilla devotee ever since. Given the level of customization in Firefox, I can’t imagine going to another browser (especially since both IE and Safari seem to play “catch-up” with Mozilla’s developers).

Colin February 22, 2008 · 2:27 pm

Ever since switching to the Mac a few years ago, I’ve found Firefox to be abysmally slow on Mac OS X. Whenever I’m forced to use a PC, I’ll reach for Firefox 3. Otherwise, Safari is my browser of choice.

Rob Long February 22, 2008 · 2:28 pm

I use both. Some sites/applications require IE, such as Netflix Play Now and Outlook Web Access. Where possible though, I generally use Firefox becuase it seems a tiny bit faster.

Davis February 22, 2008 · 2:30 pm

I was a Netscape fan, before AOL go a hold of it. I tried going back to IE, but was unsatisfied. Then, I found Firefox, and I love it. I love the tabs, the add-ons and the skins, just about everything about it. I also have no particular compulsion to give any more support to Microsoft than is absolutely necessary. There’s just something irksome about the way IE is so embedded in their OS. I like choices.

Brandon Donnelson February 22, 2008 · 2:39 pm

I choose firefox because; It has nice developer tools. I like its plugins. It works on all my workstations, including my 4 linux boxes. I hate learning more than one application. Its easy to use. It runs on open standards.

PS February 22, 2008 · 2:39 pm

Starting with NS2.0 i was always fan of Netscape. May be I just got used to it and the way it is organized. I gave a try to other popular browsers – IE, Opera, Safari, but Netscape/Firefox is the one I feel comfortable with.

Clark February 22, 2008 · 2:39 pm

I run “Bon Echo” which is a Mac-optimized version of Firefox.

Josh February 22, 2008 · 2:39 pm

Many businesses and schools use OLD computers and the new browsers don’t work on them. So you’ll see Navigator, and old IE versions occasionally. Some people still use console browsers, or browse within Emacs. On the really low resource Linux distributions, dillo is very popular. Then you have people using hobbyist operating systems with browsers written from the ground up for the OS.
On my main computer I use firefox due to its feature set and stability. When I need to use another person’s computer, I use dillo since it has a very small memory footprint, and along with the rest of the puppy linux system, is loaded directly into ram.

J February 22, 2008 · 2:40 pm

I love firefox- problem is it crashes whenever i open a PDF file. So i use IE7 for PDFS and FF for everything else!

Dwayne February 22, 2008 · 2:43 pm

Firefox wins with me. Ever since I was introduced to the browser in school I have used it non stop unless the page does not support it. We all know the problem with IE the browser just constantly gets attacked even with a pop up blocker. IE has shown recent improvement with the last version. I’m constantly recommending Firerfox to other people. The AOL browser is the worst I’ve ever seen. People who still use that beware because that is like ripping of your skin. You’re being exposed to all sorts of Viruses and Spyware!

Brad Frost February 22, 2008 · 2:43 pm

Firefox all the way. As a web designer, Firefox’s plug-ins allow me to do my job better and more efficiently. As an avid Internet user, Firefox allows me to easily customize every aspect of my browsing experience.

andy February 22, 2008 · 2:45 pm

I got a new laptop and it came with vista so i am using ie7. Vista already has enough crazy issues without loading tons of software on it. (Hopefully, sp1 will fix alot of this stuff.) On my other machines I use firefox. Ie7 has come a long way but it is still not as good as firefox. imho, both browsers need a major update.

Optimizer February 22, 2008 · 2:50 pm

I’ve been using Opera for as long as I can remember. It’s super fast, more secure than IE and has mouse gestures for fast navigation (pioneered them, in fact). I like the fact that it renders correct HTML correctly (I’m a bit of a purist) and that it’s more secure than many of its competitors. It’s also ready-to-use out-of-the-box — very little fiddling with add-ins and extensions. The integrated RSS reader is a plus. And, to top it all off, who doesn’t like rooting for an underdog?

Henrikt February 22, 2008 · 2:54 pm

I’m using Safari and Firefox – as both have their pros and cons. Firefox is the browser of choice for web developers since it has powerful add ons. Safari seems a little faster, especially when you surf the web for long.

IE is defunct for Mac so..

Tim February 22, 2008 · 3:02 pm

I use 7 different browsers, IE, Firefox, Netscape, Avant, Morpheus, Safari, Opera as a web publishing software engineer I have to know how the content looks on all browsers for security and compatibility.

sean February 22, 2008 · 3:02 pm

i use firefox on a mac, but sometimes i use safari. other times i will also use opera. I want a browser that is fast. what i love most about firefox is the way it allows me to put “live bookmarks” (RSS drop down bookmarks) in a toolbar, so i can “read” my dozen top sites in under a minute.

Wayne February 22, 2008 · 3:08 pm

I prefer Firefox for two reasons:
1. It is a little less tightly coupled to the Windows OS–perhaps a little less likely to get viruses.
2.When I run Linux, it works the same as the Windows version of Firefox.